Hire vs. Automate Calculator
Plug in a salary and a build cost. See the exact month automation wins — and how much you save over 5 years.
Run the numbers honestly.
Most businesses undercount the true cost of a hire — salary is only part of it. This model includes overhead, benefits, and equipment so the comparison is fair.
Why most businesses get this math wrong.
A $60,000 salary isn't a $60,000 hire. Once you account for what's below, the true cost of a full-time employee is typically 1.25–1.4× their base salary — every single year.
Payroll Taxes
Employer-side FICA (Social Security + Medicare) adds 7.65% on top of every dollar of salary. That's $4,590 on a $60k hire before you've paid for anything else.
Benefits & Healthcare
Employer healthcare contributions average $7,000–$12,000/year per employee in the US. Add dental, vision, and life insurance and the number climbs further.
Equipment & Tooling
Laptop, software licenses, desk, phone, and any role-specific tools typically run $3,000–$8,000 in year one and $1,500–$3,000 in subsequent years.
Onboarding & Training
The average cost to onboard a new employee is $4,000–$7,000 in lost productivity and training time. For technical roles it can exceed $10,000.
The Automation Alternative
A custom automation has a one-time build cost, zero benefits, zero payroll taxes, and maintenance typically under 5% of the build cost per year. It doesn't call in sick.
When Hiring Still Wins
Automation doesn't replace judgment, relationships, or creativity. If the role is more than 50% non-repetitive or requires human empathy, hire. If it's mostly repetitive rules-based work, automate.
Thirty minutes.
We'll tell you exactly
where your ROI is.
No sales deck. No “AI readiness assessment.” Just a direct conversation about which of your workflows are costing the most and whether AI can fix them. If there's no compelling answer, we'll say so.