Who this is for
Every hire has three numbers: the salary in the offer, the net pay the employee receives, and the loaded cost the employer actually pays. This page connects the last two. The calculator below models the employee side, gross to net. The employer side stacks on top of gross: the employer's matching share of Social Security and Medicare, federal and state unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, and benefits.
A workable budgeting pattern: run the salary through the calculator to understand the paycheck, then add the employer stack, roughly 7.65 percent for the payroll tax match, plus unemployment premiums, plus your actual benefits cost per head. For knowledge-work roles the loaded total commonly runs 1.2 to 1.4 times salary before equipment and software.