Contractor Labor Burden Calculator

What does a crew hour actually cost? Enter real numbers — wage, payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits, and honest time off — and get your burdened labor cost. Free, no signup, nothing leaves your browser.

Your Numbers

FICA 7.65% + FUTA/SUTA — typically 10–12%
Varies hugely by trade & state: 3% office, 8–15% carpentry, 20%+ roofing
If your policy is payroll-rated; else 0 and count it in overhead
Health, retirement match, tools/phone allowance
Vacation + holidays + sick days you pay for
Be honest — drive time, shop time, weather, callbacks

True Labor Cost

Burdened cost per hour worked
—
Base wage—
Taxes, comp & insurance—
Benefits—
Paid time off (spread over worked hours)—
Burdened cost per hour worked—
Labor burden—
Cost per billable hour—

Use the labor burden % in the job cost calculator. The cost per billable hour also carries the unbillable time — recover that gap here or in your overhead percentage, not both.

Why the paycheck is the smallest part of labor cost

A $28/hr carpenter does not cost $28 an hour. FICA, unemployment insurance, and workers' comp are levied on every payroll dollar — and comp alone can run 8–15% for carpentry. Add health coverage, and the paid vacation and holidays where the wage flows out but no work comes back, and the cost of an hour actually worked lands 30–50% above the wage. That gap is the labor burden, and every bid priced at bare wages donates it to the customer.

Then comes utilization. If a quarter of paid working time goes to drive time, loading the trailer, estimates, and weather days, the hours that land on jobs have to carry the hours that don't. A crew hour that costs $39 burdened becomes $52 per billable hour at 75% utilization. Same crew, same wage — utilization is the hidden variable in every labor-rate debate. You can recover it either by pricing labor at the billable-hour cost or through your overhead percentage; just pick one, or you'll double-count it.

This calculator is one sheet of the full estimating system

The Contractor Job Estimating Workbook (Pro) includes this labor burden calculator for three crew roles, plus line-item job estimating, margin done right, a customer-ready proposal sheet, and a bid log with win-rate tracking. One-time $29, Excel & LibreOffice, no macros.

Try the free job cost calculator