Crew Labor Burden Spreadsheet | True Cost and Bill Rate

You pay a foreman $38 an hour. He costs you a lot more than that once taxes, comp, insurance and paid time off are in, and that gap is where your margin goes.

This workbook burdens your whole crew at once, holds the rates, and feeds the real number into your bill rate.

Built for a five-person crew and not a payroll department. The free calculator on our site does one person; this does the whole crew.

Who it's for

You run a crew of 3 to 25 and you bill T&M, or you're setting your hourly rate for next year.

Not for you if your payroll service already reports a fully burdened cost per employee.

Your $38/hour foreman doesn't cost $38. He costs $51.88.

Most contractors bid labor at the wage on the paycheck. Stack payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits, allowances and paid time off on top, spread it over the hours left after time off, and that foreman costs $13.88 an hour more than his wage. This calculator shows you the real number, per productive hour, and the rate you need to charge to hit your margin: $79.82 at a 35% target.

Built by a construction CFO who does this math on real projects, not a generic template.

What it does

• Calculates the fully-burdened cost of each role, per productive hour
• Adds payroll taxes (FICA, FUTA, SUTA), workers' comp, health, retirement, allowances and PTO automatically
• Shows two burden figures: what a productive hour costs over the wage, and burden as a percent of wages for payroll software
• Recommends the bill rate you need to hit your target gross margin
• Prices your whole crew in one table, one row per role
• Handles office/admin staff correctly: their cost still shows, but they're flagged as overhead, not billed
• Refuses a mistyped Yes/No answer, and turns a missing margin or zero productive hours into a red warning instead of a wrong rate

What's included

• Labor Rate Calculator: enter a few numbers, get true cost and bill rate
• Crew Rate Table: burden your entire team at once, billable and overhead roles
• Assumptions tab: set your payroll tax rates and paid hours once; both calculators read them
• Workers' comp reference ranges by trade class code
• A DEMO copy of the workbook, filled in with an example foreman and a six-role crew
• User Guide (PDF): step-by-step instructions, worked examples, FAQ and troubleshooting
• Google Sheets Quick Start (PDF), for importing the workbook

How it works: only the gold cells are inputs. Everything else calculates for you. Change one number and every cost and bill rate updates.

• Trades it fits: general contractors, remodelers and trade businesses (carpentry, electrical, plumbing, roofing, concrete) who bid labor and want to stop leaving margin on the table.
• Delivery: instant digital download. An Excel (.xlsx) workbook, and Excel is the reference version. Every formula uses functions Google Sheets also supports; it has not been tested inside Sheets, so formatting and dropdowns can differ there. Nothing is shipped.
• This tool is for planning and estimating purposes and provides general information, not tax, legal, or accounting advice. Verify tax and insurance rates for your state and situation.