What an hour of your crew actually costs
Most underpriced jobs are priced at the crew’s wage. The wage is the smallest number in the cost: on top of it sit overtime, paid days off, Social Security and Medicare, federal and state unemployment, and workers’ comp, which for hauling and trucking classes runs several times the average across all jobs (the crew-hour guide has the figures).
Put in your own crew and your own policy’s rates. The form starts filled with the worked example from the guide, so you can see the arithmetic before you change it.
The calculator runs in your browser once the page has loaded; nothing you type is sent anywhere or saved.
How it’s worked out
- Paid days off are spread over the working year: 11 days off out of 260 working days adds 4.2% to every hour worked.
- Overtime is time and a half over 40 hours in a week. The extra half is spread over every hour of the week, because that is what the week costs you per hour.
- Social Security and Medicare are 7.65% of what you actually pay per hour, days off and overtime included. State unemployment is entered as a percent of wages.
- Federal unemployment (FUTA) is 6.0% of the first $7,000 of each person’s wages, less the 5.4% credit most states get — $42 a year per person, spread over their hours. It is not 0.6% of every dollar.
- Workers’ comp is your rate per $100 of payroll, applied to wage and paid days off. Most states leave the overtime premium out of the payroll the rate applies to.
- The job price adds the crew’s hours (including the drive and the dump run), the disposal ticket, the truck by the hour and a share of the month’s overhead, then puts your margin on top of the price, not the cost.
Questions
Is the "1.25 to 1.4 times the wage" rule close enough?
It brackets the answer for a salaried office hire with health insurance. A hauling crew is the opposite mix: little or no insurance, a high workers’ comp rate and regular overtime. Building the number from its parts, as this calculator does, is the only way to know where your crew sits.
Where do I find my workers’ comp rate?
On your policy’s declarations page: the rate per $100 of payroll for each class code, before your experience modifier. If you do not have a policy yet, the crew-hour guide lists the mid-ranked state rates for the classes hauling work falls under.
Does it include the owner’s own time?
Only if you put the owner in as a crew member, or count the owner’s pay in the monthly overhead. Most small operators leave it out and wonder why the business pays them less than their drivers.