Staff Cost Calculator
Find your fully-loaded labor rate, wage plus benefits, payroll taxes, overhead, and the idle hours you pay for but don't bill. The number you should actually price against.
The wage is never the cost.
A $17/hour handler doesn't cost you $17. Add benefits, payroll taxes, and overhead, then divide by the hours that are actually productive, the paid breaks, setup, and slow stretches all load onto the hours you bill.
This is an hourly cost, not a per-service price. To price a service, multiply the loaded rate by the service’s length in hours, then add supplies, payment fees, and target margin, a short add-on priced below the hourly rate can still be profitable. Tightening utilization is usually the fastest lever, see the Occupancy calculator.
Common questions.
Why is my loaded cost higher than the wage?
Because the wage is only part of it. Benefits, payroll taxes, and overhead add to every paid hour, and paid hours that are not billable, breaks, setup, slow stretches, load onto the hours that are. The result is usually 1.4 to 1.8 times the base wage.
What should I put for utilization?
The share of paid hours that are actually productive, billable work. For most pet care roles that is 75 to 90%. Lower utilization raises your effective cost per productive hour sharply.
Should I price services off this number?
Use it as your floor. Any service priced below the loaded rate loses money once a real schedule, with its idle time, is in play.