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Free Labor Cost Calculator — Loaded Labor Rate | Chronotek Pro
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Free Tool “It is the base hourly wage plus the employer payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, and overhead you carry for every hour they work — the number known as the loaded labor rate — also called the labor burden rate when it is expressed as a percentage, or the fully loaded cost of an employee when it is expressed in dollars.” No sign-up, no email, nothing stored — the math runs in your browser. Below the calculator: what goes into a burden rate, why the multiplier varies by trade, a bid worked end to end, and labor cost as a percentage of revenue.
Free Tool “An employee’s true hourly cost is not their wage.” No sign-up, no email, nothing stored — the math runs in your browser. Below the calculator: what goes into a burden rate, why the multiplier varies by trade, a bid worked end to end, and labor cost as a percentage of revenue.
Base hourly wage ($)Employer payroll tax (%)Workers’ comp (%)Other overhead ($/hr)Hours per week “Workers’ compensation rates vary by state and by each employee’s job classification, so there is no default worth prefilling — take the rate off your own policy.” Cost component Rate entered Cost per hour Base hourly wage — $20.00 Employer payroll tax 7.65% of wage $1.53 Workers’ compensation Not entered $0.00 Other overhead Not entered $0.00 Loaded hourly rate 7.65% above the wage $21.53
The fully loaded cost is a dollar figureBase wage plus the burden — also called the fully burdened cost, the loaded labor rate, or simply the loaded rate. It is the number a bid, a budget, and a job costing report should all be built on, because it is what one hour actually removes from the bank account. Expressed as a multiplier — 1.18× in the worked example below — it is the figure estimators carry in their heads. “What belongs inside the burden splits cleanly into two families, and the calculator gives each one its own field because they behave differently:” Cost family Examples Where it goes Costs that scale with the wage FICA and Medicare, federal and state unemployment tax (FUTA and SUTA), workers’ compensation, liability insurance, and city or county income taxes where they apply — the list our guide to loaded pay rates and true job costs sets out. A percentage field — pay a dollar more an hour and they rise with it. Costs that are flat per hour worked A vehicle and its fuel, tools and equipment, uniforms and PPE, a phone or tablet, supplies, and paid time nobody bills for — travel between sites, restocking, briefings. The overhead field, in dollars per hour. A raise does not change them; an additional hour does.
Why is my labor burden higher than another contractor’s? “After that come the per-hour costs the other company may not carry: a vehicle and its fuel, tools, PPE, a device, and paid hours nobody bills, such as travel between sites.” How do you turn a fully loaded cost into a bill rate?
Example role Workers’ comp (example) Per-hour overhead (example) Loaded rate Multiplier Office / dispatch 0.75% $0.40 $24.25 1.10× Cleaning crew 4.5% $1.20 $25.87 1.18× Mobile patrol / service tech 4.5% $3.50 $28.17 1.28× High-risk trade (roofing, tree work) 18% $2.00 $29.64 1.35× “That is why a single company-wide multiplier misprices work in both directions at once.” Base Wage Plus Employer Payroll Tax
The burden rate is a percentageBurden ÷ base wage × 100. It answers “how much on top of the wage?” A $20.00 wage carrying only the 7.65% employer payroll tax has a burden rate of 7.65%; add an example 5% workers’ comp rate and $1.00 an hour of overhead and it becomes 17.65%. Because it is a ratio, it travels between wages: the same burden rate applied to a higher wage produces a higher loaded rate. “The fully loaded cost is a dollar figureBase wage plus the burden — also called the fully burdened cost, the loaded labor rate, or simply the loaded rate.” What belongs inside the burden splits cleanly into two families, and the calculator gives each one its own field because they behave differently:
What is the fully loaded cost of an employee? “Annualise it by multiplying by the hours you actually pay for — 2,080 for a 40-hour week across 52 weeks, fewer for part-time or seasonal crews.” Why is my labor burden higher than another contractor’s?