What Does a $42 an Hour Employee Actually Cost?
True cost per billable hour
$65.35
At 9% workers comp, 3% unemployment, 2% liability, $2 an hour of benefits and 6.5 billable hours in an 8 hour day.
How that number is worked out
These are the figures this page was built with and every line the calculator produces from them. Change anything above and all of it moves.
- Base hourly wage you pay42 $
- Workers comp rate9 %
- State and federal unemployment3 %
- General liability, as a payroll percent2 %
- Benefits, per hour2 $
- Productive hours out of every 86.5 hrs
True cost per billable hour$65.35
| Base wage | $42.00 /hr |
|---|---|
| FICA at 7.65% | $3.21 /hr |
| Workers comp at 9% | $3.78 /hr |
| Unemployment at 3% | $1.26 /hr |
| Liability at 2% | $0.84 /hr |
| Benefits | $2.00 /hr |
| Burdened cost, every paid hour | $53.09 /hr |
| Only 6.5 of 8 hours are billable | $65.35 /hrthis is what a billable hour actually costs you |
| Burden over base wage | 55.6% |
Billable hours in an 8 hour day compared
The productive hours field is the one everybody skips, and it moves the true cost more than any tax rate does.
| Billable hours in an 8 hour day | True cost per billable hour | Burden over base wage |
|---|---|---|
| 6 of 8 | $70.79 | 68.5% |
| 6.5 of 8 | $65.35 | 55.6% |
| 7 of 8 | $60.68 | 44.5% |
| 8 of 8 | $53.09 | 26.4% |
What else matters here
A $42 wage is $53.09 a paid hour and $65.35 a billable hour, 55.6 percent over the wage.
This is around the level where an owner who is still on the tools should run themselves through the page. Your own hours are a job cost whether or not there is a paycheck with your name on it, and a job estimated as though the owner's labor is free is a job that looks profitable and is not.
The honest method is to price your own time at what it would cost to replace you, which for a working owner in a licensed trade is usually more than $42, then estimate the job with that in the labor line. What is left after the estimate is the business's profit, and it is a separate thing from your pay. The hourly rate calculator does the same sum from the other end: it starts with what you want to earn and works back to what an hour has to sell for.
What this calculator assumes
- FICA is fixed at 7.65 percent, the employer half of Social Security and Medicare.
- Workers comp rates are set per trade and per state and swing enormously. Roofing can run over 25 percent where office work is under 1. Use your own rate off your policy.
- The productive hours field is the one everybody skips and it is the one that decides whether the job makes money. Drive time, loading, fuel stops and cleanup are paid and unbilled.
Questions people ask
What does a $42 an hour employee really cost?
$53.09 per paid hour with burden, and $65.35 per billable hour at 6.5 productive hours in an 8 hour day.
Should I include my own time in the labor cost?
Yes, at what it would cost to replace you. A job estimated as though the owner's hours are free looks profitable and is not, and the profit left after your labor is a separate thing from your pay.
What counts as a productive hour?
Only the hours you can put on an invoice. Drive time, loading the truck, fuel stops, dump runs and cleanup are all paid and none of them are billable. Six and a half out of eight is a realistic default and plenty of crews are below it.
The labor burden calculator takes any dimensions you like and hands back the same list.