Decision path
Automate or Hire: Price the Three Ways to Get Work Done
Every recurring process has three price tags: the automation that absorbs it, the employee who owns it, and the agency or contractor who takes it off your plate. This path prices all three against the same workload. Start with the automation payback — including the human-review haircut most ROI pitches skip — then price a hire against an agency for the same hours, and if the verdict is a person, compare a US W-2 hire with a global contractor or an employer-of-record hire. Numbers carry over between steps only where the units genuinely match; where they don't, the step says so instead of prefilling something misleading. Every prefilled field stays editable, and everything runs in your browser.
Step 1
Price the automation, review haircut included
Enter how often the process runs, how long one task takes a person today, and what that person costs per hour fully loaded — the $35 default tracks US average hourly earnings (FRED CES0500000003). The review-minutes field is the honesty haircut: automated tasks that still need human checking save less than the demo suggested. If net monthly saving comes out negative, the build cost is never recovered and the payback shows as “—”.
Check your inputs.
Step 2
Price a hire against an agency for the same hours
The workload carries over: task volume × manual minutes from step 1 becomes the hours per month you need covered. Your step-1 hourly cost does NOT prefill the salary field — it is a fully loaded figure, while this field wants base salary before benefits and employer taxes, and inventing the split would skew the comparison. Enter the base salary you would actually offer, and check the employee’s effective hourly below against the loaded rate you used in step 1: they should be in the same neighborhood.
Check your inputs.
Step 3
If it’s a person: W-2, global contractor, or EOR
Your base salary and the dollar value of its benefits carry over from step 2 — same units, same gross basis. Employer FICA does not carry over: this calculator computes it from the IRS Topic 751 rates itself, so mapping step 2’s tax percentage across would count it twice. Compare the US W-2 total against an international contractor and an employer-of-record hire; the platform-fee defaults track Deel’s published list pricing and stay editable.
Check your inputs.
If the verdict is “automate”: build it or buy it?
This path prices automation as one option. If it wins, the next decision is whether to build the automation in-house or buy an off-the-shelf product — a different trade-off between one-time build cost, recurring fees, and maintenance. The build-vs-buy calculator runs that comparison with the same no-nonsense framing.
Frequently asked questions
What does “fully loaded hourly cost” mean, and why not just use salary?+
Loaded cost is what an hour of someone’s time actually costs the business: base pay plus employer payroll taxes, benefits, equipment, and overhead. For a US employee it typically lands 25–40% above base salary. Step 1 asks for the loaded figure because automation replaces loaded hours, not salary lines; step 2 builds the same figure explicitly from base salary, benefits rate, and employer taxes, so you can see the load instead of guessing it.
Why doesn’t the path carry my step-1 hourly cost into the salary field of step 2?+
Because the units don’t match. Step 1’s hourly cost is fully loaded; step 2’s salary field is base pay before benefits and employer taxes. Converting one into the other requires knowing your exact benefits and tax load — which step 1 never asked for — so any automatic conversion would bake in an invented number. The path prefills only the workload hours, and instead shows step 2’s “employee effective hourly (loaded)” output so you can check both steps price labor consistently.
What is an employer of record (EOR)?+
An EOR is a company that legally employs a worker in their country on your behalf: it runs local payroll, withholds the statutory employer contributions, and charges you a platform fee per employee per month. It is the middle option between hiring a US employee and engaging an international contractor — more compliance coverage than a contractor arrangement, without opening a local entity. Worker classification rules differ by country and misclassification carries real penalties, which is a large part of what the fee pays for.
Is this HR, tax, or legal advice?+
No. These calculators illustrate standard cost math using published reference rates — employer FICA from IRS Topic 751, platform fees from Deel’s public list pricing — with your own editable numbers. They don’t know your state, industry, benefits plan, or the classification rules of the country you’re hiring in. Treat the outputs as a starting comparison and confirm the specifics with a qualified accountant, employment lawyer, or global-payroll provider before committing.