For contractors Loaded labor Business owners

Labor Burden Calculator — Loaded Labor Cost for Contractors

Turn a W-2 wage (or owner draw) into a fully loaded $/hr and cost per billable hour after utilization — so you can paste burden % and loaded rate into the billable-rate calculator without guessing payroll add-ons. Built for owners hiring or managing field techs — not for homeowners shopping remodel prices.

Calculate loaded labor cost

Trade preset (editable defaults — not a recommendation; WC % is an example only)

Wage entry mode

Base wage ($/hr) W-2 field tech or owner drawing a wage — before burden.

Paid hours / year Default 2080 (editable). Includes paid non-billable time.

Payroll taxes (%) Enter percent points (12 for 12%). Combined FICA/FUTA/SUTA-style example — not tax advice.

Workers’ comp (%) % of wages. Trade presets fill an example only — not a recommended WC rate or insurance advice.

Benefits ($/hr) (preferred) Health, retirement, etc. If both $/hr and % are filled, $/hr wins.

Benefits (% of wage) (optional) Used only when benefits $/hr is blank.

PTO days / year (preferred) Converts as days ÷ (paid_hours ÷ 8). Assumption: 8 paid hours per PTO day. Days win over % if both filled.

PTO (%) (optional) Used only when PTO days is blank.

Other burden (%) Uniforms, training, small tools — optional bucket. $/hr below wins if both filled.

Other burden ($/hr) (optional)

Utilization (% billable ÷ paid) Same definition as the billable-rate calculator. Enter percent points (70 for 70%).

Current bill rate $/hr (optional) Gap vs “floor before overhead & profit” only — not a recommended market rate.

Loaded labor $/hr (paid-hour basis)

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Effective burden %

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Burden $ / paid hour

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Floor before OH & profit ($/billable hr)

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Annual loaded labor

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Billable hours / year

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Gap vs current bill rate

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Burden component breakdown ($/paid hr)

Payroll taxes

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Workers’ comp

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Benefits

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PTO

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Other

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This calculator is a self-serve math tool for business owners. Tax, workers’ comp, and benefits figures you enter are yours; any UI defaults or trade presets are examples only, not recommendations or advice. No consulting, legal, tax, or insurance advice. This page does not compute overhead allocation, target margin, or bill sell rate — those live on the billable hourly rate calculator.

Methodology

Wage → component burden → loaded $/hr → ÷ utilization = cost per billable hour (floor before overhead & profit):

1. hourly_wage = annual_wage / paid_hours (or hourly as-is) 2. tax_$ = wage × payroll_tax_pct wc_$ = wage × workers_comp_pct ben_$ = benefits $/hr (or wage × benefits_pct) pto_$ = wage × pto_pct // or pto_pct = pto_days / (paid_hours / 8) other_$ similarly (% or $/hr; $/hr preferred when both) 3. burden_$ = tax_$ + wc_$ + ben_$ + pto_$ + other_$ loaded_hourly = wage + burden_$ burden_pct = burden_$ / wage 4. cost_per_billable = loaded_hourly / utilization // floor before OH & profit 5. Bill sell rate / overhead / margin → hourly-rate calculator (P1)

Bill rate and profit live on the hourly-rate calculator. This page stops at loaded labor and an educational “floor before overhead & profit.”

Worked example (fictional W-2 field tech)

Input	Value
Hourly wage	$30.00
Paid hours / year	2,080
Payroll taxes	12% (example)
Workers’ comp	8% (example)
Benefits	$3.00/hr
PTO	10 days/year
Other burden	2% (example)
Utilization	70%

Components ≈ $3.60 tax + $2.40 WC + $3.00 benefits + $1.15 PTO + $0.60 other → burden $10.75/hr (≈ 35.83%) → loaded $40.75/hr → floor before OH & profit $58.21 per billable hour ($40.75 ÷ 0.70). Annual loaded ≈ $84,760.

Assumptions

Paid hours default 2,080 — a common full-time year; edit for your schedule.
PTO days → %: pto_pct = pto_days / (paid_hours / 8) (assumes 8 paid hours per PTO day).
Benefits / other: when both % and $/hr are filled, $/hr wins.
Utilization = billable ÷ paid — same definition as the billable-rate calculator.
Trade presets fill starting WC / benefits-style inputs only. Labeled examples — especially WC — not recommendations or insurance advice.
Percent fields take percent points (enter 12 for 12%). Values like 0.12 auto-correct with a warning.
USD display with 2 decimal places. Cost per billable derives from the displayed loaded $/hr.
This page does not allocate annual overhead or apply target margin.

Common mistakes

Using wage as the bill rate (skips burden, utilization, overhead, and profit).
Ignoring workers’ comp or PTO in the burden stack.
Forgetting utilization — loaded $/paid hour is not cost per billable hour.
Double-counting burden again inside the billable-rate calculator after a handoff (use “Set billable rate” so P1 prefills correctly once).
Treating trade-preset WC % as advice or a quoted insurance rate.
Entering 0.35 under a % field when you meant 35% — use 35.

FAQ

What’s the difference between labor burden and overhead?

Labor burden is the add-on cost tied to employing someone (taxes, WC, benefits, PTO, etc.) on top of wage. Overhead is broader fixed business cost (rent, software, vehicles) recovered across billable hours — that lives on the billable-rate calculator.

Loaded labor vs cost per billable hour?

Loaded labor is wage + burden on a paid-hour basis. Cost per billable hour divides that by utilization so non-billable paid time is reflected. Neither includes job overhead or profit margin.

Employee vs owner-operator?

Same math works for a W-2 tech wage or an owner drawing a wage. Owner-operators still need utilization and (on P1) overhead + margin to set a bill rate.

Does this tell me what to charge?

No. It builds the loaded labor floor. Use Set billable rate to add overhead and target net margin.

Are the workers’ comp presets recommendations?

No. Presets are editable example defaults only — not insurance advice, quotes, or recommended rates.

Is this for homeowners checking labor costs on a remodel?

No. This page is for contractors and home-service business owners measuring the true cost of an employee. It is not a homeowner project-cost tool.