Hiring globally shouldn’t drain your budget — but figuring out employee costs in unfamiliar markets is an added challenge. That’s why we built our Employer Cost Calculator. Get a clear breakdown of employee costs, payroll taxes, benefits, and fees in 180+ countries, so you can expand with confidence.
See the true cost of hiring in any market in just a few clicks. Choose your hiring location, billing currency, and salary (monthly or annual). Instantly, you’ll get a clear breakdown of employer taxes, contributions, and total cost. Compare up to three markets side by side to spot affordable hiring opportunities and make better decisions.
When hiring globally, salary is only part of the picture. Employers are also responsible for mandatory contributions like payroll taxes, social security, pensions, healthcare, and insurance – plus any perks and benefits you choose to offer. Depending on the country, these extras can add 10% to 45% on top of gross pay.
That’s why we built Playroll’s Employee Cost Calculator. Instead of sifting through tax codes and spreadsheets, get instant clarity on the true cost of hiring, broken down by country, currency, and salary. With market-specific results, you can hire confidently when expanding across borders.
Here’s what you’ll get out of it:
The calculator shows the full cost of hiring in any market so you can turn insights into action. Use the results to:
Playroll’s Employee Cost Calculator simplifies global hiring, budgeting, and planning for expansion. Here’s how different leaders can put it to work:
Calculate Your Next Move.
We handle admin and compliance – you focus on growth. Billing starts only when your hire does.
Before crunching the numbers, define what counts as payroll costs — wages, overtime, employer-paid benefits, payroll taxes, bonuses, and allowances. Decide whether to include only direct costs (wages, benefits) or also indirect ones like admin overhead, payroll software, or outsourced services. Clear definitions upfront will keep your team on the same page and help avoid surprises.
Once you’ve defined payroll costs, gather the data from your HR, accounting, or payroll systems — wages, taxes, and employer contributions for each hire. If you have multiple pay grades or operate across countries, standardize the data so it’s comparable. Double-check for gaps like statutory contributions, which can skew results.
Pro tip: Using quality payroll software can automate the process of reconciling and consolidating your payroll costs across regions.
Now total up payroll expenses for each new hire over a set period (usually a year). For example:
Do this for every hire to see your overall payroll spend — this becomes the numerator in your payroll cost per hire formula.
Pro tip: Our payroll guides cover setup, tax deadlines, and employer/employee taxes by country.
Now pull it all together: divide total payroll costs for all new hires by the number of hires to get your average payroll cost per person.
Example: $650,000 spent on 10 hires = $65,000 per hire.
This metric is a quick way to track trends over time, benchmark against industry standards, and give HR and finance solid data for smarter budgeting, pay structures, and hiring plans.
Your “everything you ever needed to know” guides to compliant global employment around the world.
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An Employee Cost Calculator helps you learn the real cost of hiring someone in a specific country – not just their salary. It includes taxes, social security, benefits, and any other employer obligations.
With Playroll’s EOR services, you can get a clear view of total hiring costs up front, while we take care of payroll, compliance, and local taxes behind the scenes.
Costs vary widely depending on a country’s specific labor laws and tax rules. Some regions have high social security contributions or mandatory benefits that can increase the cost of hiring.
Use our payroll guides to get an in-depth breakdown of employer contributions per country. Playroll’s EOR platform keeps you compliant and gives you accurate cost estimates tailored to each country, so there are no surprises.
On top of salaries, you may face extra costs like payroll taxes, government-mandated benefits, paid time off, severance, and currency fluctuations when scaling globally.
With an EOR service like Playroll, these costs are made clear in one monthly invoice, with no hidden fees.
Most calculators give a solid estimate based on typical contributions and benefits in each country, but actual costs can vary by role, experience level, or individual agreements. Our payroll experts follow a rigorous process to source, audit, and regularly update data – delivering 99.9% accuracy you can trust.
Want a tailored breakdown? Our team’s on standby to help you plan your global hires with expert guidance.
Hiring internationally traditionally means setting up a legal entity and managing local taxes and compliance. This can take months and is an expensive option. It can cost $15,000 - $20,000 to set up an entity, not including annual operational costs.
With Playroll’s EOR solution, you can hire in 180+ countries without setting up an entity, while we take care of payroll, benefits and compliance for your international team – plus, onboard in days instead of months.
If you’re adding perks like health insurance, bonuses, or allowances on top of mandatory benefits, make sure to factor them into your total budget. Costs will vary depending on what’s legally required or commonly expected in each country – our in-country guides can help you navigate the details.
Want to offer competitive benefits globally? We include statutory benefits in payroll and handle all withholdings. Less admin for you, more perks for your people.
Cutting hiring costs frees up budget you can reinvest in growth, innovation, or retaining top talent. It also makes global expansion more sustainable – helping you scale faster without breaking the bank.
Playroll’s EOR platform reduces your cost per hire by eliminating the need for local entities, simplifying legal processes, and lowering compliance risks.
Sign up for free and explore global hiring with Playroll.
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