GlenCalc

Employee cost calculator

Employers pay their own share of FICA on top of wages, plus unemployment taxes and benefits. Federal figures are for 2026; enter your state’s unemployment rate.

Your answer

Total yearly cost$70,938.50
Cost as a multiple of wages1.29 ×
Employer Social Security and Medicare$4,207.50
Federal unemployment (FUTA)$42.00
State unemployment$189.00
Cost per hour (2,080 hours)$34.11

Worked out in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server.

How we worked it out

Updated as you change the numbers.

  1. Employer FICA = 6.2% of wages up to $184,500.00 + 1.45%. FUTA = 0.6% of the first $7,000 (after the state credit).

Method and assumptions

Employers match the employee’s Social Security (6.2% up to the $184,500.00 wage base for 2026) and Medicare (1.45%). FUTA is 6.0% of the first $7,000, reduced to 0.6% with the full credit for paying state unemployment tax (credit-reduction states pay more). State rates and wage bases vary by employer.

Questions

How much does a $55,000 employee cost?

About $71,000 a year with $9,000 of benefits and $2,500 of other costs: roughly 1.3 times salary.

Sources

Method and figures checked on . Every worked answer on this page is covered by an automated test. Found a mistake? Tell us.

Embed this calculator on your site

Free to use. Paste this where you want the calculator; it runs in your visitors’ browsers, sets no cookies and sends nothing to us.

Related calculators