US employer cost calculator
See the employer-paid taxes, statutory contributions, benefits, and overhead that land on top of salary.
Modeled employer cost in the United States (federal), 2026
The offer is USD $90,000.
The modeled subtotal is USD $96,927.
USD $6,927 above base pay · +7.7% · about 1.08× base
- Modeled annual employer cost
- USD $96,927
- Modeled monthly employer cost
- USD $8,077.25
- Cost above salary
- USD $6,927
- Employer-cost multiplier
- 1.077×
- Base salary: USD $90,000
- Social Security (employer): USD $5,580
- Medicare (employer): USD $1,305
- FUTA (net of maximum credit): USD $42
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Modeled mandatory employer cost in the United States (federal)
| Employer-paid item | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Social Security (employer) | USD $5,580 |
| Medicare (employer) | USD $1,305 |
| FUTA (net of maximum credit) | USD $42 |
Largest mandatory item: Social Security (employer).
What is not included
This estimate does not include every possible employer cost — for example workers' compensation (where not entered), local taxes, paid-leave or holiday entitlements, and termination costs.
Notes
- The 0.6% FUTA rate assumes the maximum 5.4% state credit. Employers in states with outstanding federal unemployment loans (for example California) face a FUTA credit reduction and a higher effective rate; the current-year figure is finalized each November.
Where these figures come from
- Result evaluated for the United States (federal), 2026, on 2026-09-01 using the source rows selected for that date.
- Validity boundary: 2027-01-01. The result is withdrawn on that date unless the required rows have been reconfirmed.
- Amounts are rounded to the nearest whole currency unit.
- Sources: www.irs.gov, www.irs.gov.
Copy a summary
Employer cost in the United States (federal) (2026) Base pay: USD $90,000 Modeled employer subtotal: about USD $96,927 per year USD $6,927 above base pay (+7.7%, about 1.08x base) Largest mandatory item: Social Security (employer) Result evaluated: 2026-09-01 Validity boundary: 2027-01-01 (withdrawn on that date unless reconfirmed) Planning estimate, not advice. Published rates are sourced and dated; employer-specific figures use your inputs.
Planning estimate from user-entered assumptions and published rate tables. Some employer-specific lines require your actual rate. Not payroll, tax, legal, or classification advice. Confirm exact obligations with a professional.
Know what a hire costs — and what the number includes
We use dated official rules where a cost is universal. Employer-specific costs use your figures. If a required figure is unknown, we do not substitute an industry average or silently treat it as zero.
Included in this result
- Employer-side statutory taxes and mandatory contributions supported by the selected route
- Benefits and overhead only when you choose to enter them
- Employee deductions shown separately, never added to employer cost
Not included in this result
- Company-wide levies when this calculator does not collect the employer-wide payroll context needed to price them
- Any current figure that cannot be supported well enough to publish
Employer input / scope: Assigned employer rates are inputs when there is no honest universal number — for example California UI, Washington UI/L&I, and New Zealand ACC.
Mandatory employer cost varies by country
Each example uses a salary of 90,000 in that country's own currency. The multiplier is what to compare — 90,000 USD and 90,000 AUD are not the same salary, so the dollar totals are not comparable to each other.
California is on hold while its current-year figure is reconfirmed — it shows the verified federal components rather than a rate we can't stand behind.
Build the rest of the hiring budget
The calculator covers the statutory employer costs supported by the selected model. The rest of the cost is yours to model: benefits, payroll administration, equipment, recruiting, and overhead. Add them above and they carry into every figure.
What employer cost includes — and what it doesn't
Counted as your cost
- Employer-side statutory taxes and mandatory contributions
- Employer-specific rates you enter, such as a state unemployment or workers' compensation rate
- Benefits and overhead you choose to include
Not counted as your cost
- Amounts withheld from the employee's pay — shown separately, never added to your total
- Employer-wide levies that are outside the selected model. NSW payroll tax is included when you select New South Wales and supply the supported employer-wide before/after payroll context; other employer-wide levies remain explicitly excluded.
- Termination costs, local taxes, and paid-leave entitlements
Why salary is not the total
On a 90,000 US salary, the employer pays Social Security and Medicare on top of the wage, plus federal unemployment tax on the first 7,000. None of that appears in the offer letter, and none of it is optional. It is the difference between the number you negotiate and the number that leaves your account.
Employee-withheld amounts work the other way: they come out of the employee's pay, not yours. We show them so you can read a payslip, but adding them to employer cost would overstate what a hire costs you. That distinction is built into the calculation, not applied afterwards.
Questions people actually ask
What does total employer cost include?
Base salary, plus the employer side of statutory taxes and mandatory contributions for the jurisdiction, plus any benefits and overhead you enter. Employer-wide levies are included only where CER has a supported marginal-liability model and you supply the required employer context; otherwise they are explicitly excluded rather than approximated.
Are benefits included?
Only the amount you enter. There is no universal benefits rate, so we never invent one — a blank benefits field means excluded from the estimate, not that the obligation is zero.
Why is employer cost higher than salary?
Because the employer pays contributions on top of the wage. In the US that's Social Security, Medicare and federal unemployment tax; in Australia it's the Super Guarantee; in Canada it's CPP, CPP2 and EI; in New Zealand it's employer KiwiSaver and the ACC Work levy. None of it appears in the offer letter.
Are employee deductions included in employer cost?
No. Amounts withheld from the employee's pay — US Additional Medicare, California SDI, WA Cares, the employee halves of CPP/EI/KiwiSaver — come out of their wage, not yours. We list them separately so you can read a payslip, and the calculation excludes them from your total by construction.
Why do some locations require extra inputs?
Because some rates are employer-specific and have no universal value. Your Washington unemployment rate, your L&I risk class, and your ACC classification rate are assigned to you. We ask rather than guess. A blank field is not treated as zero: the jurisdiction waits for your rate instead of showing a subtotal that leaves it out.
Why is a jurisdiction sometimes held?
Because we'd rather show nothing than a number we can't stand behind. Quebec uses QPP/QPIP and isn't modelled, so it holds instead of borrowing the non-Quebec model. California holds while its current-year federal unemployment credit reduction is unconfirmed. A held page is deliberate, not broken.
Does Cost of Employment Ruler send salary inputs to advertisers or analytics providers?
No. Your figures stay in your browser and are never shared with advertising, analytics, or partner providers. Calculator pages carry no third-party JavaScript at all — that's enforced against the shipped files at build time, not just promised here. Partner links, where they appear, are plain links that run no code.
How current are the rates?
Every sourced rate carries its authority, effective date, and a recheck date, all shown under the result. When a figure passes its recheck date without being reconfirmed, the page holds itself rather than keep serving it.
Employee or contractor?
The W-2 vs 1099 comparison puts employer cost next to contract cost for the amounts you enter. Cost is one input to that decision and never a lawful basis for classifying a worker — the rules on that are set by the authorities, not by which column is cheaper.