Employers · 2026 payroll cost
Work out what your team actually costs in 2026 — wages and bonuses plus the employer half of Social Security and Medicare, federal unemployment tax, optional state unemployment tax, workers' compensation, benefits, a retirement match and payroll administration. Build as many employee groups as you need; every wage base is applied per employee, not to combined payroll.
State unemployment tax is optional here because both the rate and the taxable wage base are assigned to your business by your state and vary by state, industry and claims history. Enter the figures on your state rate notice; leave them at 0 and SUTA is reported as not included.
Total annual employer cost
$64,632.00
$5,386.00 per month · 1 employee
Employee federal, state and local income tax withholding is not shown here. That money is the employee's own tax, taken out of the gross wages already counted above and forwarded to the tax authorities — it costs the employer nothing extra. The employee-only 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax is excluded for the same reason.
Calculations are estimates for informational purposes and are not tax, legal, or financial advice. Actual withholding and take-home pay may differ.
A salary offer is only part of what an employer pays. Every dollar of taxable cash wages carries employer payroll taxes that the employee never sees on a pay stub, and most employers add insurance, benefits and administration on top. Budgeting from salary alone routinely understates the real figure by 15% to 35%.
Employers match the employee's FICA: 6.2% Social Security on taxable cash wages up to $184,500 for 2026, and 1.45% Medicare on all taxable cash wages with no ceiling. Above the Social Security cap the employer's marginal payroll tax drops to 1.45%, which is why a $200,000 salary carries $11,439 of Social Security rather than $12,400.
FUTA is an employer-only tax: 6.0% on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages, reduced by a state unemployment credit of up to 5.4% for employers who pay state tax on time. The usual effective rate is therefore 0.6%, or $42 per employee per year. In FUTA credit-reduction states the credit is trimmed and the effective rate rises, so the field is editable from 0% to 6%.
State unemployment tax rates and taxable wage bases are set state-by-state and adjusted for each employer's claims experience; workers' compensation premiums depend on job classification and payroll. Neither has a national default, so both are optional inputs you take from your state rate notice and your insurance quote.
Health, dental and vision premiums, a retirement match, payroll software and bookkeeping time are real cash outflows. Enter benefits monthly per employee, the retirement match as a percentage of base salary, and payroll software as one monthly figure for the business.
Social Security 6.2% × $60,000 = $3,720. Medicare 1.45% × $60,000 = $870. FUTA 0.6% × $7,000 = $42. Federal employer payroll taxes total $4,632, so total employer cost is $64,632 — a burden of 7.72% above cash wages before any benefits.
Social Security stops at the wage base: 6.2% × $184,500 = $11,439. Medicare has no cap: 1.45% × $200,000 = $2,900. FUTA is again $42. Federal employer payroll taxes total $14,381 and total employer cost is $214,381 — 7.19% above wages, lower in percentage terms precisely because of the Social Security cap.
Cash payroll is $250,000. Social Security 6.2% × $250,000 = $15,500. Medicare 1.45% × $250,000 = $3,625. FUTA is charged per employee: 0.6% × $7,000 × 5 = $210, not 0.6% of the whole payroll. Federal employer payroll taxes total $19,335 and total employer cost is $269,335.
Employer Social Security is 6.2% up to $184,500 per employee for 2026 and employer Medicare is 1.45% with no wage cap. The standard FUTA rate is 6.0% on the first $7,000, reduced to as little as 0.6% by the maximum state credit; credit-reduction states and employer eligibility can change that effective rate. SUTA, workers' compensation, benefits and insurance costs vary by state, industry and provider. This page is an educational estimate, not tax, payroll, accounting or legal advice.
What employers owe on top of wages in 2026, which costs vary by state, and what this page deliberately leaves out.
Federal employer payroll taxes alone add roughly 7.65% of cash wages up to the Social Security wage base, plus FUTA. Benefits, a retirement match, workers' compensation insurance and payroll administration are on top of that, so total cost commonly runs 1.15 to 1.35 times salary. On $60,000 with 0.6% FUTA and no benefits, employer taxes are $4,632 and total cost is $64,632.
Employers pay 6.2% Social Security on each employee's taxable cash wages up to $184,500 for 2026, and 1.45% Medicare on all taxable cash wages with no cap. The additional 0.9% Medicare tax on high earners is withheld from the employee only and is not an employer cost.
The statutory FUTA rate is 6.0% on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages, but employers who pay their state unemployment tax on time generally receive a credit of up to 5.4%, bringing the effective rate to 0.6% — a maximum of $42 per employee per year. Employers in FUTA credit-reduction states, or those not eligible for the full credit, pay more, so the rate is editable here.
State unemployment tax varies by state, by industry and by each employer's own claims experience, and the taxable wage base differs from state to state. There is no single national figure to default to, so you enter the rate and base printed on your state rate notice. Leave both at zero and SUTA is reported as not included rather than guessed.
No. Federal, state and local income tax withheld from a paycheck is the employee's own tax. The employer simply deducts it from gross wages that are already counted as payroll and remits it. Including it would double-count the same dollars, so this calculator excludes it.
No. Every calculation runs locally in your browser. Salaries, employee counts, rates, benefit amounts and other inputs are never sent to a server or to analytics, and no account is required.