Salary is the small part. Add employer taxes, benefits, overhead, equipment, and the hours they won't actually be productive — then you've got the number.
What you actually pay for every $1 of base salary, fully loaded. Industry average is 1.25 to 1.4 — heavier in regulated trades.
| Base compensation | — |
| + Bonus | — |
| + FICA (7.65%) | — |
| + SUTA + FUTA | — |
| + Workers' comp | — |
| + Health insurance | — |
| + Retirement match | — |
| + Software / tools | — |
| + Office | — |
| + Equipment (amortized) | — |
| + Recruiting (amortized) | — |
| True annual cost | — |
If you're hiring because phones go unanswered, appointments get dropped, or quotes don't go out on time — Orbit (24/7 voice agent, $29/mo) covers a chunk of an entry-level role's job at less than 0.5% of the loaded cost shown above. SiteLine, AgentEdge, and DealDesk bundle this directly into the workflow that's currently breaking.