Free tool
What an hour
of labor
really costs you
Enter one person’s wage, hours and the costs stacked on top: pension and employment insurance, workers’ compensation, paid days off, benefits, the truck and the tools. See what an hour of their time really costs you, and what you have to bill to make your margin.
- Free, no sign-up. The headline result is always open.
- Your numbers stay yours. Nothing is converted or guessed behind the scenes.
- Last updated October 11, 2026.
What an hour really costs
$49.58
per billable hour, loaded: wages, paid days off, payroll taxes, compensation, benefits and equipment, spread over the hours you can actually bill.
1.77 times the wage · Bill at least $76.28 an hour to make your target margin.
Billing below that costs you $38,800 a year on this one person.
The stack, per year
- Wages for hours worked$62,700 69%
- Paid days off$4,250 5%
- Payroll taxes and EI/CPP$5,300 6%
- Workers’ comp and other$2,350 3%
- Benefits$3,000 3%
- Equipment and vehicle$12,800 14%
The hours: 2,288 paid, 2,136 worked, 1,824 billable.
Enter your rate for:
What to fix first
In order of money
Each line is the yearly money it addresses for this one person. Multiply by the crew.
Bill the real rate
$38,800 a year
Price from the loaded cost, not the wage. Put the rate in your quotes and your job costing so every estimate starts from the right number.
Track the hidden lines
$27,700 a year
Days off, payroll taxes, compensation, benefits and equipment are the part of the cost that never shows on a timesheet. A job-costing system that carries them lets you see real margin per job, not just per invoice.
Win back the non-billable hours
$12,300 a year
Every hour of travel, quoting and waiting is paid at the full loaded rate. Tighter routing, scheduling and quoting from the office turns some of those hours back into billable ones.
Thanks. Your full report is below.
Full report
Your full report
The annual cost line by line, the rates used with their sources and dates, and the hours, so your accountant can check it.
Annual cost, line by line
| Item | Basis | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Wages for hours worked | 2,136 h | $62,700 |
| Paid days off | 19 days | $4,250 |
| CPP (employer share) | 5.95% | $3,800 |
| CPP2 (employer share) | 4% | $0 |
| EI (employer, 1.4 × the employee rate) | 2.282% | $1,550 |
| Workers’ compensation | 3.5% | $2,350 |
| Other payroll tax | 0% | $0 |
| Benefits | 12 months | $3,000 |
| Equipment and vehicle | 2,136 h | $12,800 |
| Loaded annual cost | $90,400 |
Rates used
| Item | Rate | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPP (employer share) | 5.95% | 2025-10-31 | www.canada.ca |
| CPP2 (employer share) | 4% | 2025-11-17 | www.canada.ca |
| EI (employer, 1.4 × the employee rate) | 2.282% | 2025-09-16 | www.canada.ca |
Hours
- 2,288 paid hours a year, 2,136 worked after 19 days off, 1,824 billable after 312 non-billable.
- Loaded cost $49.58 per billable hour; at a 35% target margin the billable rate is $76.28.
- Figures are rounded. Nothing here is payroll advice.
What it does
What it tells you
Most owners price labor from the wage. The wage is the smallest part of the bill. On top of it sit the employer’s share of pension and employment insurance, workers’ compensation, the days you pay for but can’t bill, benefits, and the truck and tools the person needs to do the work. Then the hours you can actually invoice are fewer than the hours you pay for, because somebody has to drive, quote and wait. This calculator does that arithmetic for one person and gives you two numbers: what a billable hour costs you, loaded, and what you have to bill to make your margin.
The rates come from the pages that publish them, each shown with the date it was read. Where a rate depends on your own business (workers’ compensation, state unemployment, a provincial payroll tax), you enter it from your own notice and the tool says so. The headline is never gated. An email unlocks the full report: the annual cost line by line, the rates used with their sources, ready to hand to your accountant.
Who it is for
Who it is for
Anyone who pays people by the hour and sells their time: trades and home services first (landscaping, snow, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, cleaning, renovation), where a crew-hour is the unit of everything, and just as much agencies, clinics, shops and any business that quotes by the hour or the day. It works for one employee or, multiplied, for a crew.
It is not a payroll calculator for the employee’s side (what comes off the pay check) and it is not a substitute for your accountant. It tells you what the person costs the business, so you stop pricing from the wrong number.
Method
How it works
Per year, for one person:
| Step | Calculation |
|---|---|
| Gross wages | wage × hours × 52, plus wage × overtime hours × overtime rate × 52 (paid every week, days off included) |
| Paid days off | days off × hours per day × wage: the part of gross wages paid for days not worked |
| Payroll taxes | each item’s employer rate × the earnings between its exemption and its ceiling (CPP, CPP2 and EI in Canada; Social Security, Medicare and FUTA in the US) |
| Workers’ compensation | gross wages × your rate, up to the board’s maximum insurable earnings where it sets one for every class (WSIB: $121,700) |
| Other payroll tax | gross wages (up to the ceiling you set) × the rate you enter |
| Benefits | monthly × 12 |
| Equipment and vehicle | cost per crew-hour × hours worked |
| Loaded annual cost | all of the above |
| Hours worked | paid hours − days off × hours per day |
| Billable hours | hours worked − non-billable hours × 52 |
| Loaded cost per hour | loaded annual cost ÷ billable hours |
| Billable rate | loaded cost per hour ÷ (1 − target margin) |
| Under-billing | (billable rate − what you bill now) × billable hours, when you bill below the rate |
The three fixes are the under-billing per year, the cost of the non-billable hours at the loaded rate, and the “hidden lines” (everything in the stack except wages for hours worked), ranked by money. The first one is where to start.
Assumptions
Rates and assumptions
Every rate on this page has a source and a date: the page’s own last update where it shows one, otherwise the day we read it. These are the employer rates the tool uses:
| Item | Employer rate | Applies to earnings | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPP (employer share) | 5.95% | from $3,500 to $74,600 | 2025-10-31 |
| CPP2 (employer share) | 4% | from $74,600 to $85,000 | 2025-11-17 |
| EI (employer, 1.4 × the employee rate) | 2.282% | from the first dollar to $68,900 | 2025-09-16 |
| QPP (employer share) | 6.3% | from $3,500 to $74,600 | 2026-10-13 |
| QPP2 (employer share) | 4% | from $74,600 to $85,000 | 2026-10-13 |
| EI, Quebec rate (employer, 1.4 × the employee rate) | 1.82% | from the first dollar to $68,900 | 2025-09-16 |
| QPIP (employer) | 0.602% | from the first dollar to $103,000 | 2026-03-19 |
| Social Security (employer share) | 6.2% | from the first dollar to $184,500 | 2026-09-24 |
| Medicare (employer share) | 1.45% | from the first dollar with no ceiling | 2026-09-24 |
| FUTA (after the state credit) | 0.6% | from the first dollar to $7,000 | 2026-09-24 |
Each state’s unemployment tax fills in the “other payroll tax” field at the rate a new employer pays. An established employer has its own rate on its state notice; change the field to yours.
| State | New-employer rate | On wages up to | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 4.1% | $17,600 | 2026-10-13 |
| Pennsylvania | 3.822% | $10,000 | 2026-10-13 |
| Ohio | 2.85% | $9,000 | 2026-10-13 |
| Michigan | 2.7% | $9,000 | 2026-10-13 |
| Illinois | 3.35% | $14,250 | 2026-10-13 |
| Minnesota | 1.696% | $44,000 | 2026-10-13 |
| Wisconsin | 3.05% | $14,000 | 2026-10-13 |
| Massachusetts | 2.476% | $15,000 | 2026-10-13 |
| Florida | 2.7% | $7,000 | 2026-10-13 |
| Texas | 2.7% | $9,000 | 2026-10-13 |
| California | 3.5% | $7,000 | 2026-10-13 |
| Washington | No single rate | $78,200 | 2026-10-13 |
| Colorado | 3.05% | $30,600 | 2026-10-13 |
| Arizona | 2% | $8,000 | 2026-10-13 |
| Georgia | 2.7% | $9,500 | 2026-10-13 |
| North Carolina | 1% | $34,200 | 2026-10-13 |
Each province’s employment standards set the overtime rule and the paid days off the calculator starts with:
| Province | Overtime | Vacation | Public holidays | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | Time and a half after 44 hours a week | 10 days | 9 a year | 2026-02-05 |
| Alberta | Time and a half after 8 hours a day or 44 a week | 10 days | 9 a year | 2026-10-13 |
| British Columbia | Time and a half after 8 hours a day or 40 a week | 10 days | 11 a year | 2026-01-01 |
| Manitoba | Time and a half after 8 hours a day or 40 a week | 10 days | 9 a year | 2026-09-16 |
| New Brunswick | At least $23.85 an hour after 44 hours a week | 10 days | 8 a year | 2026-10-13 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | At least $24.53 an hour after 40 hours a week | 10 days | 6 a year | 2026-10-13 |
| Nova Scotia | Time and a half after 48 hours a week | 10 days | 6 a year | 2026-10-13 |
| Prince Edward Island | Time and a half after 44 hours a week | 10 days | 8 a year | 2026-06-30 |
| Quebec | Time and a half after 40 hours a week | 10 days | 8 a year | 2026-10-13 |
| Saskatchewan | Time and a half after 8 hours a day or 40 a week | 15 days | 10 a year | 2026-10-13 |
- Provinces and states. All ten provinces have their overtime, vacation and public-holiday rules sourced, and Quebec uses QPP, QPIP and its own EI rate. The 16 states have the federal items, the overtime rule and the state’s new-employer unemployment rate sourced. California and Colorado also count overtime by the day, and Washington sets a new employer’s rate by industry, so you enter that one. Workers’ compensation is yours to enter everywhere.
- Employer share only. The employee’s CPP, EI, Social Security and Medicare come off the pay check and are not a cost on top of the wage, so they are not here.
- Days off keep their pay. The wage is paid for the week whether the person works or not, so paid days off stay in the cost and come out of the billable hours.
- Workers’ compensation is a rate you enter; the example’s 3.5% is an example figure, not a rate from any board. The link under the field goes to your board or carrier.
- Ceilings are applied per year. A person earning above a ceiling (for example $85,000 for CPP2) stops costing more for that item; the tool handles that pro rata.
- No raises, no mid-year changes. One wage, one set of rates, one year. Rerun it when the rates change in January.
Worked example
A worked example
The numbers the calculator opens with: a crew member in Ontario on $28.00 an hour, 40 hours a week plus 4 hours of overtime at 1.5×, 19 paid days off a year (two weeks of vacation and 9 public holidays), $250 a month in benefits, workers’ compensation at 3.5% (an example figure), $6.00 an hour for the truck and tools, 6 non-billable hours a week, a 35% target margin, and $55.00 an hour billed today.
- Gross wages $67,000, of which $4,250 pays for the days off.
- Payroll taxes $5,300 (CPP $3,800, CPP2 $0, EI $1,550).
- Workers’ compensation $2,350, benefits $3,000, equipment $12,800.
- Loaded annual cost $90,400.
- Hours: 2,288 paid, 2,136 worked, 1,824 billable.
That is $49.58 per billable hour, 1.77 times the wage. At a 35% margin the rate to bill is $76.28; billing $55.00 leaves $38,800 a year on the table for this one person. The biggest fix is bill the real rate, worth $38,800 a year. Change the wage, the non-billable hours or the province and watch the two numbers move.
Questions
Questions people ask
Where do the payroll rates come from?
Each rate is read from the government page that publishes it and shown with the date it was read: the Canada Revenue Agency for CPP and EI, Retraite Québec and the Quebec government for QPP and QPIP, the IRS for Social Security, Medicare and FUTA, each province’s employment standards pages for overtime, vacation and public holidays, and each state’s unemployment agency for its new-employer rate. Where there is no single published figure, the tool says so and uses what you enter.
When does overtime start in each province?
After 40 hours a week in British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec and Saskatchewan; after 44 hours a week in Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island; after 48 hours a week in Nova Scotia. Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan also count it by the day, after 8 hours. It is paid at time and a half everywhere except New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador, which set a minimum overtime wage instead ($23.85 and $24.53 an hour), so above that wage the law only requires the regular rate. Each rule comes from the province’s employment standards pages, linked in the table on this page.
Why is workers’ compensation something I enter?
Compensation rates are set per industry class, and the classes differ by province and state. Your rate is on the statement from your board or carrier; the tool links to the right place for each province and state.
Why do paid days off count as a cost?
You pay the wage for the week whether the person is on site or on holiday, but you can only bill the hours worked. The tool keeps the pay in the cost and takes the days out of the billable hours, which is where the cost shows up.
What is a billable hour?
An hour you can put on an invoice. Hours worked minus travel, quoting, shop time and waiting. Most trades bill far fewer hours than they pay for, and that gap is the biggest reason an hourly rate that looks fine on paper loses money.
Does this work for the United States?
Yes. Pick a state: the federal items (Social Security, Medicare, FUTA and the 40-hour overtime rule) fill in, and so does the state’s unemployment tax at its rate for a new employer, on its wage base. An established employer has its own rate on its state notice, so change it to yours. Workers’ compensation varies by class and carrier, so you enter it. California and Colorado also count overtime by the day, and the hint under the overtime rate says so.
Do you store what I enter?
The inputs and the result are stored without any name or contact details, so we can see how the tool is used. If you ask for the full report, your email is stored with the time, the page and the consent you gave. See the privacy policy.
Next step
Price from the right number.
A free diagnostic looks at how you quote, schedule and cost jobs today, and tells you which fix pays first: the rate, the lost hours, or the system that tracks both.
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