Grounds ToolkitLabor and Crews
What Does This Job Actually Cost Me in Labor?
Enter crew size, total service hours, and average wage. This calculates the fully loaded labor cost, wages plus burden, not just the paycheck number.
How this is calculated
Crew size times service hours gives crew-hours, the total paid labor consumed. The wage is loaded with a burden percentage, payroll taxes, workers compensation, and paid time off, 30% by default, to get the real cost of one paid hour. Crew-hours times that loaded rate is total labor cost. See Methodology for how the burden default is sourced.
Worked example
A 3-person crew working 2 hours is 6 crew-hours. At a $23 wage with a 26% burden, the loaded rate is about $28.98 per hour. Total labor cost is about $174.
Common mistakes
- Using raw wage instead of a loaded rate, which understates cost by 20 to 45 percent.
- Forgetting that crew-hours, not clock hours, is what labor actually costs.
- Treating labor cost as total job cost. Equipment and materials still need to be added.
Frequently asked questions
What is a loaded labor rate?
It is the wage plus labor burden, payroll taxes, workers compensation, and paid time off, the real cost of one paid hour, not just the number on the paycheck.
Why does the default burden matter so much?
Burden typically adds 20 to 45 percent on top of base wage. Using a raw wage instead of a loaded rate understates true labor cost by a similar margin.
Does this include equipment or material cost?
No. This is labor cost only. Total job cost also needs equipment, fuel, and materials, which this toolkit covers in separate engines.
How do I get total service hours for this calculator?
Use the Mowing Time and Crew-Hours calculator, or any other estimate of how long the job takes in total, then enter that here.
Next decision
Need total service hours first? UseMowing Time and Crew-Hours to estimate how long the job takes before calculating its cost here. Once you have a labor cost, useMinimum Profitable Job Price to turn it into what to charge. Curious about the loaded rate itself, independent of a specific job? See Loaded Labor Rate.