Hiring Cost Calculator
What your next marketing hire really costs.
Salary is the smallest part of it. Add benefits, recruiting, tools, and the months before anyone is productive — then look at how many of those hours you actually need. That gap is the whole reason Propelr exists.
Which role are you thinking about hiring?
Your assumptions
Year one, fully loaded
$168,067
- Base salary$95,000
- Benefits + payroll tax$26,600
- Recruiting fee$19,000
- Tools & software$7,200
- Ramp-up productivity loss$20,267
What you're paying for vs. using
45%
You have about 18 hours a week of this work. A full-time hire is 40. That leaves $92,437 a year paying for capacity you don't have work for.
Effective rate on the hours you do use: $203/hr.
If the hire doesn't work out
$49,400
Severance, a second search, and a second ramp — the cost of one wrong hire, before the lost quarter.
The Propelr version
A senior digital marketing manager, embedded for the hours you actually need.
- · One clear fee for the scope — no benefits, recruiting fee, or tool stack to fund.
- · Working in week two, not month four. No ramp to pay for.
- · Month-to-month after 90 days. No severance, no second search.
We quote after a 30-minute scoping call, because the honest number depends on the scope — not a tier chart.
30 minutes. No commitment. Real answers.
Assumptions: benefits include healthcare, retirement match, and payroll tax. Recruiting fee billed once. Ramp assumes 50% effective output during the ramp months. Effective hourly rate uses 46 productive weeks. Turnover risk assumes three months of loaded salary plus a second search. Adjust every input to match your reality — the model is yours to argue with.