Employee Cost Calculator (Employer Cost)

Turn a salary into what an employee really costs the company — charges, provisions, and the difference Simples Nacional makes.

Reference tables may be outdated. Official rates change over time. The table year is shown next to the values, and every field can be edited — always check the current official figures.
Official table used in this calculation

How to use

  1. Type the gross salary in the contract and the benefits that go with it — meal voucher, health plan, transport.
  2. Choose the tax regime. It is the choice that most changes the answer: under most annexes of Simples Nacional the employer social security never comes out of the payroll at all.
  3. Read the breakdown and correct any rate in the panel — the RAT follows your CNAE, the FAP is set company by company, the Sistema S mix follows your union framing.

About this tool

The salary on the contract is the smallest part of what an employee costs, and what sits around it comes in two kinds. Charges are paid to the state month by month on the payroll: the 20% employer social security, the accident insurance known as RAT, the 5.8% of third parties that funds the Sistema S, and the 8% of FGTS deposited in the employee's own name. Provisions are money set aside for what will certainly be owed later — one twelfth of a 13th salary each month, the constitutional third of the holiday pay, and the 40% penalty that falls due only if you dismiss without just cause. This page separates the two, because a charge is a bill and a provision is a decision about when to feel the cost.

No single multiplier fits every company, and the round numbers repeated online — an employee costs twice the salary, charges run 68% to 80% — quietly assume the largest case. The RAT is 1%, 2% or 3% by the risk level of your CNAE, then multiplied by a FAP between 0.50 and 2.00 calculated from your own accident record. Above all, a company in annexes I, II, III or V of Simples Nacional pays no employer social security, no RAT and no Sistema S on the payroll at all: that contribution is already inside the DAS, which falls on revenue rather than on salaries. Annex IV is the exception. For most small Brazilian companies a calculator that ignores this returns a wrong number, which is why the regime is a choice here and every rate is editable.

The holiday month deserves a warning of its own. Many calculators provision a whole extra month of pay plus the third, as if the year had thirteen salaries and a free holiday on top. It does not: the holiday month is one of the twelve, and what genuinely comes on top is the third. So the third is provisioned by default, with the fuller figure offered to whoever hires cover for the 30 days off and both totals on screen. Outside the law nothing here is priced — hiring and turnover, notice periods, equipment, training, profit sharing, and whatever your collective agreement adds. Everything runs on your own device, and no payroll figure you type is ever sent anywhere.

The formula

Monthly charge base = salary + 13th salary provision (salary ÷ 12) + holiday provision (the constitutional third ÷ 12, or the full holiday pay plus the third ÷ 12). Employer social security = 20% × base; work accident insurance = RAT × FAP × base; third parties = 5.8% × base — all three only when the tax regime pays payroll social security. FGTS = 8% × base. Provision for the termination penalty = 40% × FGTS. Total monthly cost = salary + provisions + charges + benefits paid. Yearly cost = monthly cost × 12. Every amount is held as whole cents and rounded half up, once per line.

Frequently asked questions

What if the rates changed after this page was written?

Then edit them. The panel shows the year and the date the FGTS figures were checked, every rate is editable, and the total recalculates as you type. "Restore official values" puts the originals back.

Does my payroll leave my browser?

No. The page makes no request of any kind: everything is computed on your own device. What you pay your team is not sent anywhere, stored, or seen by anyone at Vai.la.

Why is the cost so much lower under Simples Nacional?

Because in annexes I, II, III and V the employer social security is already inside the DAS, and neither the RAT nor the Sistema S is charged on the payroll. Only FGTS and the provisions remain. The DAS is real money, but it falls on revenue, not on salaries.

What are the RAT and the FAP?

The RAT funds work accident benefits and is 1%, 2% or 3% by the risk level of your main CNAE. The FAP is a multiplier between 0.50 and 2.00 applied to it from your own accident record — two companies with the same CNAE can pay very different amounts.

Does the holiday month really cost an extra salary?

Not by itself. The employee takes 30 days off and receives the holiday pay instead of that month's salary, so the only genuine addition is the third. Provisioning a whole extra month makes sense when you hire cover — the tool offers both.

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