Skip to content
← All calculators

Fully-loaded Employee Hourly Cost

Your $25/h employee — what does that really cost you? The answer will surprise you.

Fully-loaded Employee Hourly Cost

Calculate what an employee really costs per hour, taxes and benefits included.

Real hourly cost
Base salary25,00 $/h
Payroll taxes (15.5%)3,88 $/h
Benefits2,00 $/h
Overhead3,00 $/h
TOTAL hourly cost 33,88 $/h
Min billable rate (30% margin) 48,40 $/h

Payroll taxes: QPP 6.4% + EI 1.848% + QPIP 0.692% + HSF 1.65% + CNESST ~1.5% + mandatory vacation 4% = ~15.5%.

The displayed-wage trap

When you hire someone at $25/h, the real cost to the business is typically $33 to $38/h once all charges are included. To bill that work with a margin, aim for at least $48-55/h.

Real cost components

  1. Base salary
  2. Mandatory payroll taxes (~15.5%): QPP, EI, QPIP, HSF, CNESST
  3. Paid vacation (~4% minimum, often 6-8%)
  4. Benefits (insurance, group RRSP, DPSP): 0-12%
  5. Overhead (rent, equipment, software, training, management): $2-8/h

Bill each project precisely with Forge Tech

Forge Tech's Projects module tracks every employee's time on every project at their exact loaded hourly cost. Live project profitability.