A US salary is only the start. Payroll taxes, health insurance, benefits and overhead push the real number 25 to 40% higher. Pick the role below and see the true cost of the seat, compared three ways.
Same role, three ways to fill it. Acquisition cost plus a full year in the seat, using industry benchmarks and the numbers you set above.
Flat $6,500 fee, no percentage of salary. If the hire does not work out in the first year, we run the search again at no additional recruitment cost.
Book a callMost founders budget the salary and forget the rest. For a US employee, the salary is roughly 70 to 80% of what the seat actually costs you. The widely used MIT estimate puts the true cost of an employee at 1.25 to 1.4 times base salary. Here is where the difference comes from.
FICA alone takes 7.65% of every salary dollar from the employer side. Add federal and state unemployment insurance and most companies land near 9%. On a $100,000 salary, that is $9,000 you pay before the employee sees a cent.
The 2025 KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey puts the average annual premium for single coverage at $9,325, with the employer carrying most of it. Add a 401(k) match, dental, vision and the rest of a competitive package, and benefits become the single biggest hidden cost of a US hire.
Laptop, software seats, HR administration, compliance. Small on their own, a few thousand dollars a year together.
A European contractor works differently. You pay one monthly invoice. Payroll taxes, insurance and benefits are the contractor's own responsibility in their home country. The rate you agree is the cost you carry.
Europe has deep pools of English-fluent, university-educated professionals in development, marketing, design, operations and support. Cost of living across most of the continent runs far below US metros, so a rate that is roughly half a US salary is a strong, competitive income locally. You are paying well by their market and saving by yours at the same time.
Time zones work better than most founders expect. A contractor in Central or Eastern Europe overlaps 3 to 5 hours with a US East Coast morning, enough for daily standups and real-time collaboration, with a quiet stretch of deep work before your day starts.
For most roles, the same seniority costs around half once you count the full US employment cost. A mid-level developer at a $130,000 US salary costs about $160,000 fully loaded. A comparable European contractor typically runs $60,000 to $72,000 a year. Move the sliders above for your exact role.
For the roles this calculator covers, yes. European universities produce strong technical and business graduates, English fluency in the professional class is high, and the best people there compete globally for remote work, which keeps standards up. The real risk is picking the wrong person, which is a vetting problem, and exactly the part we handle.
Independent contractors. They invoice you monthly and handle their own taxes and insurance in their home country. You avoid US payroll taxes, benefits obligations and most employment-law exposure. Use a proper contractor agreement; we can point you to what a clean setup looks like. This calculator is informational and is not legal or tax advice.
A flat $6,500 per hire. No percentage of salary. The fee includes sourcing, vetting and presenting candidates ready to start, plus a 12-month replacement guarantee: if the hire does not work out in the first year, we run the search again at no additional recruitment cost.
The US presets are mid-band 2026 figures drawn from public salary data. The loading factors follow published benchmarks: roughly 9% employer payroll taxes, KFF 2025 average health premiums, and a 5% allowance for retirement match and other benefits. European rates reflect what experienced professionals across Europe expect for full-time remote work with US companies. Every input is a slider, so you can rebuild the model on your own numbers.
The US Department of Labor estimates a bad hire costs about 30% of first-year earnings, before severance, morale and lost momentum. On a do-it-yourself search that risk sits with you. On a search through us it is covered by the 12-month replacement guarantee.
Methodology. Fully loaded US cost = base salary + 9% employer payroll taxes (7.65% FICA plus unemployment insurance) + $8,000 employer share of health insurance (KFF 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey, single coverage average premium $9,325) + 5% retirement match and other benefits + $4,200 equipment, software and overhead. The result lands inside the MIT rule of thumb of 1.25 to 1.4 times salary. US hire path adds a typical 20% contingency recruiter fee. Do-it-yourself path adds $800 in ads and tools, 45 hours of founder screening time at $120 per hour, and an expected mis-hire cost of 30% of annual contractor cost at a 40% likelihood for self-recruited hires. Euro Remote Talent path adds the flat $6,500 fee; mis-hire cost is modeled at zero because of the 12-month replacement guarantee. Salary presets are mid-band 2026 US estimates; adjust the sliders to your market. Calculations update live.