First-year calculator · 2026
First-year cost to hire calculator
Calculate employee onboarding cost plus salary, payroll taxes, benefits, overhead, recruiting, equipment, and software in one editable year-one estimate.
- 2026 rules
- All 50 states + DC
- Free · no signup
Recurring cost versus one-time cost
Salary is only the visible part of a hire. Every US employer also pays mandatory payroll taxes, workers' compensation, benefits, and operating overhead.
Year one also includes costs that may not repeat: recruiting, onboarding and training, equipment, account setup, and initial software provisioning. The calculator keeps both totals separate.
Plan the hire before the offer
Change every planning assumption to match your company rather than relying on a generic burden multiplier. The result shows both the first-year cash requirement and the steady-state annual run rate.
For a detailed walkthrough, read how much it costs to hire an employee, or compare the ongoing W-2 cost with a contractor using the hiring cost calculator.
Cost to hire by state
State unemployment-insurance rates and wage bases move the first-year cost of a hire by hundreds to thousands of dollars. Open a state for its real numbers and a pre-filled estimate.
Common questions
Cost-to-hire FAQ
What does it really cost to hire an employee?
The first-year cost of a hire is far more than salary. On top of base pay, employers owe FICA (6.2% Social Security + 1.45% Medicare), FUTA, and state unemployment (SUI) tax, plus workers' compensation, health and retirement benefits, and operating overhead. Add one-time recruiting, onboarding, and equipment costs and a typical first-year cost runs 1.3 to 1.5 times the salary — often more for the first year because of setup expenses.
What is included in the first-year cost to hire?
This calculator splits cost into recurring and one-time. Recurring (every year): base salary, employer payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits, overhead, and software/tools. One-time (year one only): recruiting, onboarding and training, and equipment and setup. The headline number adds the one-time costs to the first full year of recurring cost.
Why is the first year more expensive than later years?
Recruiting fees, onboarding and training time, and the upfront cost of a laptop, desk, and account setup all land in year one and do not repeat. After the first year you typically only carry the recurring cost — salary, taxes, benefits, overhead, and renewing software.
How accurate are the default rates?
Federal payroll-tax constants come from IRS Publication 15 (Circular E), and new-employer state unemployment rates and wage bases come from each state's unemployment-insurance agency. New-employer SUI is used because that is the rate you face on your first hire. Benefits, overhead, and one-time costs are editable estimates — adjust them to match your business.
W-2 or 1099?
Compare the fully-loaded cost of an employee against a contractor for the same work.
Keep calculating