Grounds ToolkitWhat Will It Take
How Much Revenue Is Required Before Another Employee Is Financially Supportable?
Enter the wage, hours, and your target margin. This works backward from the position's loaded cost to the annual, monthly, and weekly revenue it needs to bring in before it pays for itself.
How this is calculated
Loaded hourly rate is wage plus labor burden(payroll taxes, workers' comp, PTO, and benefits). Multiplying that by hours per week and operating weeks per year gives the annual loaded cost of the hire. Required revenue is that cost divided by (1 minus target gross margin), the same mathMinimum Profitable Job Price uses to turn a cost into a price. Required gross profit is the difference between required revenue and the annual loaded cost.
Worked example
A $22/hour position at 40 hours a week for a 40-week season, with the default 30% labor burden, has a loaded rate of $28.60/hour and an annual loaded cost of $45,760. At a 35% target margin, that position needs about $70,400 in additional annual revenue to pay for itself, roughly $5,867 a month or $1,760 a week.
Frequently asked questions
Does this tell me whether I should hire?
No, it quantifies the economics only. It does not know whether the extra revenue is actually available to capture or whether hiring is the right operational move.
Why does target gross margin affect the required revenue?
The loaded cost of the hire has to be covered out of gross profit, not raw revenue. At a lower margin, more total revenue is needed to generate the same amount of gross profit.
How is this different from Weekly Route Capacity?
Weekly Route Capacity tells you how many hours or properties a crew can physically handle. This tool starts from a hire’s cost and works backward to the revenue needed to justify it, the two questions pair naturally when you are near your capacity limit.
What does the loaded rate include?
Base wage plus the labor burden percentage (payroll taxes, workers’ comp, PTO, and where offered, benefits), the same burden figure used across every labor calculation in Grounds Toolkit.
Next decision
Trying to tell if you're already at capacity, which is usually what prompts this question? Check Weekly Route Capacity first.