Labor rate calculator

Worksheet

A base wage plus the burden percentage you entered — your real cost of an hour.

A wage is not what an hour costs

Between the wage and the true cost sit payroll taxes, insurance, workers compensation, paid time off, a vehicle and everything else that only exists because somebody is employed. Quoting off the wage is the single most common way a small contractor prices work below cost.

Every percentage on this page is yours

This tool publishes no payroll tax rate, no unemployment rate, no workers-compensation rate and no fringe or overhead figure. It cannot: those depend on your state, your class codes and your own experience rating, and they are not the same for two businesses on the same street.

Itemize it so it can be checked

The list is not decoration. A single burden percentage with nothing behind it is a number nobody can defend in twelve months; the same percentage with its parts written down, each with a note saying where it came from, is one you can.

Alongside this: Markup & margin · Hours log · Estimate

A costing worksheet that does arithmetic on figures you entered. IT IS NOT PAYROLL: CompliMaint publishes no tax, insurance or workers-compensation rate, makes no wage-law or classification determination, calculates nobody’s pay, and gives no tax, employment or financial advice. Confirm every rate with your own accountant and insurer. Everything runs on your device.

Questions people ask

Why does it not fill in the payroll tax rate?
Because it would be wrong for most people using it. Payroll taxes, unemployment and workers-compensation rates depend on your state, your class codes, your payroll and your own experience rating, and they change. A number invented here would be priced into somebody’s jobs for a year before anybody noticed.
Where do I get my burden percentage?
From your own returns, your insurance policies and your accountant. The itemized list on the sheet is there so you can write down where each figure came from — which is also what makes it checkable a year later when somebody asks.
Is this a payroll calculation?
No. It works out nobody’s pay, withholds nothing, and makes no wage, overtime or classification determination. It is a costing worksheet: what an hour of somebody’s time costs your business, on figures you supplied.
Should the billable rate include profit?
That is your decision and this sheet does not make it. It gives you a cost. What you add to a cost before quoting is the markup question, and there is a separate worksheet for that.
Does it handle overtime or different trades?
Run a sheet per role or per rate. Each one is its own record, so a journeyman and an apprentice do not share a page or a burden figure.