Advancement · School Operations · Finance

What does a position
really cost
the school?

The salary is only part of it. Add the payroll taxes, retirement, insurance and the rest, and the calculator gives the fully loaded cost, the benefits share and the hourly rate to use in budgets.

Load the positionWhat you get
$12one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $12

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the School operations toolkit, $49 for 52 items.

The employee benefits cost calculator

The worked example is a made-up second-year teacher. Nothing you type leaves this browser.

Loading the calculator. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What you get

Advancement · School Operations$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
Each benefit’s employer cost, the total, benefits as a share of salary and of compensation, the fully loaded cost and the loaded hourly rate, for budgets, grant applications and staffing decisions.
Who it is for
School and district administrators, business officers, human resources staff and grant writers pricing a position.
Format
Browser calculator for a phone, tablet or computer, by touch or keyboard. Prints a summary; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); export and import a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the School operations toolkit ($49) and the Advancement Suite pass ($99), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The School Operations space in Caveat Advancement.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Type the salary and the paid hours in the contract.
  2. Check the payroll tax rates; set Social Security to 0 if not covered.
  3. Type the retirement rate and premiums.
  4. Add workers’ compensation and unemployment figures.
  5. Use the loaded hourly rate in budgets.

Load the position

How the loaded cost is worked out

Payroll taxes and benefits added to the salary.

The worked example: a second-year teacherSalary$52,0001,480 paid hoursBenefits$21,46841.3% of salaryLoaded cost$73,468salary + benefitsAn hour$49.64vs $35.14 in wagesThe worked example: a second-year teacherSalary$52,0001,480 paid hoursBenefits$21,46841.3% of salaryLoaded cost$73,468salary + benefitsAn hour$49.64vs $35.14 in wages
The salary is the visible part of what a position costs; payroll taxes, insurance and retirement add a large share on top.

Payroll taxes

Employers pay 6.2 percent of each employee’s wages for Social Security, up to the year’s wage base, and 1.45 percent for Medicare on all wages (IRS Publication 15). Some public employers, including some school systems, are not part of Social Security for some positions; set the rate to 0 for those. Workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance rates come from your carrier and state notices.

Loaded cost

Retirement contributions and life and disability insurance usually scale with salary; health, dental and vision premiums are flat dollars, so they are a larger share on lower salaries. The loaded cost an hour divides salary plus benefits by paid hours, which for a school-year contract is fewer than 2,080.

Sources

  1. Internal Revenue Service. Publication 15 (Circular E), Employer’s Tax Guide (irs.gov).
  2. Social Security Administration. Contribution and benefit base (ssa.gov/oact/cola/cbb.html).
  3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (bls.gov/ecec).
  4. Social Security Administration. State and local government employers: coverage under Section 218 agreements (ssa.gov/slge).

The worked example is made up. Use this year’s rates and premiums from your benefits office and rate notices. Your entries stay in this browser. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.