Free business calculator

Hourly Labor Cost Calculator

Estimate the loaded labor cost per billable hour after payroll burden, paid non-billable time, and billable efficiency.

Tool & Tally calculators are for general business planning and estimating; they are not tax, legal, payroll, financial, or accounting advice. No guaranteed revenue, profit, leads, bookings, sales, rankings, or ROI.

Loaded labor rate

Enter wage, burden, and billable efficiency.

Formula and assumptions

How the calculator works

Burden Factor = 1 + Payroll Tax % + Workers Comp % + Benefits % + Paid Non-Billable Time %
Loaded Wage = Base Wage × Burden Factor
Labor Cost Before Overhead = Loaded Wage / Billable Efficiency
Loaded Cost = Base Wage × Burden Factor / Billable Efficiency + Overhead Per Hour

Common mistakes this catches

Pricing labor using only hourly wage.
Ignoring time paid but not billed to a customer.
Leaving callbacks, training, shop time, and admin time out of the rate.
Using the same labor rate after wages or burden change.

Next useful calculators

Contractor Job Cost Calculator

Use the loaded labor rate in a full job cost model.

Minimum Job Price Calculator

Set a price floor after labor and overhead are included.

Monthly Overhead Per Job Calculator

Estimate overhead per billable hour.

Business Number Path

Your next number: overhead per job

Use the loaded labor cost with overhead allocation so quotes include more than wages and materials.

This keeps the free tools connected as an owner workflow: price → margin/markup → labor/overhead → follow-up → cash pressure → Business Health Quick check.

Choose the next safe check

Check overhead per job Use full job cost

Free planning aids only. No calculator guarantees revenue, profit, leads, bookings, rankings, sales, or ROI.