Tool · Employer Cost Calculator
What does it actually cost to employ someone there?
Pick a country and a salary. Every employer-side statutory contribution and mandatory benefit, itemised across 94 countries, and the United States state by state. Real rates, sourced assumptions.
How to calculate the cost of an employee
An employee costs their gross salary plus the employer-side statutory contributions for the country they work in, plus any benefits you choose to provide. Salary alone understates the real figure, and the gap is not small: employer contributions are set by statute and range from a few per cent of salary in some markets to over 40% in others. That is why a salary comparison across two countries can invert once contributions are added.
Employing through an employer of record adds one line to that total, the provider’s fee. It does not change the statutory contributions, which are passed through at the government rate. So the comparison that matters is total cost of employment, not salary, and not the fee in isolation.
- Total cost of employment = gross salary + employer statutory contributions + benefits + (if using an EOR) the provider fee
- Before your first payroll you fund the first month’s employment cost, plus a refundable deposit of one month’s gross salary. See pricing for what falls due when.
The calculator below itemises the contribution lines for a specific country and salary, across 94 countries and the United States state by state, so you can see which statutory items apply rather than working from an average.
Why we publish the formula instead of gating it. There is a hidden tax on every international hire: currency margins taken inside the exchange rate, surprise fees, contract lock-in, platforms you pay for and do not use. It survives because it is hard to see, and a cost you cannot itemise is a cost you cannot challenge. Teamed’s model exists to remove it, which is why the arithmetic is on the page rather than behind a call.
In practice that means every line is visible, including the ones that are not ours: salary, employer taxes and benefits pass through at the government rate on one itemised invoice, the Teamed fee is the only Teamed line on it, and currency conversion carries no markup and no spread. It also means we tell you when to stop using us, because every country has a point where running your own entity becomes cheaper than an employer of record, and we model it and show the maths rather than waiting for you to notice. If a figure here needs pressure-testing against a real benefits design before it goes in a board pack, a named specialist will do that with you.
Employer cost calculator: at a glance
Countries modelled
94
Employer-side rates for each country, plus the United States state by state. Every result shows its assumptions and the date it was calculated.
Statutory range
1–47%
Employer-side statutory contributions at a mid-senior salary, from about 1% in Denmark and South Africa to about 47% in France. The gap is where budgets get blown.
Cost multiplier
1.0–1.5×
Gross salary plus employer statutory contributions, as a multiple of salary: about 1.0× in Denmark and South Africa, about 1.5× in France. Benefits and any EOR fee go on top.
Field notes
Same role, four countries.
At a mid-senior salary, the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive of these four is roughly 25 points of statutory burden, before benefits. Same gross, different bottom line.
Barcelona · Spain
≈30%
Seguridad Social employer share.
Dresden · Germany
~21%
Sozialversicherung + accident insurance.
Rome · Italy
≈40%
INPS + INAIL + TFR severance fund.
Paris · France
~47%
URSSAF. Highest in scope.
Tap a card to pre-fill the calculator with that country.
How much does it actually cost to employ someone in another country, beyond the salary?
From about 1% (Denmark, South Africa) to about 47% (France) of gross salary in employer-side statutory contributions at a mid-senior salary, plus mandatory benefits such as pension, health, and life and disability insurance, plus the voluntary benefits the local market expects.
Salary plus statutory contributions alone comes to about 1.0 to 1.5 times the gross salary; benefits, and the provider fee if you use an employer of record, go on top. The calculator on this page itemises it for any of 94 countries, and the United States state by state, at the exact salary you enter.
What is Total cost of employment (TCoE)?
The all-in annual cost to the employer of having a person on payroll. It is the sum of (1) gross salary, (2) employer-side statutory contributions such as social security, pension, unemployment, accident insurance, and training levies, (3) mandatory and customary benefits including health insurance, supplementary pension, life insurance, and statutory leave costs, and (4) employer-borne employment overheads such as payroll service, insurance, and ongoing compliance. Gross salary plus employer statutory contributions alone comes to about 1.0 to 1.5 times gross salary, from Denmark and South Africa at the low end to France at the high end; benefits, overheads and any employer of record fee go on top.
How do you calculate employee cost?
Total employment cost equals gross salary plus employer contributions. Employer contributions are the country's mandatory statutory costs: social security, pension, unemployment, health, and accident insurance, plus accruals like 13th-month pay where the law requires them.
For example: a €60,000 gross salary in Germany means about €12,780 a year in employer contributions. That is about 21% on top of salary, covering statutory health, pension, unemployment, accident, long-term-care, and insolvency insurance. Total employment cost: about €72,780 a year.
The calculator above runs this same maths for any of its 94 countries, plus the United States state by state.
The spread
Employer-side mandatory cost, 15 markets.
Verified 2026-05-06
Statutory contributions plus mandatory accruals (13th-month, holiday provisioning) where the jurisdiction requires them, at a mid-senior salary (roughly €55,000 to €80,000, or the local equivalent). Voluntary benefits sit on top. Scroll for the full list.
- South Africa~1.1%
- Denmark~1.3%
- Ireland~11.4%
- Japan~13.3%
- Singapore~14.7%
- United Kingdom~15.8%
- Netherlands~18.4%
- Australia~20.5%
- Germany~21%
- Poland~21%
- Spain~30.7%
- Belgium~31.2%
- Sweden~31.4%
- Italy~40.6%
- France~47%
Sources · SARS + Department of Employment and Labour · Skattestyrelsen · Revenue Commissioners · Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare · Ministry of Manpower · HMRC + The Pensions Regulator · Belastingdienst · ATO + state revenue offices · Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales · Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych · Seguridad Social · ONSS · Skatteverket · INPS · URSSAF
Should I compare salary or total cost?
Total cost, always. Employer contributions run from about 1% of gross salary in Denmark and South Africa to about 47% in France. Compare salary alone, and you will misjudge a hire by tens of thousands. The gap moves at every border.
Salary is the number a candidate sees. Total cost is the number that has to clear budget. When you compare two countries for the same role, compare the total, never the salary line alone.
Field note
“Budget the salary, and you’ve budgeted maybe two-thirds of the cost. The other third is where the surprise sits.”Teamed jurisdiction operations
How is this calculated?
The calculator adds the employer contributions for the country you pick to the salary you enter. The result shows what is in that total and what is not, so nothing is counted twice and nothing is hidden inside another line.
1. Gross salary. The figure you enter, in local currency. A monthly salary is multiplied by 12.
2. Employer contributions. Social security, pension, unemployment, accident insurance and levies, one line each, from our rate tables for that country. A line marked “capped” stops at the country’s contribution ceiling. Where a country also carries costs set by collective agreements, its notes under the result say so.
3. Optional benefits. Private health cover, allowances, equity and similar are set in your offer, so they are not in the total.
4. Teamed’s fee. If you hire through Teamed as Employer of Record, our fee is shown beside the result, not inside it.
Salary plus employer contributions is the total employment cost, shown a year and a month. Each result also states its assumptions and the date it was calculated. For a figure built around your actual offer, a Teamed specialist prices the hire line by line.
Hiring the same role across several countries?
The calculator gives you the per-country number. When you are comparing several markets for one role, or building the figure into a hiring business case, a Teamed specialist can pressure-test it against your actual benefits package and engagement model, and turn it into a board-ready comparison.
Talk to a SpecialistFrequently asked questions
What employer costs am I missing if I only budget the salary?
A lot, depending on the country. Three things add up. First, employer-side statutory contributions: social security, pension, unemployment, accident insurance, and training levies. At a mid-senior salary these run from about 1% of gross salary in Denmark and South Africa to about 47% in France, so salary plus statutory contributions comes to about 1.0 to 1.5 times the gross salary. Second, mandatory and customary benefits: health cover, supplementary pension, life and disability insurance, set by what the local market expects, not only what the law requires. Third, employer-borne overheads: payroll service, ongoing compliance, holiday allowances, vouchers, and 13th-month pay where it is customary rather than required by law. Benefits and overheads sit on top of that 1.0 to 1.5 times, and so does the provider fee if you employ through an employer of record. The calculator above itemises all of this for any country and salary.How accurate is the calculator for my specific hire?
The calculator applies the employer-side rates in our tables for the country and salary you enter, across 94 countries, and the United States state by state, and each result states its assumptions and the date it was calculated. Treat it as an estimate. What it cannot know is your benefits package: private health tiers, equity, supplementary pension, and car or transport allowances vary by employer and are set in your offer, not by statute. For a binding board-pack figure, or a side-by-side comparison across several markets for the same role, a Teamed specialist can pressure-test the calculator output against your actual benefits design and engagement model.How does the cost change if we use an EOR instead of our own entity?
The statutory and benefits costs are the same either way. Those are what the employer owes the state and the employee, regardless of how the person is engaged. What changes is the overhead layer. With an Employer of Record you pay a per-employee fee instead of standing up your own payroll, accountancy, and compliance function. At low headcount in one country the EOR overhead is lower than running an entity, and as headcount in that country grows your own entity can cost less, though running it is still the hard part. The exact point depends on the country and your headcount. Run the Crossover Calculator at /tools/crossover-calculator to see it for your situation. Either side of the point, Teamed runs it: EOR below, and entity setup and running (GEMO) above, on one platform.