What is Labor burden rate?

The labor burden rate expresses how much extra an employer pays above base salary to employ someone. It is the sum of all employer-side costs (payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits, and overhead) divided by base salary, stated either as a percentage or as a multiplier of salary.

Burden rates commonly run from about 1.25x to 1.4x of salary for typical office roles, and higher when benefits are rich or workers' comp is expensive. The multiplier is a quick way to estimate the real cost of a role from a salary figure.