What it's for
This spreadsheet does the labor burden calculation for one employee: the taxes, insurance and benefits you pay on top of the wage, and what an hour costs once the paid hours nobody bills are taken out. It's for whoever prices your labor: before bidding, and again when a wage, policy or unemployment rate changes.
It is our labor burden calculator as a workbook: the same math, plus a Crew sheet. Our guide to labor burden explains what goes into it.
What's inside
All four sheets are protected with no password. Pale yellow cells are yours to fill in; all other cells are locked.
Labor burden. You enter the wage, hours, FUTA net rate, State, insurance and benefits. The state you pick brings in its State unemployment (SUTA) rate and SUTA taxable wage base from the State rates sheet, with their Source and Retrieved date. Every burden line, the Burden rate (burden ÷ wages) and the True cost per productive hour calculate. FEDERAL FIGURES FOR 2026, EACH WITH ITS PUBLISHED SOURCE holds four locked figures.
Crew. Twelve rows: NAME OR ROLE, HOURLY WAGE, REGULAR HOURS PER YEAR and OVERTIME HOURS PER YEAR are yours, and OVERTIME PAY and TOTAL WAGES calculate. CREW RATE rolls them up into a blended wage and the crew's True cost per productive hour. OVERTIME PAY is 1.5 × hourly wage × overtime hours; THE MATH calls the 1.5 "this file's convention." This page states no overtime law. The crew takes its burden rate and the productive share of regular hours from the Labor burden sheet; overtime hours count as productive in full. The file notes each worker's own burden rate differs.
State rates. Every state and the District of Columbia, locked, under CODE, STATE, NEW-EMPLOYER RATE (THE CONSTRUCTION RATE WHERE THE STATE SETS ONE), WAGE BASE, SOURCE and RETRIEVED. A figure with no verified value reads "Not verified".
About this template. Three steps, a note on the example figures, the version (v2, 2026-09-24) and links.
How to fill it in
Type percentages with the percent sign.
- On Labor burden, replace the example wage and hours. Paid hours per year includes time off; the sheet subtracts it and the non-billable hours itself.
- Pick your State. Its verified new-employer rate, the construction rate where the state sets one, fills in with its wage base.
- If your state has assigned you your own rate, type it in the yellow box beside the state's; in any state, the SUTA line uses yours. Left blank, the box uses the verified rate.
- Where the rate or wage base reads "Not verified", type yours from your state notice in the yellow box beside it; the wage-base box is used only then. There, a blank box counts as 0.
- In a FUTA credit-reduction state, raise the FUTA net rate, as its note says.
- Enter Workers' comp rate per $100 of payroll, in dollars rather than as a percent, and General liability, % of payroll. Both start blank for your own policy's rates, and a blank counts as 0, "not an estimate." Our guides to workers' comp and general liability explain how each is priced.
- Enter benefits: health as the employer's share per year, retirement as a percent of wages, other benefits per year.
- For a bill rate, enter a Target margin (optional) below 100%; the box refuses 100% or more. The minimum bill rate is the true cost ÷ (1 − margin).
- On Crew, type over or clear the Example row (a row left in is counted), then list your workers. Wage and hours take numbers only: a word gets "Enter a number, 0 or more."
The worked example
The file opens on the calculator's worked example: input notes begin "Example:", and the About tab says to replace the figures. The worker earns $32.00 an hour for 2,080 paid hours, with 80 hours of paid time off and 200 other non-billable hours, in California. With workers' comp and general liability blank and benefits at 0, the burden is payroll taxes alone:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Annual wages | $66,560.00 |
| Social Security | $4,126.72 |
| Medicare | $965.12 |
| FUTA | $42.00 |
| State unemployment (SUTA) | $238.00 |
| Workers' comp | $0.00 |
| General liability | $0.00 |
| Health insurance | $0.00 |
| Retirement | $0.00 |
| Other benefits | $0.00 |
| Total burden | $5,371.84 |
| Burden rate (burden ÷ wages) | 8.07% |
| Productive hours | 1,800 |
| Loaded cost per paid hour | $34.58 |
| True cost per productive hour | $39.96 |
On the Crew sheet, the one filled row, Example, is the same worker:
| NAME OR ROLE | HOURLY WAGE | REGULAR HOURS PER YEAR | OVERTIME HOURS PER YEAR | OVERTIME PAY | TOTAL WAGES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example | $32.00 | 2,080 | 0 | $0.00 | $66,560.00 |
CREW RATE comes out the same: a $32.00 blended wage, the 8.07% burden rate, $5,371.84 of crew burden, 1,800 productive hours and $39.96 per productive hour.
Frequently asked questions
Does the file do the math?
Yes. Every computed figure is a live formula, and the file has no macros.
Does it work in Google Sheets or Numbers?
It works in Excel and Google Sheets. We don't promise Numbers, because the State drop-down takes its choices from another sheet.
Can I add more than 12 workers?
Yes. Turn off the Crew sheet's protection (there is no password), insert rows inside the table so the totals include them, and copy the formulas down.
Is 8.07% a typical labor burden rate?
No. It's the example's payroll taxes alone, and the file names no typical rate.