Free tool
What does an employee actually cost?
A salary is not what a hire costs. Put the salary in and this adds employer National Insurance and the minimum workplace pension at the current rates, plus the recruitment and kit you tell it about, and turns the lot into a cost per hour.
How this works it out
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The salary
The yearly cost starts with the salary.
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Employer National Insurance
Plus employer National Insurance at 15 per cent of the pay above £5,000.
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The minimum workplace pension
Plus the minimum workplace pension of 3 per cent of the pay between £6,240 and £50,270.
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Equipment and software
Plus whatever you told it about equipment and software.
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Recruitment, first year only
Recruitment is a one off, so it lands in the first year only and then drops out.
The hourly figure is the ongoing yearly cost divided by your weekly hours multiplied by 46.4 weeks. It is 46.4 rather than 52 because statutory paid holiday is 5.6 weeks. Our full workings are on the methodology page.
Left out on purpose
- Sick pay
- Holiday cover
- Training
- The management time a new person absorbs
- Workspace
- Employer liability insurance
- The Apprenticeship Levy, because it only applies above a £3,000,000 annual pay bill
Every one of those makes the real figure bigger, which is why the number here is a floor rather than a forecast.
The share of the job that repeats is yours to set and nothing checks it. It is in the tool because the interesting question about a hire is rarely whether you can afford the person. It is whether you are about to pay a salary to run a process.
Which parts of a role genuinely run on rules and which need somebody to decide something is what the free audit works out, and it is why this tool stops at putting two numbers next to each other rather than telling you what to do with them. If you want to come at it from the other end, the cost of admin time calculator counts the repeated jobs you already have.
Questions people ask
- What does an employee actually cost on top of the salary?
- For the 2026 to 2027 tax year the two additions that apply to almost every employer are employer National Insurance at 15 per cent of pay above £5,000 a year, and the minimum workplace pension of 3 per cent of the pay between £6,240 and £50,270. Recruitment, equipment and software sit on top and vary too much to assume, so this tool asks.
- Why is the hourly figure higher than I expected?
- Because a salaried year is not 52 weeks. Statutory paid holiday is 5.6 weeks, so the person is actually at work for about 46.4 weeks. The same salary spread over fewer weeks makes every hour cost more, which is the point of working it out properly.
- Does this tell me whether to hire or not?
- No. It tells you the size of the commitment and how much of it is sitting on work the business repeats. Plenty of roles are worth every penny. The question this puts in front of you is whether you are hiring a person to do a job or hiring a person to do a process.
- Does it compare a hire to automating the work?
- Only against a figure you set yourself. We do not put a price in this tool, for our work or anyone else’s, because a number we invented would be the whole answer. If you type what you would be willing to spend on the repeated part, it will put the two side by side and leave the conclusion to you.
Where these numbers come from
- GOV.UK, Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 , read 19 September 2026 . Employer National Insurance is 15 per cent above £5,000 a year, with no upper limit
- GOV.UK, Workplace pensions: what you, your employer and the government pay , read 19 September 2026 . Minimum employer pension contribution is 3 per cent of qualifying earnings
- The Pensions Regulator, Earnings thresholds , read 19 September 2026 . Qualifying earnings for 2026/27 are the pay between £6,240 and £50,270
- GOV.UK, Holiday entitlement , read 19 September 2026 . Statutory paid holiday is 5.6 weeks, so a working year is 46.4 weeks
- GOV.UK, Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 , read 19 September 2026 . Employment Allowance can reduce an eligible employer's National Insurance bill by up to £10,500 a year, claimed once per employer
- GOV.UK, Pay Apprenticeship Levy , read 19 September 2026 . The Apprenticeship Levy applies only above a £3,000,000 annual pay bill, so it is left out here
Last checked 19 September 2026.
Our workings are on the methodology page .
The real number
This is an estimate. The audit is the count.
A calculator works from what you typed. The free audit works from your actual week: every repeated job, ranked by the hours it eats, with a map of the five worth doing first. It costs nothing and you keep the lot.
Other free tools
- Cost of admin time What the jobs you repeat every week cost in hours and in money
- Cost of missed calls What the calls nobody answers are worth, at your own conversion rate
- Cost of chasing late invoices The hours chasing invoices costs, and the interest and compensation the law lets you claim
- Quote turnaround What is sitting unsent in your quote queue, and what a win rate you set would be worth
- Which tasks run on rules Sort the jobs you repeat into rules based, needs a person, and needs a closer look
Guides that go with this
- How we work out the numbers Every assumption behind the free tools, and where each rate comes from
- Cost of admin time What the jobs you repeat every week cost in hours and in money
- Cost of missed calls What the calls nobody answers are worth, at your own conversion rate
- Cost of chasing late invoices The hours chasing invoices costs, and the interest and compensation the law lets you claim
- Quote turnaround What is sitting unsent in your quote queue, and what a win rate you set would be worth
- Which tasks run on rules Sort the jobs you repeat into rules based, needs a person, and needs a closer look