Base salary
What you put on the offer letter — before taxes and benefits you fund.
Tool 09
Employee cost.
Salary is not what you pay. Add employer burden, gear, and time off — get the fully loaded annual cost and the hourly rate your meeting clock should use.
Burden
Employer payroll taxes, benefits, insurance — often ~25–40% of salary, depending on country and package.
Extras
Laptop, software seats, desk, onboarding — fixed annual cost per head.
Productive $/hr
Loaded cost ÷ hours you actually get after PTO. Use this in the meeting cost clock.
Example
$80,000 salary, 30% burden, $3,000 extras, 40 hrs/week, 4 weeks PTO → loaded ≈ $107,000/year (~1.34×), productive ≈ $56/hr.
Is 30% burden accurate for my country?
It’s a planning default, not a tax filing. Some places are lower; full benefits packages run higher. Ask payroll or your accountant, then plug the real %.
Why “productive” hourly?
You pay through vacation and holidays. Dividing by all calendar hours understates cost per hour of actual work — meetings and hiring decisions should use the productive rate.
Employee vs contractor?
Contractors quote higher hourly rates because they carry their own tax and benefits. Compare this loaded employee $/hr to a contractor quote — and to your freelance rate floor if you’re the contractor.