Staffing bill rate calculator
Pay rate, burden, and markup, turned into a bill rate and the gross margin it actually produces — plus the "markup over pay rate" number clients sometimes quote instead, so the two don't get confused.
Loaded cost, /hr
$34
Bill rate, /hr
$50
Gross margin
31.0%
$15 gross profit per billed hour. Markup over pay rate alone (what some clients quote informally) works out to 76.9% — a bigger-looking number than the 45% markup actually applied, since it skips burden entirely.
See how your Gross margin compares — anonymous, no account needed.
The formula
A worked example
A worker is paid $28/hour. Burden (payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits) runs 22% of pay rate: loaded cost = $28 × 1.22 = $34.16/hour. Applying a 45% markup on that loaded cost: bill rate = $34.16 × 1.45 = $49.53/hour.
Gross profit per billed hour is $49.53 − $34.16 = $15.37, which works out to a 31% gross margin ($15.37 ÷ $49.53). Expressed instead as a markup over the bare $28 pay rate, that same $49.53 bill rate looks like a 76.9% markup — a much bigger-looking number for the identical rate, purely because the base it's measured against is smaller.
Two different numbers both called 'markup'
Markup over loaded cost is what an agency actually prices with, since burden is a real cost that has to be recovered before any profit exists. Markup over bare pay rate is a looser, informal number that some clients use in conversation because it's simpler to reference, but it skips burden entirely and always looks larger than the loaded-cost figure for the same bill rate. Neither number is wrong, but confusing the two in a client conversation can make an agency's pricing look inflated when it isn't.
What belongs in burden
FICA (Social Security and Medicare), FUTA, and SUTA — SUTA rates vary by state and by the employer's own claims history.
Varies sharply by job risk classification — a warehouse or construction role carries a much higher rate than a clerical one.
Health insurance contributions, PTO accrual, and any retirement matching offered to placed workers.
Some agencies fold a per-placement recruiting or onboarding cost into burden as well, rather than tracking it separately.
Typical markup & margin ranges
General staffing commonly runs 30-60% markup on loaded cost, translating to roughly 20-35% gross margin, with light industrial and clerical roles toward the lower end and specialized, high-turnover, or urgent-fill roles toward the higher end. These are broad reference points, not a rule — local competition, contract volume, and how much recruiting effort a role requires all move the number meaningfully.
Frequently asked questions
It's the percentage an agency adds on top of the loaded cost of a worker (pay rate plus burden) to arrive at the bill rate charged to the client. It is not, despite how it's sometimes discussed informally, a percentage added directly on top of the bare pay rate — skipping burden understates what the agency actually needs to recover.
Employer payroll taxes (FICA, FUTA, SUTA), workers' compensation insurance (which varies significantly by job risk class), and any benefits the agency provides — health insurance contributions, PTO accrual, retirement matching. Burden commonly runs 15-30% of pay rate depending on the role and state, and workers' comp alone can push it much higher for physically risky trades.
Pay rate is what the worker receives per hour. Bill rate is what the client is invoiced per hour. The gap between them covers burden (a real, unavoidable cost) plus the markup that becomes the agency's gross profit — bill rate is always higher than pay rate for a staffing model to be viable.
It varies widely by role and market, but 30-60% markup on loaded cost is a commonly cited general range, with light industrial and clerical roles often toward the lower end and specialized or high-turnover roles toward the higher end, where recruiting cost per placement is higher. Local competition and how urgently a client needs to fill a role also move it meaningfully.
Because pay rate is a smaller base number than loaded cost is. A 45% markup on loaded cost produces a bill rate that, expressed as a percentage over the original pay rate alone, looks larger — often 65-80% depending on burden — which is why the two numbers get confused in casual conversation. The calculator above shows both.
Not proportionally, because margin is measured against bill rate, and bill rate grows with markup too. Going from a 30% to a 60% markup roughly doubles the markup percentage but raises gross margin by a smaller amount, since the denominator (bill rate) is growing at the same time as the numerator (gross profit).
Traditional staffing firms often target 20-35% gross margin, though this varies by specialty — light industrial and clerical placements often run toward the lower end, while specialized technical or executive placements can run considerably higher because of the recruiting effort involved per placement.
They're generally the same concept — the rate charged to a client per hour of a worker's time — with 'charge-out rate' more common in professional-services and consulting contexts and 'bill rate' more common in staffing and temp-agency contexts. The underlying calculation (loaded cost plus markup) is the same either way.
Calculate your own bill rate above, free, or compare it against the fully-loaded cost of a direct hire for the same role.
Glossary:Markup
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