Employer cost calculator

Pick a country and type a gross yearly salary. Then say what that figure means: a twelve-month base, or a year's total pay. The calculator estimates the contributions included in the selected coverage and pay assumptions.

Further down it does the same for up to six countries at once. Each one keeps its own salary, in its own money.

It runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. It also adds mandatory extra pay and severance accrual. It converts no currency. The provider fee is shown on its own, in dollars, as the provider publishes it.

What that figure means

Ireland: PRSI period and pension coverage

These choices also apply to the Ireland comparison row. PRSI assumes regular full-year pay and a weekly equivalent of annual pay / 52. Other PRSI classes and irregular pay need a payroll calculation. Enrollment is determined by NAERSA: normally age 23–60, earnings of EUR 20,000+ across employments and no qualifying payroll pension; opt-ins are possible. The EUR 80,000 threshold is a planning benchmark: the crossing pay period can contribute above it. Enter payroll's pensionable-pay forecast to include that amount. Existing pension costs are separate. Coverage rules; threshold examples.

The same job in more than one country

Tick up to six countries. Set the salary you would pay in each one, and this puts what the law adds in a single table.

Each country keeps its own currency and its own salary, because this site publishes no exchange rate and converts nothing. The money columns therefore cannot be read across rows. The last column, what the law adds on top of the salary, is the one that can.

Countries

What each figure means

This applies to every row. In the countries with no statutory extra pay the two readings are the same, so it changes nothing there.

Employer of record, or your own entity

A provider charges a flat fee for each employee. Your own entity costs a fixed sum each year, plus a smaller sum for each employee. Put your entity quote in and this works out the headcount where the two lines cross.

Two of the three numbers are yours, not ours. No statutory body publishes what an entity costs to incorporate and run in a country, so this site estimates neither; get them quoted by a local firm before you use this. Type all three in the same currency. This runs in your browser like the rest of the page, and the statutory contributions above are unchanged either way, so they are not in it.

Compare EOR provider fees Employer of record or your own entity

The crossover, in full

provider fee, a year = monthly fee x 12 x employees entity, a year = fixed annual cost + per-employee annual cost x employees break-even headcount = fixed annual cost / (monthly fee x 12 - per-employee annual cost) no break-even exists when monthly fee x 12 is not more than the per-employee annual cost: the entity is at least as expensive per head, and adding people never closes the gap

Three numbers decide it, and only the third is ours: the fixed annual cost of the entity, the recurring annual cost for each employee once it exists, and the fee the provider publishes. Employer of record or your own entity works through the same arithmetic and sets out what an entity brings with it that a fee does not, from statutory filing thresholds to your own severance exposure. Neither route changes the statutory employer cost above.

Why the salary basis changes the answer

Six of the fifteen countries here oblige an employer to pay more than twelve months of salary in a year. In those countries the same sentence, “60,000 a year”, can mean a twelve-month base to which the statutory extra payments are added, or the full annual gross already spread across fourteen payments. If you pick the twelve-month base, the extra payments are added. If you pick the total annual gross, they are not added a second time. 13th and 14th month pay sets out which convention each country's law is written in.

The formula, in full

twelve-month base salary = the input for the base-salary option = annual gross divided by the modeled salary-payment factor for the total option modeled additional salary = statutory extra pay + separately modeled salary premiums percentage contribution = rate x the covered base within that line's bands monthly fixed contribution = monthly amount x covered months salary plus modeled employer costs = base salary + additional salary + included contributions + modeled severance accrual

Each contribution uses its own documented earnings base and limits. The generic annual percentage formula is not a universal payroll rule. Brazil's worked assumptions include a thirteenth salary and a separate one-third vacation premium, with ordinary contributions and FGTS on covered remuneration. The total-gross option includes both salary additions. The Philippines model calculates twelve monthly capped contributions and fixed EC only for its supported constant high-pay scenario. Lower or irregular pay requires monthly payroll; no unsupported estimate is shown.

Every rate and every ceiling the calculator uses is on the country pages, each with the source it came from, whether that source is the statutory body or a payroll reference, and the date it was read. Nothing is estimated and nothing is smoothed. Method sets out what is deliberately excluded.

Sharing the answer you got

Copy the link to this result puts the country, the salary you typed, the salary basis and the provider you picked into the address, after the # sign. The person you send it to opens the same calculation rather than the default. The part after the # is never sent to a web server by the browser, so we still receive nothing; but the salary is in the link you are sending, so send it only to people you are content to show that figure. Edit the address by hand if you want to share the country without the salary.

The countries you ticked for the side-by-side table go into the address as well, under compare, with the salary you set for each one, and the reading you chose under comparebasis. Those salaries are in the link for the same reason and with the same caution as the single one.

If you have changed any of the three numbers in the crossover above, those go into the link as well, under fixed, peremp and fee. An entity quote is usually somebody else's commercial figure, so delete those parts of the address before you send it if the quote is not yours to pass on.

Coming back to it later

Save this scenario in this browser keeps the country, the salary, the basis and the provider in this browser's own storage, with the date. Nothing goes to us and nothing leaves the device. When you open this page again, the top of it lists every price change and correction this site has recorded for that provider since the day you saved, with the old value and the new one. Mark as seen moves the date forward; Forget it clears the lot, and so does clearing your browser data. The three crossover numbers and the side-by-side selection are deliberately not among them: they travel in the link and nowhere else. Everything recorded, for every provider, is on what changed.

What this figure is not

It is a floor computed from statutory rates on a fixed salary. It leaves out occupational insurance premiums that are set per employer rather than by statute, regional payroll taxes, benefits your competitors offer as standard, equipment, recruitment, and the cost of getting it wrong. Each contribution uses its own modeled base and period; the Philippines monthly override is limited to the explicitly confirmed high-pay scenario. What the number leaves out lists each of those and why we refuse to invent a figure for them.

Written by Kaz, independent publisher.

Page last updated 2026-10-14. Sources are listed per figure and labeled statutory or payroll reference. Last full statutory dataset review: 2026-08-21. Individual facts may have later source-specific check dates. This is not legal, tax or payroll advice and we do not file anyone's payroll.

Every formula on this site is written out in full on Method. Ordering is by computed cost, never by what a provider pays us.

Corrections: contact form.

Why the percentage moves with the salary

The calculator applies each statutory ceiling to its own line rather than blending one rate, so the percentage it returns falls as the salary rises in nine of the thirteen supported country models here. Ten of them cap at least one employer contribution; Australia's ceiling sits above both of the benchmark salaries used on this site, so its percentage does not move between them. Employer contribution ceilings, country by country sets out where each ceiling sits and which three supported models have none. India and Mexico are excluded from these numeric comparisons. This is also why the side-by-side table above can reorder itself when you change one of its salaries.

Numeric rankings and ceiling-effect comparisons cover supported models only. India, Mexico remain listed with no calculated total or percentage; missing inputs are not treated as zero.