Can I Afford to Hire?
Use this calculator to estimate the true annual cost of hiring a full-time employee and how much revenue they'll need to generate.
Your assumptions
Save or restore this scenario
Download your inputs as a JSON file you can reload later. Restoring a file replaces everything you have entered.
Results
- Total Annual Cost:
- Monthly Break-even Revenue:
- Net Annual Impact:
Revenue from this hire does not cover the total cost.
What this estimate assumes
- All amounts are annual USD cost assumptions: salary, benefits and taxes as a percentage of salary, overhead, and the revenue you expect the hire to generate.
- The monthly figure is the total annual cost divided by 12 — an average monthly cost threshold rounded to the nearest cent, not a monthly bill.
- Revenue minus cost is a simple comparison, not a cash-runway forecast or a full affordability model: it leaves out cash timing, ramp-up, taxes, and other costs. Treat the result as an estimate to discuss, not a verified affordability decision.
Track Your Hiring Costs
Use Beancount.io to model payroll and forecast cash flow for new hires.