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True cost of an employee
calculator (US)

See what a salary really costs once FICA, unemployment tax and benefits are added, at 2026 rates.

Your numbers

2.7% is the most common new-employer rate. Yours depends on state and experience rating
Ranges from $7,000 to $78,200 by state
Health and retirement, per BLS ECEC March 2026
Fully loaded annual cost
 
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How much does an employee cost beyond salary in the US?

Employer FICA is 7.65%, FUTA is effectively 0.6% capped at $42, state unemployment varies widely, and health and retirement benefits add roughly 15% of salary. All in, expect roughly 20 to 28% above base for a typical employee.

How we calculated this

We add four employer costs to the base salary for calendar 2026. Employer FICA is Social Security at 6.2% on wages up to the $184,500 wage base plus Medicare at 1.45% with no cap. FUTA is 6.0% on the first $7,000 of wages, reduced by the standard 5.4% state credit to an effective 0.6%. State unemployment tax uses the rate and taxable wage base you entered, because both vary widely by state. Benefits default to 15% of salary, the health and retirement share from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The working, the assumptions and the sources are all below.

New to the term? Read the plain-English definition of W-2 vs 1099 classification in the HR Glossary.

Your working
Assumptions
  • Uses calendar 2026 federal figures: a $184,500 Social Security wage base, Medicare at 1.45% uncapped, and FUTA at an effective 0.6% on the first $7,000 (a maximum of $42 per employee). The 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax is withheld from the employee only, so it is not employer cost and is left out.
  • Assumes you receive the full 5.4% FUTA credit. Employers in a credit reduction state pay a higher effective FUTA rate, so their number is a little higher.
  • State unemployment defaults to 2.7% on a $7,000 wage base, the most common new-employer setting. Wage bases run from $7,000 to $78,200 and rates depend on your experience rating, so enter your own; the default can be out by thousands of dollars per employee in a high wage-base state.
  • Benefits default to 15% of salary, the health insurance and retirement share of compensation in the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation for March 2026. BLS puts all benefits at 30.1% of total compensation, but that figure already includes the taxes counted above, so using it here would double-count. Your plan costs decide the real number.
  • Excludes workers' compensation, state disability insurance, paid leave programs and every non-statutory cost. Treat this as the floor.
Sources

What to do about it

The loaded figure is what a role costs the moment someone accepts. Whether it buys a year of output or a repeat of the search is decided before the offer goes out. These steps are for whoever builds the headcount case, whether or not they hold the budget.

1

Budget on the loaded number, not the salary

Put the fully loaded figure into the headcount request and the finance model, with the state and benefits assumptions written next to it. A team costed on base pay is understated by roughly a fifth, and finance finds out at year end.

2

Replace the defaults with your own state and plan numbers

Get your state unemployment rate and taxable wage base from your latest rate notice, and your real health and retirement cost per employee from the plan invoices. Both swing the result more than any federal line does.

3

Price the exit next to the entry

Ask what it costs if this hire leaves inside twelve months: the loaded salary paid for partial output plus the recruitment again. Put that beside the loaded cost. It is the case for spending time on selection now.

4
Where a tool helps

Define what a good hire looks like at twelve months before the job posts

What must this person have delivered, and how will they need to work with the team? Written down, you can select for it the same way for every candidate. Not written down, you select for the best interview.

5

Re-run this every January

The Social Security wage base, state unemployment rates, state wage bases and your plan costs all reset with the calendar year. Keep the loaded figure current for every role you plan to fill.

Taxes you can look up.
Fit you have to measure.

Compono Hire is an applicant tracking system (ATS) that measures fit before you make the offer. It runs the process (job posting, pipeline, interview scheduling, offers) and adds what most ATSs skip: a validated work personality and culture fit read on every candidate, scored the same way every time and shown next to the skills screen.

Step 4 asks you to define what a good hire looks like and select for it consistently. Hire does that inside the process, so the loaded cost above is committed to someone who stays and performs, and not paid twice for the same seat.

See how it works
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Common questions

What is the Social Security wage base for 2026?

$184,500, up from $176,100 in 2025. Social Security is 6.2% for the employer up to that base. Medicare is 1.45% with no wage cap.

Does the employer pay the Additional Medicare Tax?

No. The 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages above $200,000 is withheld from the employee only. There is no employer match, so it is not part of employer cost.

Why is state unemployment tax editable?

Because it varies more than any other line. Taxable wage bases run from $7,000 to $78,200 depending on the state, and rates depend on your experience rating. The 2.7% default is the most common new-employer rate, but check your state.

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 US Department of Labor or your own adviser. Last reviewed July 2026.

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W-2 vs 1099 cost calculator (US)

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W-2 vs 1099 classification

The plain-English definition, with the calculators and rules that sit around it.

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