Counting the true cost of an employee
I have heard it said that consultants cost twice as much as employees. It made me wonder: had they considered the full cost of an employee to a business?
When we compare a consultant's day rate with an employee's salary, we are not comparing like with like. A salary is only one part of the cost, and a working day is not necessarily a productive day.
How many productive days are there?
Here we state some assumptions about an employees capacity to actually do work :
- 365 days in a year
- 256 potential work days removing weekends and public holidays (this can change depending on your region)
- 20 days annual leave this will vary but could be as much as 30 days
- 20 days sickness Deutsche Welle reported an average of 19.5 working days in Germany in 2025
- 80% productive work days per week, considering internal update meetings, administration, company team building days, long lunches and a few days of training.
Now we perform the calculation:
| Calculation | Total |
|---|---|
| 256 working days available | 256 |
| 256 - 20 annual leave | 236 |
| 236 - 20 sickness | 216 |
| 216 x (4 / 5) productive capacity | 172.8 |
Using our assumptions we only get about 173 productive days per year. Lets now calculate how much an employee costs above their actual pay.
What does the employee cost?
For this example, I am using £100,000 as a round number for a Salesforce Architect salary. That sits between the UK median figures in Salesforce Ben's 2026 salary guide, which reports £79,000 for intermediate architects and £110,000 for senior architects. The real figure will vary with experience, location and the role. The business also pays for employer social contributions, workspace, IT, benefits, management time, recruitment and other overheads.
| Cost | Annual estimate |
|---|---|
| Salary | £100,000 |
| Employer social contributions | £15,500 |
| Office / workspace | £5,000 |
| Laptop and IT | £2,000 |
| Phone | £750 |
| Benefits | £3,000 |
| Pension / other benefits | £2,000 |
| Management / HR time | £4,000 |
| Recruitment / onboarding / other overhead | £2,000 |
| Total | £134,250 |
These figures are estimates, but they make the point: a £100,000 salary can easily become a £130,000+ employee. For the calculation below, I round the total to £134,000. The total would rise or fall with the underlying salary, but £100,000 is a useful round number for illustrating the calculation.
Divide that total by 173 productive days and the cost is approximately:
£775 per productive day, or £97 per productive hour.
So are consultants really twice as expensive?
Well, that's not true for ActiveSF!
I am not arguing that employees are poor value. They provide institutional knowledge, relationships, continuity and a great deal of value that is difficult to measure.
But when we compare a consultant's day rate with an employee's salary, the more useful question is:
What does it cost to get one genuinely productive day of the skill we need?
On this basis, the fully loaded £100,000 example costs approximately £775 per productive day, before considering the less tangible benefits of employment. An employee earning £80,000 or £120,000 would produce a different result. I would urge you to do your own calculations and add your own assumptions.
A consultant may or may not be better value, but it does suggest that the comparison needs to include the full cost of employment and the amount of productive capacity actually available.
We would love to hear how these figures compare in your business/department. For more information about how we can help your organisation improve, read more about our Advisory services, reach out via LinkedIn or via our contact form - we’d love to talk.