Methodology — the employer-cost engine

What the total includes

Gross wages, the employer's share of FICA (6.2% Social Security to the wage base + 1.45% Medicare), FUTA, SUTA, a workers' compensation estimate, and the benefits package — each as its own sourced line in the result.

SUTA: the new-employer rate, and its limits

The engine uses each state's published new-employer rate: the experience rate that replaces it depends on the employer's own claims history and is not modeled. Where a state publishes an industry class schedule, the schedule can be applied — encoded today for Minnesota (51 DEED industry rates; the separate 0.40% base rate and 14% assessment are not included) and Montana (classes A–K, with the official unclassified default of 2.00%). For Louisiana, New Mexico, Washington and Wyoming — and Minnesota/Utah without a class — no published schedule exists, so SUTA is shown as $0.00 with a warning rather than an invented average: those totals understate the true cost by the whole SUTA amount.

FUTA and the credit reduction

FUTA is 6.0% on the first $7,000 per employee, minus the 5.4% standard credit for state unemployment taxes: a net 0.6% everywhere in this pack. The final 2026 credit-reduction list is published in November 2026. On the DOL's potential list of January 15, 2026, California is the only state named, with a potential reduction of 0% plus a possible benefit-cost-rate add-on estimated at 0% — an effective rate of up to 0% if applied and not waived. Every California result carries that warning; the rate applied stays 0.6% until the final list lands.

Workers' compensation is an estimate

Exact premiums are class-code specific, licensed (NCCI), and depend on the employer's experience modification rate. Only an insurer quote is exact — the engine carries the published range on the line and feeds the total with the midpoint.

Benefits are assumptions, labelled as such

Defaults from the parameter file: health insurance $650/employee/month, retirement match 3% of wages, other benefits 0%. Every benefits line is flagged assumption: true in the result. Paid time off is not added — it is already inside gross wages.

Not modeled — totals are a lower bound there

• California ETT (0.1% on the SUTA base), New York MCTMT, Washington PFML and Massachusetts PFML employer shares, New Jersey employer UI/DI add-ons, Hawaii and Rhode Island TDI employer shares, and local employer taxes.
• Multi-state workforces and wage-base carryover between states: one state, one wage figure per employee, all employees equal.