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Meeting cost calculator

See what a meeting actually costs in salary time, then start the live timer and watch a real one tick over.

Live meeting, running hot
$0.00
00:00 Reset
Chime every $100, cash register every $500. The meter and the number run hot as the cost climbs toward the full meeting price.

Your numbers

Annual figure uses about 46 working weeks
Cost of this meeting
 
 a year
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How do you calculate the cost of a meeting?

Take each attendee's hourly cost (annual salary divided by about 1,976 working hours), multiply by the number of people and the length of the meeting. This tool does it for you and adds an annual figure based on how often the meeting runs.

How we calculated this

The cost per person per hour is the annual salary spread across a standard working year of about 1,976 hours (38 hours a week over 52 weeks). Multiply that by the number of attendees and the length of the meeting to get the cost of one meeting, then by how often it runs across about 46 working weeks for the annual figure. The live timer uses the same per-second rate, so the number climbing on screen is the real salary cost of the meeting you are in. These are salary-time estimates, not a full loaded-cost figure.

Assumptions
  • Salary time only. No super, payroll tax, leave loading or overheads. Mandatory on-costs in Australia add roughly 25 to 40% over base, so the loaded cost of the same meeting is a quarter to two-fifths higher than the number shown.
  • One average salary stands for the whole room. If one attendee earns three times the rest, a plain average under-prices the meeting; weight the average toward the senior people or run it twice.
  • The hourly rate spreads salary over 52 weeks and the annual figure counts 46 working weeks (52 less four weeks of annual leave and roughly two weeks of public holidays). Both choices push the number down, so it is a floor.
  • Only time in the room is counted. Preparation, follow-up, travel and the cost of switching back to real work are all left out, and for a recurring meeting they usually outweigh the meeting itself.
  • The counter is a model running at the rate you set. It is not measuring anyone's actual pay, and it keeps ticking whether the meeting is useful or not.
Sources

What to do about it

The number is a price on attention. It was never approved, because it never appeared on a budget line, and that is why the same meeting has run every week for four years. These steps are for whoever owns the invite, not only the person whose diary it fills.

1

Put the annual figure on the recurring invite

Take the yearly cost above and write it into the meeting description where every attendee can see it. Then take it to whoever owns the meeting and ask what the meeting produces for that money. Most owners have never seen the two numbers together.

2

Cut the invite list before you cut the duration

Fewer people in the room is the largest saving available; shorter meetings are second. Go name by name and ask whether each person is there to decide or to be informed. The informed get a written note.

3

Give every recurring meeting an expiry date

Three months out, it lapses unless someone re-books it and says why. Meetings that were set up for a project that ended in 2024 are the most expensive kind because nobody remembers what they were for.

4
Where a tool helps

Ask what the meeting is compensating for

Standing status meetings usually exist because a manager cannot see how the team is going any other way, or because priorities are unclear enough that people need a weekly re-alignment. That is a signal about the team, not about the calendar, and it will not be fixed by a shorter meeting.

5

Re-run this with the real calendar in a quarter

Pick the five most expensive recurring meetings, total them, and compare with today. If the number has not moved, the invite lists have not either.

Fewer meetings start
with clearer teams.

Compono Engage is an employee engagement platform that reads culture and climate alongside work personality, so a manager can see how the team is going without calling a meeting to find out. Most engagement tools run one survey a year, and the diary fills up in the eleven months between.

Step 4 asks what the meeting is standing in for. Engage answers it team by team, in language a manager can act on, which is how the standing status meeting becomes a shorter one or disappears. The number above prices the time. Engage shows what the time was covering for.

See how it works
Compono Engage
8%+
reduction in turnover

Common questions

Does this include the full cost of employment?

No. It uses salary time only, so it is a conservative floor. The fully loaded cost, once super, payroll tax and on-costs are added, is higher. Use the True Cost of an Employee calculator for that.

What is the live timer for?

Start it at the beginning of a real meeting and it counts up the salary cost in real time using the same per-second rate. It is a fast way to make the cost of a long meeting visible to the room.

How can we reduce meeting costs?

Shorten the default meeting length, cut the invitee list to people who genuinely need to be there, and replace status meetings with written updates where you can. The largest saving is usually fewer people in the room, not shorter meetings.

This page is general information, not legal advice. We check figures annually and update them on a best-efforts basis, but employment rules change and we cannot promise everything here is current or complete. Before you act on it, confirm the detail with the relevant authority in your country or your own adviser. Last reviewed July 2026.

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