Labor Burden Calculator
Calculate the fully burdened labor rate for construction. Add payroll taxes (FICA, FUTA, SUTA), workers' comp, insurance, and benefits to a base wage to get the labor burden % and the true cost per productive hour for accurate bids. Free, no sign-up.
What to calculate next
Tools commonly used alongside this calculation
Man-Hours Calculator
Estimate construction labor man-hours, crew duration, and cost. Enter a quantity and a production rate or labor unit, your crew size, and a productivity factor to get total man-hours, work days, and labor cost. Free, no sign-up.
Retainage Calculator
Calculate construction retainage and your net progress payment. Enter the contract amount, percent complete, and retainage rate — with optional tiered reduction — to get the amount withheld, the net payment due this period, and the cumulative retainage held. Free, no sign-up.
Change Order Calculator
Price a construction change order with overhead, profit, and bond markup. Add labor, material, equipment, and subcontractor costs to get the total price, the markup added, and the true margin vs markup. Free, no sign-up.
Explanation
A labor burden calculator turns a worker’s base wage into the fully burdened labor rate — the real hourly cost to your company once payroll taxes, insurance, and benefits are added in. Bidding off the base wage alone is the fastest way to underprice a job: in construction the burden typically adds 30–60% on top of the wage. This tool itemizes each employer-paid cost and spreads the total over the hours a worker is actually on the job.
How labor burden is calculated
Add every employer-paid cost for a year, divide by the base wages to get the burden rate, then divide the total annual cost by the hours the worker is productive to get the rate you bid with.
fully-burdened rate = (annual wages + annual burden) ÷ productive hours
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| annual wages | Base wage × paid hours per year (2080 for full time) |
| annual burden | All payroll taxes, insurance, and benefits for the year |
| productive hours | Paid hours minus paid time off (vacation, holiday, sick) |
What goes into labor burden
Some costs scale with the wage (taxes and insurance are a percent of payroll); others are fixed dollar amounts per year (benefits). Workers’ comp and general liability are usually quoted per $100 of payroll, which is the same number as a percent — $8.50 per $100 is 8.5%.
| Component | Typical | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| FICA | 7.65% | Social Security 6.2% + Medicare 1.45% |
| FUTA | 0.6% | Federal unemployment, first $7,000 of wages |
| SUTA | 0.5–6%+ | State unemployment — varies by state and experience rating |
| Workers’ comp | 2–30%+ | By trade class code and state — highest for roofing/framing |
| General liability | 1–3% | Often allocated to payroll |
| Benefits | varies | Health, retirement match, allowances — fixed $/year |
Social Security applies up to an annual wage base; most hourly field workers stay under it, so 7.65% is a safe flat assumption. FUTA and SUTA legally apply only to the first few thousand dollars of wages, so applying them to full pay is slightly conservative. Construction new-employer SUTA is often higher than the 2.7% generic default — confirm your SUTA rate and workers’ comp class code from your insurer and state.
Productive hours, not paid hours
A worker paid for 2080 hours a year is not on a job for all of them — vacation, holidays, and sick days are paid but not billable. Dividing the full annual cost by the smaller productive-hours number raises the effective rate, which is exactly why estimators bid on productive hours. Skipping this step quietly understates every labor line on the bid.
Notes and limitations
Labor burden is company- and worker-specific. Rates change with the state, the trade’s workers’ comp class code, benefit eligibility, and whether the job is prevailing-wage or private. This calculator gives the fully-burdened cost rate — your bid rate still needs overhead and profit markup on top. Review your burden at least once a year and whenever tax rates, premiums, or benefits change.