The Real Cost of a Full-Time U.S. Employee in 2025 (The Number Will Surprise You)

The Number Most Business Owners Get Wrong

When a hiring manager says they're paying someone $70,000 a year, they're describing the salary. They're not describing the cost. The real, fully-loaded cost of a $70,000 U.S. employee is closer to $95,000–$115,000 per year when you account for every dollar that employee actually costs the business.

The Full Cost Breakdown

Payroll Taxes (Employer Portion)

Social Security (6.2%), Medicare (1.45%), federal unemployment (~0.6%), and state unemployment (typically 2–4%). Total: approximately $6,500–$8,500 per year on a $70,000 salary.

Health Insurance

Employer contributions averaged $7,911 per year for single coverage in 2024, per the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Paid Time Off

The average U.S. employee receives 15 days PTO plus 10 holidays, roughly 10% of the work year where you're paying salary with no corresponding output. On $70,000, that's approximately $7,000 in paid non-working time.

Equipment, Office Space, and Overhead

Laptop, software licenses, office space (at $25–$40/sqft), plus recruiting and training costs. Conservatively $5,000–$8,000 per year.

Turnover Costs

SHRM estimates replacing an employee costs 50–200% of annual salary. At the industry-average tenure of 4.1 years, that's an annualized turnover cost of $8,500–$34,000, spread invisibly across operations.

The Real Total

Adding it up conservatively: a $70,000 salary employee costs approximately $113,000 per year in total. The multiplier is consistently 1.5–1.7x base salary for most professional roles.

What This Means for Your Growth Strategy

Every time you add a U.S.-based execution professional (coordinator, bookkeeper, analyst, or specialist) you're committing $75,000–$120,000 per year in fully-loaded cost.

If that professional is doing work that doesn't require physical U.S. presence or local licensure, you have an alternative: a dedicated global professional at $22,000–$28,000 per year, fully managed, working your hours, in your systems. You're also eliminating the HR burden, payroll processing, benefits administration, and recruiting cost when you need to replace someone.

Where Global Staffing Makes Sense

Senior leadership, client-facing relationship roles, field-based positions, and roles requiring local licensing are typically better filled domestically. But for the execution layer (coordinators, specialists, analysts, bookkeepers, and support professionals), the case for global staffing is compelling and the ROI is immediate.

The companies growing fastest today are intentional about which roles belong in which column, allocating their domestic budget toward the people who genuinely need to be there. Revaya offers a free 30-minute consultation to map out what's possible for your specific team structure.

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