Fully-Burdened Labor Rate
Base wage plus payroll taxes, workers comp, liability, and benefits.
Example
You enter
- Base wage ($/hr) 25
- Payroll tax (%, FICA+FUTA/SUTA) 9.15
- Workers' comp (% of wage) 8
- General liability (% of wage) 2
- Benefits ($/hr) 4
- Productive/billable fraction (%) 85
You get
- Burden (over wage) $8.79/hr
- Fully-burdened rate 39.75
No published worked example is on file for this calculation. It is checked against a hand-worked derivation of its method and an independent reference test.
Details, formula, and sources
ScopeDivided by the productive (billable) fraction of paid hours. $25/hr at 9.15% payroll, 8% WC, 2% liability, $4 benefits, 85% billable -> $39.75/hr. A bid-rate aid; the payroll service and insurer rates govern.
Formula or tableburden = wage x (payroll% + WC% + liability%)/100 + benefits; burdened = (wage + burden) / (productivity/100); burden_pct = (burdened - wage)/wage x 100.
Source and editionThe standard contractor fully-burdened labor-rate build-up, by name.
Free accessThe labor-burden build-up is standard contractor bid-rate estimating; the payroll-tax rates are published by the IRS and state agencies. The payroll service, insurer, and fringe package govern.
What governsEstimate. AHJ and licensed professional govern.
API field nameswage, payroll_pct, wc_pct, liab_pct, benefits, productivity, burden_hr, burdened_hr
- Build-up burden = wage x (payroll+WC+liability)% + benefits; burdened = (wage+burden)/productivitycontractor estimating
- Payroll ~9.15% FICA 7.65% + FUTA/SUTA; verify the current SUTA rate and wage baseIRS / state agencies
- Productivity divisor spreads non-billable time over billed hours; enter the actual billable fractionscope of this tile