Say markup or margin, never just a percentage
"We work at 50" means a $30 bill rate on a $20 worker if it is a markup, and a $45.58 bill rate if it is a 50% gross margin with the default burden. Write the word in every quote.
Bill rate calculator for staffing agencies (markup and margin)
Start from the hourly pay rate, add what it costs to employ that person (employer FICA, FUTA, state unemployment, workers' comp, liability) and your overhead, then price with a markup or a target margin. Every cent of the bill rate is accounted for, per hour.
What it does
- Employer FICA fixed at 7.65%; FUTA, SUTA, workers' comp, liability and overhead editable
- Price by markup, gross margin or net margin
- Bill rate, overtime rate, markup, margins and profit per hour
- Runs in the browser, no sign-up
Your bill rate
Bill rate per hour$50.00
- Overtime (1.5x)
- $75.00
- Markup on pay
- 150.0%
- Multiplier
- 2.5x
- Gross margin
- 54.4%
- Net margin
- 50.4%
- Profit per hour
- $25.21
- Pay 40%
- Taxes and insurance 6%
- Overhead 4%
- Profit 50%
| Per hour | Amount |
|---|---|
| Pay rate | $20.00 |
| Employer FICA7.65% | $1.53 |
| FUTA0.60% | $0.12 |
| State unemployment (SUTA)2.70% | $0.54 |
| Workers' comp$2.00 per $100 | $0.40 |
| General liability1.00% | $0.20 |
| Burdened costburden 13.95% of pay | $22.79 |
| Overhead10.0% | $2.00 |
| Loaded cost | $24.79 |
| Profit50.4% net margin | $25.21 |
| Bill rate2.5x pay | $50.00 |
Estimates for pricing, not tax advice. Rates change by state and by year: use the figures on your own notices and policies.
What goes into a staffing bill rate
A bill rate pays for four things: the wage, the employer's taxes and insurance on that wage (the burden), the agency's overhead, and the profit. Markup and margin are two ways of describing the same split. Markup = (bill rate - pay rate) / pay rate. Gross margin = (bill rate - burdened cost) / bill rate. Net margin = (bill rate - loaded cost) / bill rate.
The defaults come from the rules, not from guesses. Employer FICA is 6.2% Social Security plus 1.45% Medicare, per the IRS. FUTA is 6.0% on the first $7,000 of each worker's wages, less a credit of up to 5.4%: 0.6% effective. SUTA defaults to 2.7%, the new employer rate in Texas and Florida per the Department of Labor (California's is 3.4%). Workers' comp, liability and overhead are example inputs: every agency replaces them with its own policy rate and its own books.
With those defaults, a $20 hour at a 150% markup bills $50.00: $2.79 of burden (13.95% of pay) makes a burdened cost of $22.79, $2.00 of overhead a loaded cost of $24.79, and $25.21 is left: a 54.4% gross margin and a 50.4% net margin. The overtime hour bills $75.00.
How to calculate a bill rate, step by step
- 1
Enter the pay rate
The hourly wage the worker earns on this assignment. The default is $20 an hour.
- 2
Check the employer taxes
Employer FICA is fixed at 7.65%. FUTA is 0.6% after the full state credit, on the first $7,000 each worker earns in the year. SUTA comes from your state's rate notice.
- 3
Enter workers' comp from your policy
Workers' comp is quoted in dollars per $100 of payroll, by class code, adjusted by your experience modifier. Use the rate on your policy for the job you are pricing.
- 4
Add liability and overhead from your books
General liability as your premium divided by your payroll. Overhead as last year's recruiting, software, office and salaried staff costs divided by your payroll.
- 5
Choose how you price
A markup on the pay rate, a gross margin (after wages and burden) or a net margin (after overhead too). Switching keeps the same bill rate and shows it the other way.
- 6
Read the bill rate and the breakdown
The bill rate, its overtime rate at 1.5x, the markup, both margins and every cent per hour. Round to your price list and quote it per hour.
Pricing habits that protect the margin
Know your floor before you negotiate
Burden plus overhead is the markup at which you earn nothing: 23.95% with the default inputs. A client asking for a discount is asking how far above that floor you are.
FUTA stops at $7,000, FICA does not
A seasonal ambassador who has earned $7,000 with you this year no longer costs FUTA, so late-season hours cost slightly less. Social Security stops only at the annual wage base ($184,500 for 2026), which event staff rarely reach.
Workers' comp follows the class code
The rate depends on how the job is classified on your policy. A bartender and a booth staffer may not share a class; ask your broker which code each role sits in before you price it.
Price overtime and minimums up front
Quote the overtime rate (1.5x) and a minimum number of billed hours per shift in the agreement, not after the event. Our pricing guide works through both.
Quote by role
A captain or a bartender with a state alcohol permit is harder to find and keep than a general event staffer. Run each role through the calculator with its own pay rate instead of averaging them.
Markup vs margin on a $20 hour
The same markup, read as a margin before burden (pay only) and after the default burden of $2.79 an hour. Computed with the calculator's formulas.
| Markup | Bill rate | Overtime rate | Margin on pay only | Gross margin after burden |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25% | $25.00 | $37.50 | 20.0% | 8.8% |
| 50% | $30.00 | $45.00 | 33.3% | 24.0% |
| 75% | $35.00 | $52.50 | 42.9% | 34.9% |
| 100% | $40.00 | $60.00 | 50.0% | 43.0% |
| 150% | $50.00 | $75.00 | 60.0% | 54.4% |
| 200% | $60.00 | $90.00 | 66.7% | 62.0% |
Sources
- Topic no. 751, Social Security and Medicare withholding rates, IRS
- Topic no. 759, Form 940, Employer's Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return, IRS
- FUTA credit reductions, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- Significant Provisions of State Unemployment Insurance Laws, effective July 2026, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance
- About loss cost multipliers (workers' compensation rates per $100 of payroll), Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance
- Fact Sheet #23: Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA, U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
Workers' comp ($2 per $100), general liability (1% of pay) and overhead (10% of pay) are example inputs, not benchmarks. The $20 pay rate and the $50 bill rate are examples. Tax rates and wage bases are for 2026 and change every year. Not tax or legal advice: check your notices, your policies and your accountant.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
How do you calculate a bill rate for a staffing agency?
Start from the pay rate, add the payroll burden (employer FICA, FUTA, state unemployment, workers' comp, liability) to get the burdened cost, add overhead to get the loaded cost, then price. With a markup: bill rate = pay rate x (1 + markup). With a target gross margin: bill rate = burdened cost / (1 - margin). With a target net margin: bill rate = loaded cost / (1 - margin).
What is the difference between markup and margin?
Markup is measured on the pay rate, margin on the bill rate. A $20 worker billed at $50 carries a 150% markup ($30 over $20). The margin on the same hour is $30 over $50, 60%, before any taxes; after the default payroll burden of $2.79 an hour it is 54.4%. The same dollars give very different percentages, so say which one you mean.
What markup should a staffing agency charge?
There is no single standard: it depends on your burden, your overhead and what the market pays for the role. Start from your floor. The markup that only covers burden and overhead is their sum as a share of pay: 23.95% with this calculator's default inputs. Everything above that floor is profit.
How do I calculate the pay rate from a bill rate?
Reverse the formula. With a markup: pay rate = bill rate / (1 + markup), so $50 at a 150% markup leaves $20. With a target gross margin: pay rate = bill rate x (1 - margin) / (1 + burden rate). At $50, a 50% gross margin and a 13.95% burden, the most you can pay is $21.94 an hour.
What is payroll burden?
The employer costs on top of wages: the employer's share of FICA (7.65%), FUTA, state unemployment and workers' comp, plus liability insurance if you allocate it per hour. With this calculator's default inputs it comes to $2.79 on a $20 hour, 13.95% of pay. Your number depends on your state, your rates and your policies.
How is workers' comp calculated per $100 of payroll?
Premium = payroll / 100 x rate x experience modifier. Missouri's insurance department gives this example: a base loss cost of 5.62 times a carrier multiplier of 1.250 gives a rate of 7.025, and on $60,000 of payroll (600 units of $100) the base premium is $4,215. Per hour, the cost is the pay rate / 100 x the rate.
Does FUTA apply to every hour?
No. FUTA applies to the first $7,000 you pay each employee in the year. Once a worker passes $7,000, set FUTA to 0 for the rest of the year. Employers in a credit reduction state pay more than 0.6%; the Department of Labor sets the final list each November.
How should I bill overtime?
At 1.5 times the bill rate for the overtime hours, mirroring the time and a half the FLSA requires after 40 hours in a workweek (and some states by the day). The calculator shows that overtime bill rate. Whether the client pays it in every case is a term of your service agreement.
Is this tax advice?
No. The calculator turns your inputs into a price. Tax rates, wage bases and insurance rates change by year and by state: take them from your own notices and policies, and check with your accountant.
Related guides and tools
- Free toolEvent staffing calculatorHow many servers, bartenders, crowd managers or booth staff an event needs, with the published ratio behind each number and the labor cost.Open the tool
- Free toolStaffing agency invoice templateFree Excel invoice for staffing agencies: hours by worker, overtime at 1.5x, fees, sales tax, PO number and split billing between two payers.Open the tool
- StaffliAgency invoicingStaffing agency invoicing software for event agencies: validated hours become consolidated client invoices with split billing, structured fees and sales tax by state, exported to QuickBooks or Xero. A payment register for your payroll provider comes from the same hours.Learn more
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