Payroll Cost Calculator for Startups

What a team costs at pre-seed, seed and Series A

US salaries $110,000 (pre-seed), $120,000 (seed) and $135,000 (Series A) in California plus Texas or New York; single health cover at the KFF 2025 employer average; people abroad at illustrative local salaries (Germany €75,000, UK £65,000, Ontario C$105,000, India ₹24 lakh, Poland zł240,000, Brazil R$240,000). Fully loaded and runway columns use Gusto Plus and Deel EOR; software ranges span every published US plan that fits the team and every published EOR price. Cash $0.5M / $3M / $12M, MRR $10K / $50K / $250K, other spend $5K / $25K / $120K a month.

Two things stand out. Employer taxes and benefits cost far more than the payroll software for an all-US team: about 37 times Gusto Plus at pre-seed and over 100 times at Series A. Choosing the cheapest payroll plan saves less than a different health plan would. And employer-of-record fees are the one software line that moves runway: four people abroad at $399 to $699 a month each cost $19,000 to $34,000 a year, 17 to 29 days of runway at seed, while US payroll software costs one or two days.

How the US numbers are calculated

• Social Security: 6.2% of each salary up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500 (IRS Publication 15).
• Medicare: 1.45% of all pay, no cap. The extra 0.9% above $200,000 is withheld from the employee only, so it does not change your cost.
• Federal unemployment (FUTA): 6.0% on the first $7,000, less a credit of up to 5.4%, so 0.6% ($42 a person). California employers lose part of the credit: 1.2% more for 2025, and the Labor Department's 2026 list shows 1.5%, or 5.3% if an add-on is not waived. That is decided after November 10, 2026; the calculator lets you pick.
• State unemployment: new-employer rates and wage bases for 2026: California 3.4% plus 0.1% training tax on $7,000; New York 4.1% on $17,600 (up from $12,800); Florida 2.7% on $7,000; Delaware 1.0% on $14,500. Texas (2.7% on $9,000) and Massachusetts's $15,000 base (rate 2.42%) come from secondary sources because the state sites block non-US visitors, and Washington sets the rate by industry, so enter your own. The tax follows where the employee works, not where the company is incorporated: a Delaware C-corp with staff in California pays California.
• Benefits: the employer's average share of a single health plan was $7,885 a year in 2025 ($20,143 for family cover; KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey). Workers' compensation defaults to $429 a year, Washington's 2026 state-fund rate for software work; yours depends on state, job class and insurer.

People abroad: employer of record or contractor

An employer of record (EOR) employs your hire in their country for a monthly fee, runs local payroll and pays the employer contributions, which it bills to you on top of the fee. Published EOR prices run from $399 a month (Pebl, formerly Velocity Global) to $699 (Oyster); Deel and Remote list $599. Deel's help center adds a refundable deposit of one to one and a half months of all charges per hire and, in Germany, Canada, India, Poland and Brazil, a monthly severance accrual.

The employer contributions differ more than the fees. At the salaries above they add 4% of salary in India, 8% in Ontario, 16% in the UK, 21% in Germany, 22% in Poland and 51% in Brazil, where the 13th salary and the vacation bonus come on top of 20% social security and 8% FGTS. Rates and caps are 2026 figures from national authorities; Brazil's 5.8% third-party levies and India's EDLI could not be read on the official sites and are flagged for a re-check.

Paying the same people as contractors costs $29 to $49 a month per person on the main platforms and skips those contributions. The catch is the law, not the fee: if a contractor works like an employee, Germany's pension authority and Canada's CRA can treat them as one and collect the contributions from you (the UK's IR35 rules leave that decision to the worker's own company when the client is based wholly overseas). A full-time hire working from home abroad can also raise the question of whether your company has a taxable presence there; the OECD's 2025 guidance says under 50% of working time from a home office generally does not, above that it depends on the facts.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an employee cost on top of salary?

In the US, about 11% to 16% at startup salaries: roughly 8% in employer taxes plus health cover and workers' comp. A $120,000 California hire costs about $137,900 a year with single health cover. Abroad, employer contributions range from about 4% of salary in India to about 51% in Brazil.

What is the payroll burden rate?

The employer's costs on top of gross pay (taxes, benefits, insurance) divided by gross pay. The calculator shows it as "× salary": 1.15× means a burden of 15%.

How much is FUTA per employee in 2026?

$42 in most states (0.6% of the first $7,000). California employers pay more because of the credit reduction: $126 at 1.2%, $147 at 1.5%, or up to $413 if the 2026 add-on is not waived.

Is an EOR cheaper than opening an entity?

In fees, an EOR costs $4,800 to $8,400 a year per person at published prices, with no local company to set up and run. Compare that with what an entity costs in that country (registration, local payroll and accounting, a registered address), which this calculator does not model. The employer contributions are owed either way.

Payroll is most of a startup's burn. To see it month by month next to revenue, hiring plans and runway, model it in Adlega.