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Free tool · Intelligence before the hire
What will your next hire really cost?
Salary is only part of it. Add benefits, recruiting, onboarding, the months the seat sits empty and the time it takes a new hire to get up to speed. Change any number. Nothing you type is stored.
First-year cost of the hire
—Including work undone, the first year comes to —.
Share links contain only the numbers above, never your name or company.
Before you approve the requisition, compare the alternatives.
Hiring is one way to add capacity. Reskilling people you already have, outsourcing the work, automating part of it or redesigning the process can cost less or deliver sooner. The right answer depends on your numbers.
NWTS DecisionIQ™ puts all six options side by side, including holding steady, with total cost, break-even month and cash exposure for each. It uses the same transparent arithmetic as this calculator.
Free preview, no card. Paid plans from $149/month.
How the calculator works
Every figure comes from the inputs on the left. Nothing is estimated by AI.
- Monthly loaded cost = salary × (1 + benefits %) ÷ 12.
- Months employed in year one = 12 − months to fill.
- First-year cost = monthly loaded cost × months employed + recruiting + onboarding.
- Productive months = months employed − half the ramp-up period, because productivity rises evenly during ramp-up.
- Work undone = your monthly cost of work going undone × (12 − productive months).
Questions
How is the true cost of a hire calculated?
First-year cost = salary plus benefits for the months the person is employed, plus recruiting, plus onboarding, equipment and training. Months employed = 12 minus the months it takes to fill the role. Every input is yours to change, and the formulas are shown on this page.
Why does benefits load default to 43%?
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Employer Costs for Employee Compensation survey reports benefits as roughly 30% of total compensation for private industry workers, which is about 43% on top of wages. Use your own figure if you know it.
What does "productive months" mean?
A new hire usually takes time to reach full productivity. The calculator assumes productivity rises evenly over the ramp-up period you enter, so a 3-month ramp counts as 1.5 productive months during that time.
What is the cost of work going undone?
The value of the work that doesn’t get done while the role is open and the new hire is ramping up: overtime, delayed projects, lost sales or service. It is your estimate per month, multiplied by the months of lost capacity.
Is my data stored?
No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere. If you choose to share a link, the link contains only the numbers you entered.
Is hiring always the right answer?
Not always. Reskilling current staff, outsourcing, automating part of the work or redesigning the process can cost less or deliver capacity sooner. DecisionIQ compares all of them side by side, free.