True Labor Cost Calculator
The wage is not the cost. Between FICA, unemployment taxes, and workers’ comp, a $30 hand commonly costs $36–$40 an hour before the truck. This is the number every bid, change order, and scorecard should be built on.
Enter what you pay. The taxes and insurance that ride on every payroll dollar are prefilled at the standard rates — change any of them to match your actuals.
The employer share is 7.65% on wages up to the yearly Social Security cap.
There is no standard rate — it follows your class code and your record. As a labeled example range only: roofing commonly runs into the high teens and above; many finish trades run in the single digits. Use the rate on your own policy, not anybody's average.
3.4% is California's new-employer rate. Experienced employers get their own rate from the EDD — use yours.
Per-hour adders ($/hr, optional)
FUTA, SUTA, and ETT stop at the $7,000 wage base, so this tool applies them to the first $7,000 of the year only — for a full-year hand that is the honest math. Your burdened rate saves to this browser and carries into the Change Order Worksheet and the Job Profit Scorecard automatically — price a change order here once and the rate is already there.
How the math works
FICA (7.65%) and workers’ comp ride on every wage dollar. FUTA (0.6%), California SUTA (3.4% for a new employer), and ETT (0.1%) stop at the first $7,000 of wages each year — so this tool charges them against $7,000, not against the full year, and spreads the result across 2,080 hours. Adders — health, truck, phone, small tools — go on top as flat dollars per hour.
A worked example
A $30/hr hand with a 12% workers’ comp rate and no adders: FICA + comp = $5.90/hr; the capped taxes add $0.14/hr; true cost = $36.03/hr — a 20.1% burden. Every hour you price at the wage instead of $36.03 donates six dollars to the job.
Questions contractors ask
What is labor burden? Everything you pay because a person is on payroll, beyond the wage itself: employer taxes, workers’ comp, and per-hour benefits and equipment. Burden % = (true cost − wage) ÷ wage.
What workers’ comp rate should I use? Yours — the class rate on your own policy. It varies widely by trade and by your claims record, which is why this field is empty until you fill it. Any tool that pre-fills a single “standard” comp rate is inventing your biggest burden line.
Does the rate carry into my other tools? Yes. It saves in this browser and pre-fills the Change Order Worksheet’s labor rate and the Job Profit Scorecard’s rate field, so the three tools agree with each other.
Want us to look at your shop?
The free tools cover the leaks most shops share. The free Snapshot is the one-on-one version: 15 free minutes with our team to pressure-test what you found and map your next step. No pressure either way — you leave with a short list you can act on yourself.
Book Your Free Snapshot — book your free 15-minute call first, then answer a few quick questions, so the call itself is spent on your shop, not on background.