That $28 carpenter costs you $38 an hour.
Payroll taxes, comp, liability and the hours you pay for but can't bill. Bid at the wage on the check and you are giving away a third of your labor cost on every job. Put your real numbers in below.
What bidding at the wage costs you
If you estimate this person at $28.00 an hour, every billable hour is short $10.06.
Where the money goes
| Cost | Rate | Per year |
|---|
Federal rates used: Social Security 6.2% on wages up to $184,500, Medicare 1.45% with no cap, FUTA 0.6% on the first $7,000 (2026 figures). State unemployment, workers' comp and liability vary widely, so those are yours to set. This is an estimate for bidding, not a payroll filing.
Read the full breakdown: Labor Burden: What Your Crew Actually Costs You
Do this at scale
You just burdened one wage. Now do it for the whole crew.
A calculator gets you one rate today. These keep every rate current, and make sure the burdened number actually reaches the bid instead of dying in a spreadsheet tab.
Labor Burden Calculator
Every employee and every burden component in one workbook. Update tax, comp and insurance rates once a year and every crew rate re-burdens itself.
Construction Estimating Spreadsheet
A burdened rate only pays off if it reaches the proposal. 280+ line items across 20 phases, a four-layer markup calculator, and a client-ready proposal built on your real labor cost.
Excel and Google Sheets · one-time purchase · single-business commercial license