Methodology

What we include

• Employer Social Security: 6.20% up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500.
• Employer Medicare: 1.45% of all wages, no cap.
• FUTA: 0.60% net on the first $7,000, plus any projected 2026 state credit reduction. Projections are marked as estimates until US-DOL publishes the final determination.
• State unemployment (SUI/SUTA): the state's wage base × rate. We default to the new-employer rate; you can override it with your own experience rate.
• State-specific employer taxes: e.g. CA ETT, WA PFML employer share, NY MCTMT.
• Workers' compensation: an adjustable estimate for a low-risk office class.
• Benefits and fees (optional): off by default; enter employer health cost, retirement percentage, other benefits, and payroll/PEO fees separately.

What we exclude (and why)

We exclude employee-side withholdings— California SDI, WA Cares, New York PFL, and income-tax withholding. These come out of the employee's pay; they are not an employer cost, so adding them would overstate what hiring costs you. We also exclude the Additional Medicare tax, which employers withhold but do not match.

Estimates vs. statutory figures

Statutory wage bases and posted rates (FICA, FUTA, SUI wage bases, state levies) are the published 2026 values, except a pre-final FUTA credit reduction, which is explicitly marked projected. The default SUI line uses each state's new-employer rate (a few states set it by industry average, which we note). Workers' compensation is an estimate set by carrier, class, and experience. Replace the SUI and workers'-comp defaults with the employer's actual rates when available. Salary-mode hourly figures use 2,080 hours; hourly mode uses the entered hours per week and paid weeks.

How we verify the data

Every number passes three checks before it ships:

1. Two sources each — a primary issuer (IRS, SSA, US-DOL, or the state agency) plus one independent source.
2. Automated math gate — a build-time script recomputes every dollar example and structural invariant; a mismatch fails the build.
3. Independent re-derivation — high-impact figures are re-researched from scratch and diffed against the stored values.

The full citation list is on the sources page. We re-verify every January (US state rates reset) and after the November FUTA credit-reduction determination. Tax data last verified June 2026 for the 2026 tax year.