Labor Cost Calculator
Work out what the labor on a job costs: crew, hours, wage and burden, overtime and the price to quote for your target margin. Every result shows the working, and every burden figure is yours to change.
Your numbers
Hours per worker on this job. Overtime hours are only the ones past 40 in that workweek.
1.5 is the federal minimum for covered, non-exempt workers. A state, a union contract or a double-time shift can ask for more.
6.2% + 1.45% (IRS). Social Security stops at the $184,500 wage base.
0.6% after the full state credit (IRS). It only applies to a worker's first $7,000 of the year: set 0 for a worker past that.
Starting figure from the BLS construction average. Replace it with your policy's rate per $100 of payroll and your state rate.
Starting figure from the BLS construction average: health, retirement and paid leave. Your own may be far lower or higher.
Your figure; 30% is only an example. Margin is profit as a share of the price.
Total labor cost
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The calculation runs in your browser and ParrotNotes does not store your numbers. They sit in the page address so you can bookmark or share the result.
How the labor cost is worked out
Each crew line is one group paid the same wage. Straight wages are workers × hours × wage; overtime wages are workers × overtime hours × wage × the overtime multiplier. Add the lines for total wages, add the burden percentages on those wages, and that is the labor cost of the job. Divide by the hours worked for the burdened hourly rate.
Worked example: two techs at $32 an hour for 8 hours plus 2 overtime hours each, and one helper at $20 for 8 hours. Straight wages: 2 × 8 × $32 + 8 × $20 = $672. Overtime: 2 × 2 × $32 × 1.5 = $192. Total wages $864 for 28 hours. A burden of 37.25% adds $321.84, so the job's labor costs $1,185.84, or $42.35 an hour. To make a 30% margin on it, quote $1,694.06.
Labor burden: what the four percentages are
Employer Social Security is 6.2% (up to a $184,500 wage base in 2026) and Medicare 1.45%, both from IRS Topic 751. Federal unemployment tax is 6.0% on a worker's first $7,000 of the year, or 0.6% after the full state credit (IRS Topic 759). On a job late in the year that worker has probably passed $7,000, so set FUTA to 0 then. The real tax is at most $42 per worker a year, so it barely moves the total either way.
Workers' comp and state unemployment depend on your trade, state and claims history, and benefits depend on what you offer, so those two are starting figures, not rules. They come from the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation for the private construction industry in June 2026: per hour worked, wages were $36.13, legally required benefits $4.42 (12.2% of wages; taking off FICA and FUTA leaves about 4%), and paid leave, insurance and retirement together $8.92 (24.7%, rounded to 25%). Type your policy's rate and your real benefit costs over them. Supplemental pay is left out of the 25% because it includes overtime premiums, which your crew lines already count.
Overtime on a job
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, covered non-exempt employees get at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek, and the Department of Labor does not allow averaging hours over two or more weeks. Overtime is counted by the week, not by the job, so a 10-hour day on this job is only overtime if the worker passes 40 that week. That is why you type the overtime hours rather than the page guessing them. The regular rate can be higher than the base wage, because it includes pay such as shift differentials; if yours does, use the overtime calculator to get it right and enter the result here. State rules can ask for more.
From labor cost to the price you quote
The price to quote is the cost divided by (1 − margin), so a 30% margin on $1,185.84 is $1,694.06. This is the price of the labor alone. Materials, equipment, travel and your overhead go on top, and the margin has to pay for whatever overhead you have not priced in elsewhere. Run the number before you sign the estimate, because the burdened rate is usually a shock the first time: the wage on the paycheck is not what the hour costs you.
How this differs from the employee cost calculator
The employee cost calculator answers a yearly question: what does this hire cost, with salary, payroll taxes up to their wage bases, benefits and equipment? This page answers a question about one job: what do these people, for these hours, cost on this ticket, and what should you quote? The overtime calculator works out one person's weekly pay; here that overtime is one part of a crew's cost.
For contractors and field service crews
Most labor numbers are decided on the job walk: how many on the crew, how long the access will take, whether it means a Saturday. Add a line for each pay rate, save the page's address with your numbers in it, and when the scope changes, change the hours and the quote follows.
Sources, each read on 2026-11-02. Results are arithmetic on your own numbers, not tax or legal advice:
- U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet 23: overtime at 1.5 times the regular rate over 40 hours in a workweek, no averaging, what the regular rate includes
- IRS Topic 751: employer Social Security 6.2%, Medicare 1.45%, 2026 wage base $184,500
- IRS Topic 759: FUTA 6.0% on the first $7,000, credit of up to 5.4%, 0.6% after credit
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026, Table 4, private construction industry: the base for the two starting figures
Related: the employee cost calculator for the yearly cost of a hire, the overtime calculator for one person's weekly pay, and the estimate template to put the price in front of the customer.
More for trades and field sales: HVAC sales, Landscaping sales, Quote follow-up email.
The hours get decided on the job walk
Crew size, access, the Saturday the customer wants: most of what sets the labor comes up while you walk the job. Record the walk in ParrotNotes and you get a transcript, a summary and the action items, so the hours in your quote match what was said.
Get Started FreeRelated tools
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- Margin and Markup CalculatorWork out margin, markup and selling price from cost, convert markup to margin, and see what a discount does to your margin before you quote.Open the tool