Where the hiring-cost figures on this site come from, and what happens when one turns out to be wrong.
A hiring-cost number is only useful if you can trust where it came from. This page lays out the sources behind the calculators and guides, how often we revisit them, and how to flag a problem.
The payroll-tax and benefit-load figures behind the calculators trace back to published government data: the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Employer Costs for Employee Compensation survey, IRS guidance on hiring employees, and Department of Labor wage and hour rules. Where a guide cites a specific rate or threshold, we link to the primary source rather than asking you to take our word for it.
Each tool starts from a documented formula (employer FICA share, standard workers' compensation ranges, typical benefits load, and so on), not a black box. Assumptions used in a calculation are stated on the tool page itself, so you can see what is baked in before you rely on the result.
Federal payroll tax figures and cost-of-hire benchmarks are checked at least once a year, typically in the first quarter when new annual rates are published, and sooner if a reader flags something that looks stale. The reference data pages note when they were last refreshed.
If a number, a citation, or an explanation on this site is wrong, we want to know. Send specifics through the contact page, tell us which page and which figure, and we will check it against the source and correct it, usually within a few business days.
The site is owned and edited by Chris Terry, who is responsible for what gets published here and how corrections are handled. See the authors page for who writes and reviews each guide.