Loaded Labor Rate / Labor Burden Calculator for Contractors
Turn a W-2 wage (or owner draw) into your loaded labor rate — the fully burdened $/hr once labor burden (payroll taxes, workers’ comp, benefits, PTO) is added — then cost per billable hour after utilization. Hand burden % and loaded rate to the billable-rate calculator without guessing payroll add-ons. Built for owners hiring or managing field techs — not for homeowners shopping remodel prices.
Calculate loaded labor cost
Burden component breakdown ($/paid hr)
This calculator is a self-serve math tool for business owners. Tax, workers’ comp, and benefits figures you enter are yours; any UI defaults or trade presets are examples only, not recommendations or advice. No consulting, legal, tax, or insurance advice. This page does not compute overhead allocation, target margin, or bill sell rate — those live on the billable hourly rate calculator.
Methodology
Wage → component burden → loaded $/hr → ÷ utilization = cost per billable hour (floor before overhead & profit):
Bill rate and profit live on the hourly-rate calculator. This page stops at loaded labor and an educational “floor before overhead & profit.”
Worked example (fictional W-2 field tech)
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Hourly wage | $30.00 |
| Paid hours / year | 2,080 |
| Payroll taxes | 12% (example) |
| Workers’ comp | 8% (example) |
| Benefits | $3.00/hr |
| PTO | 10 days/year |
| Other burden | 2% (example) |
| Utilization | 70% |
Components ≈ $3.60 tax + $2.40 WC + $3.00 benefits + $1.15 PTO + $0.60 other → burden $10.75/hr (≈ 35.83%) → loaded $40.75/hr → floor before OH & profit $58.21 per billable hour ($40.75 ÷ 0.70). Annual loaded ≈ $84,760.
Assumptions
- Paid hours default 2,080 — a common full-time year; edit for your schedule.
- PTO days → %:
pto_pct = pto_days / (paid_hours / 8)(assumes 8 paid hours per PTO day). - Benefits / other: when both % and $/hr are filled, $/hr wins.
- Utilization = billable ÷ paid — same definition as the billable-rate calculator.
- Trade presets fill starting WC / benefits-style inputs only. Labeled examples — especially WC — not recommendations or insurance advice.
- Percent fields take percent points (enter
12for 12%). Values like0.12auto-correct with a warning. - USD display with 2 decimal places. Cost per billable derives from the displayed loaded $/hr.
- This page does not allocate annual overhead or apply target margin.
Common mistakes
- Using wage as the bill rate (skips burden, utilization, overhead, and profit).
- Ignoring workers’ comp or PTO in the burden stack.
- Forgetting utilization — loaded $/paid hour is not cost per billable hour.
- Double-counting burden again inside the billable-rate calculator after a handoff (use “Set billable rate from loaded cost” so P1 prefills correctly once).
- Treating trade-preset WC % as advice or a quoted insurance rate.
- Entering
0.35under a % field when you meant 35% — use35. - Benchmarking against homeowner-facing “labor cost” pages instead of your own payroll records.
FAQ
What’s the difference between loaded labor rate and labor burden?
Labor burden is the employer add-on cost on top of wage — payroll taxes, workers’ comp, benefits, PTO, and other items you enter from your own records — shown here as $/paid hour and as a % of wage. The loaded labor rate is wage + burden on a paid-hour basis. Divide the loaded rate by utilization to get cost per billable hour. The same math works for a W-2 tech or an owner drawing a wage.
Is fully burdened the same as fully loaded?
On this page, yes: “fully burdened labor rate,” “fully loaded labor cost,” and “loaded hourly rate” all mean wage + labor burden per paid hour. Some owners use “fully loaded” to also include overhead — this calculator does not; overhead is added on the billable hourly rate calculator.
Does this include overhead and profit?
No. This page stops at loaded labor and the floor before overhead and profit. Overhead (rent, software, vehicles) and target margin live on the billable hourly rate calculator; full job prices with materials live on job pricing.
How do I get a billable sell rate from loaded cost?
Calculate here, then click Set billable rate from loaded cost under your results. It opens the billable hourly rate calculator and prefills your hourly wage, effective burden %, utilization %, and paid hours / year. Your loaded $/hr appears there as an informational note only — the billable rate calculator rebuilds loaded cost from wage × (1 + burden), so burden is not double-counted. Add your overhead and target margin there. To price a specific job instead, use job pricing.
Are the workers’ comp presets recommendations?
No. Presets are editable example defaults only — not insurance advice, quotes, or recommended rates. Enter the figures from your own payroll records and provider.
Is this for homeowners checking labor costs on a remodel?
No. This page is for contractors and home-service business owners measuring the true cost of an employee. It is not a homeowner project-cost tool.