HR and people ops
Payroll burden multiplier calculator.
Enter the wage and your employer costs. See the payroll burden in dollars, the burden rate and the multiplier on wages.
Burden multiplier = (wages + employer costs) / wages. A $60,000 wage with $13,953.00 of employer taxes, insurance and benefits costs $73,953.00, a burden rate of 23.3% and a multiplier of 1.23x.
Your numbers
Result
The sourced federal rates
The IRS states that the Social Security rate is 6.2% for the employer and 6.2% for the employee, and the Medicare rate is 1.45% for the employer and 1.45% for the employee. The IRS also states that the FUTA tax rate is 6.0%, applied to the first $7,000 paid to each employee, and that your state wage base may be different. Social Security tax stops at a yearly wage base that changes; enter the current figure from the IRS to apply it, or leave 0 to ignore it.
What is your own input
FUTA is shown at the 6.0% rate before any credit, so the default overstates what many employers pay; enter your effective rate. State unemployment rate and base, workers compensation, retirement match, health and other costs vary by employer and state, and the defaults are placeholders. Paid time off is already inside the wage, so it is not added again.
For the Canadian version with CPP, EI and WSIB, use the employee cost calculator. This is not tax or legal advice.
Worked example
Burden multiplier = (wages + employer costs) / wages. A $60,000 wage with $13,953.00 of employer taxes, insurance and benefits costs $73,953.00, a burden rate of 23.3% and a multiplier of 1.23x.
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FAQ
What is payroll burden?
It is the extra cost of an employee on top of wages: employer payroll taxes, insurance, benefits and similar costs.
What is a burden multiplier?
It is total employee cost divided by wages. A multiplier of 1.23 means every $1.00 of wages costs $1.23.
What are the employer payroll tax rates?
The IRS lists 6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare for the employer, and a 6.0% FUTA rate on the first $7,000 of wages before any credit.
Does this include paid time off?
No. Paid time off is part of the wage you enter, so adding it again would double count.
Sources
- IRS, Topic no. 751, Social Security and Medicare withholding rates, opened October 8, 2026
- IRS, Topic no. 759, Form 940 - Employer's Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return, opened October 8, 2026
This page is a calculator, not legal or tax advice.