Configure your hire
Select a country and enter the annual gross salary you plan to pay.
Your breakdown will appear here — statutory contributions, employer burden, total annual cost, and the official source.
Methodology
Data last verified: July 2026How we calculate this
Every number in the calculator comes from one place. It is the country’s own tax or social-security authority. We link the exact source under each result — not an aggregator, not a survey, the primary source itself.
The formula is simple. Total employer cost is the gross salary you enter, plus that country’s statutory employer contributions — pension, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and any other charge the law puts on the employer. We don’t add income tax. That’s the employee’s bill, not yours.
We check every rate against its cited source before shipping this page, and we recheck on the rhythm most governments use to update rates: the start of a fiscal year. The badge above tells you exactly when we last confirmed everything.
What this number leaves out, on purpose: any platform fee from Remote& or any other vendor, benefits beyond the legal minimum (private health cover, meal vouchers, discretionary bonuses), severance provisioning, and headcount- or region-based surcharges that only apply above a certain size. See “Why might my actual quote differ” in the FAQ below for the full list.
What “true cost to hire” actually means
Base salary is never the whole bill. Every country requires employers to pay statutory contributions on top of what an employee takes home — pension, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and a handful of country-specific items. Skip that layer in your budget, and a $120,000 hire in the US can quietly become $133,800. In France, a €55,000 hire can climb past €78,000. The gap is real money, and it’s set by law, not negotiation.
The formula behind the number
The “statutory employer-burden rate” is different in every country, because every country builds its social-insurance system differently. Some lean almost entirely on pension contributions. Others spread the cost across health insurance, unemployment insurance, and a set of smaller, specific levies — a training tax here, a workplace-injury premium there. The calculator above adds up every line for the country and salary you enter. This section shows the same math done by hand, so you can see exactly where each number comes from and check it yourself.
What counts as “employer burden”
- Employer-paid pension or retirement contributions — the largest single line almost everywhere
- Health insurance, the employer’s share
- Unemployment insurance
- Workplace-injury or accident insurance
- Country-specific levies: France’s apprenticeship and training tax, Brazil’s FGTS and Sistema S, Singapore’s Skills Development Levy, and similar line items elsewhere — each one is named in your result above
What’s deliberately left out
- Employee income tax — deducted from the employee’s paycheck, not billed to you
- Any Remote& or vendor platform fee — this is the statutory floor, before any provider’s margin
- Benefits beyond the legal minimum: private health cover, meal vouchers, discretionary bonuses
- Severance or termination provisioning
- Regional, sector, or headcount-based surcharges that only apply above a certain size — France’s Paris-area transportation tax, for example, only applies once an employer has 11 or more staff there
Put those two lists together and you get a floor, not a final invoice: the part of the cost that’s set by law and can’t be negotiated away, regardless of which EOR, payroll provider, or in-house team runs the hire.
Four worked examples, same math
Here’s the arithmetic behind four typical hires, using the same sample salaries the calculator above suggests for each country. Pick your own salary and country up top to run this for your actual hire.
| Country | Statutory rate | Sample salary | Total employer cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸 United States | 11.5% | $120,000 | $133,800 |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | 21.15% | €65,000 | €78,748 |
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | 35.8% | R$180,000 | R$244,440 |
| 🇫🇷 France | 42.35% | €55,000 | €78,293 |
Notice the spread: from 11.5% in the US to 42.35% in France. That’s nearly 31 percentage points on a comparable base salary. So “just add 20%” is a bad global rule of thumb. The real number depends on where you hire, and guessing wrong by that much can break a hiring budget before the offer goes out. A range to hold in your head: most countries land between 1.1× and 1.4× gross salary. Lower-burden markets like the US sit near the bottom. Higher-burden markets like Brazil and the Netherlands sit near the top. France runs just past it, at roughly 1.42×. Egypt sits below the range, because its contributions are capped at a fixed insurable-wage ceiling, so its ratio falls as salary rises.
Want the exact number for a real hire, plus a plan for actually paying, insuring, and supporting that person? Book a demo and we’ll walk through it together — no obligation, no sales script.
By country
Deeper, itemized calculators for 11 countries — more coming.
Frequently asked questions
On how this calculator works, and why a real quote can look different.
How is the estimate on this calculator actually calculated?
We take the gross salary you enter. Then we add each country’s statutory employer contributions: pension, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and any local levy. Each one uses the current rate from that country’s tax or social-security authority. The formula is gross salary + (gross salary × the employer-burden rate). We don’t add income tax. That’s the employee’s bill, not yours.
Why might my actual quote from an EOR or payroll provider be different?
This calculator shows the statutory floor only. A real quote adds the provider’s platform fee, and may include extras you’ve asked for — private health cover, a 13th-month bonus where it’s customary but not required by law, or severance provisioning. Regional or headcount-based surcharges, like France’s transportation tax above 11 employees, can shift it further. Treat this number as your floor, not your final invoice.
What counts as "employer burden" besides salary?
Employer-paid pension contributions, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and workplace-injury insurance are the core four almost every country has. Some add their own line: France has an apprenticeship and training levy, Brazil has FGTS and Sistema S, Singapore has the Skills Development Levy. Each one is broken out separately in your result above.
Does this calculator include income tax?
No. Income tax is deducted from the employee’s own paycheck — it’s their liability, not an added cost to you. We calculate only what you pay on top of the gross salary as the employer.
How current are the rates on this page?
Every rate is checked against its official source as of July 2026, and the exact source is linked under each result. Governments most often revise contribution rates and thresholds at the start of a fiscal year, so we recheck this page on that rhythm.
Which countries does the calculator cover?
22 countries in the calculator above, from the US and Canada through Western Europe, the Gulf, and Asia-Pacific. Eleven of them — including France, Germany, Brazil, and Mexico — also have a deeper, itemized calculator with monthly and annual views; see "By country" below.
What’s a reasonable rule of thumb for budgeting an international hire?
As a quick gut-check, most countries land between 1.1× and 1.4× the gross salary for statutory employer costs. Where you hire drives the number. Lower-burden markets like the US, Canada, and South Korea sit near 1.1×. Higher-burden markets like Brazil, the Netherlands, and Spain climb toward 1.3× to 1.4×. France runs highest, near 1.42×. Egypt sits below the range. Its contributions are capped at a fixed insurable-wage ceiling, so its ratio falls as salary rises. Use the calculator for a country-specific number before you budget a real hire.
Does Remote& charge on top of these statutory costs?
Yes — like every EOR, the statutory costs above are a legal minimum no vendor can avoid, and every provider’s platform fee sits on top of them. Remote& charges a flat $400 per employee per month, regardless of country or salary. Book a demo to see the total for your specific hire.