Staffing Bill Rate Calculator
Work backward from your pay rate, burden, and target margin to the bill rate you should quote. No sign-up required.
Bill Rate Calculator
Recommended Bill Rate
$29.57/hr
to net a 30% margin after a 15% burden
Burden covers employer FICA, FUTA/SUTA, workers' comp, and benefits. On FreshStaff your software cost isn't part of this per-hour math, it's a flat $149/mo + $6 per active placement, with $0 recruiter seats.
How to Set Staffing Bill Rates
A bill rate has to cover three things: the worker's pay, your employer payroll burden, and the gross margin that funds your overhead and profit. Working forward from a target margin keeps you from underpricing.
Because software is part of your overhead, per-seat ATS fees quietly compress this margin. FreshStaff charges $0 per recruiter seat and $6/mo per active placement, so more of the margin you build into each bill rate survives to the bottom line.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you calculate a staffing bill rate?
Start from the fully-burdened cost (pay rate plus employer payroll burden), then divide by one minus your target gross margin. Bill rate = pay × (1 + burden%) ÷ (1 − margin%). For a $18 pay rate with 15% burden and a 30% target margin, the bill rate is about $29.57/hour.
What is payroll burden?
The employer-side costs on top of wages: FICA (7.65%), federal and state unemployment (FUTA/SUTA), workers' compensation, and any benefits. It commonly adds 12–25% to the base wage depending on state and class code.
What is a typical staffing markup or margin?
Light-industrial and high-volume placements often run 15–25% markup on pay, while specialized or direct-hire work is higher. Markup divides the spread by pay; gross margin divides it by the bill rate, so the margin percentage is always lower than the markup.
Protect Your Margin From Software Fees
$0 recruiter seats and native gross-to-net payroll, so per-seat fees never eat the margin you just priced in.