Methodology

Cost of Hiring publishes planning ranges, not quotes. This page explains where the numbers come from, what they deliberately exclude, and how we stay independent of the industry we write about.

Data sources

Federal payroll tax rates and wage bases as published by the relevant federal agencies.
State unemployment insurance rate schedules and taxable wage bases published by each state workforce agency.
Public compensation and benefits surveys covering US employers.
Published recruiting industry fee structures and time to fill benchmarks.
Aggregated, anonymised figures shared with us by operators who use the calculators.

How we build a range

Every output is a band rather than a point. Fixed statutory rates such as employer Medicare appear as a single value because they genuinely are single values. Everything that varies by employer, plan design, class code or negotiation appears as a low and high figure.

The low end represents a lean employer in a low cost market with thin benefits and efficient hiring. The high end represents a generous employer in an expensive market with rich benefits and a slow, high touch hiring process. Most organisations sit near the middle, and we would rather be honestly wide than falsely precise.

Key assumptions

All figures are annual and in US dollars unless labelled otherwise.
A working year is 2,080 hours and 52 weeks.
State unemployment rates use a representative mid range experience rating, banded from 0.7 to 1.6 times that rate.
Benefits are treated as largely flat per head rather than proportional to salary.
Interviewer time is priced at a loaded hourly rate of salary divided by 2,080 and uplifted 35 percent.
Regional cost differences are applied through a labour cost index anchored at 1.00 for the national average.

What we exclude

Bonus, commission and equity compensation.
Signing bonuses, relocation and immigration sponsorship.
Severance, notice pay and litigation exposure.
City and county payroll levies that apply only in specific jurisdictions.
The cost of a bad hire, which is real but too situational to model responsibly.

Update cadence

Statutory rates and wage bases are reviewed every January and after any mid year federal or state change we become aware of. Market benchmarks for benefits, equipment and recruiting fees are reviewed at least twice a year. Each guide carries the month it was last updated.

Independence policy

We take no recruiter sponsorships. We do not sell leads. We accept no referral fees, affiliate commissions or placement kickbacks from staffing firms, payroll providers, benefits brokers or employer of record vendors. No vendor can pay to appear in, or be removed from, anything we publish.

Display advertising is our only source of revenue. Advertising is served by a third party network, is clearly marked as advertising, and has no influence on our figures or our editorial judgement. Advertisers do not see our content before publication.

Nothing on this site is tax, legal, accounting or employment advice. Confirm your own rates with your payroll provider, your state workforce agency and your advisers before committing to a budget.

Corrections

If a figure looks wrong, tell us and show your working. We publish corrections rather than quietly editing numbers, and we credit the person who caught the error unless they prefer otherwise.