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Dental Employee Cost Calculator

The salary you quote a hygienist, assistant, or front desk hire is only part of what the practice pays. Add payroll taxes, benefits, workers’ comp, paid time off, and admin, and the real number is usually 1.25 to 1.4 times pay. Use this to budget your next hire, compare candidates, or sanity check an offer before you make it.

Before you start

Plan on about three minutes and bring your own figures. Nothing is stored and no sign up is needed.

What you will need. Annual base salary, Hourly wage, Scheduled hours per week, Bonus or commission (per year)

Pay

$
Preset to the BLS median for dental hygienists, 94,260 dollars (May 2024). Use the real figure for the role and your market.
$
$
Average annual variable pay for the role. Leave 0 if none.

Benefits

$
Employer share typically $7,000 to $15,000 per employee per year.
Additional benefits and operating costs
$
%
%
Dental offices are usually a low rate class. Use your policy rate.
$
$
Time off and tax assumptions
Paid time off does not add dollars, but it spreads the cost over fewer worked hours, which raises the effective hourly cost. The hourly estimate assumes five scheduled workdays per week.
%
$
Federal payroll taxes are applied automatically: employer Social Security 6.2% on wages up to $184,500 (2026), Medicare 1.45%, and FUTA 0.6% on the first $7,000. SUTA varies by state.
First-year one-time costs (optional)
These are one-time, not part of the ongoing annual cost. Fill them in to also see a first-year total.
$
$
$

Fully loaded annual cost

$0
0x pay
Per month
$0
Effective hourly cost
$0
For every $1 of pay, you spend about $0 once everything is counted.
First-year cost, including one-time setup: $0

Where the money goes

Email yourself this breakdown We send the figures you just produced, with your inputs beside them.

The method

What goes into the true cost of a practice hire

Base pay is the part everyone sees. The fully loaded cost adds everything the practice spends to keep that person employed for a year. For most small employers, dental practices included, it lands between 1.25 and 1.4 times pay. Here is what this calculator counts.

How this is calculated

Cash pay

Base salary or hourly wages, plus any bonus. Variable pay is taxable wages too, so it also drives the payroll taxes below.

Employer payroll taxes

On top of an employee’s own withholding, the practice pays a matching 7.65% in Social Security and Medicare. Then federal unemployment (FUTA) and your state’s unemployment tax (SUTA). FUTA and SUTA apply only to the first slice of wages each year.

Benefits

Employer-paid health insurance is usually the largest add-on after pay. Dental, vision, life, and disability coverage and a retirement match stack on top. Small practices that do not offer health coverage can set that input to zero and watch the multiple drop.

Workers’ comp, admin, and overhead

Workers’ compensation for dental offices is usually a low rate class, but it is still a percentage of every payroll dollar. Payroll or PEO fees, software, uniforms, CE allowances, and equipment tied to the role round out the ongoing cost.

Ongoing versus first year

The headline number is the ongoing annual cost. The optional first-year view adds one-time recruiting, onboarding, and equipment setup, which only hit in year one. For clinical roles where searches run long, recruiting can be a real line, not a rounding error.

Carry this into the decision

Use the full cost across the practice

The Dental Practice HR System packages hiring, onboarding, attendance, and manager tools in one license, built on the per-role cost math this calculator uses.

See the Dental Practice HR System

$199. 30 days. Reply to your receipt or email support@truestephr.com for a full refund. No form or explanation is required, and you keep the files.

Related

More free tools and the notes behind them

This tool estimates from the figures you enter. It is general information rather than legal, tax, or accounting advice, so check the result against your own records before you rely on it.

Use the number

The calculation is the start of the decision.

Keep the result, move the live assumptions into an editable workbook, and put the number to work inside the matched kit.

01 · Calculate

Run the free analysis

Change the inputs until the result reflects the business you actually operate.

02 · Keep and model

Email the breakdown

Use the result form on this page, then carry the assumptions into the editable version.

See the Dental Practice HR System →
03 · Decide

Apply it to the live issue

Apply the number inside the matched kit, and add a Setup Session if you want it running on your numbers.

Add a $149 Setup Session →