Methodology
Ireland Total Employee Cost Planner methodology
Educational only: Business decision support, not accounting, tax or legal advice.
Privacy: Calculations run locally; Margin101 does not receive your commercial inputs.
Update policy: Reviewed when formulas or official dependencies change.
Scope: Irish small-business planning using your own assumptions.
1. Formulas and units
Hₑ = (W − L) × (h − n)Where
- W
- Paid weeks per year (weeks/year)Source: User assumption
- L
- Paid leave weeks (weeks/year)Source: User assumption
- h
- Ordinary weekly hours (hours/week)Source: Business record
- n
- Non-productive weekly hours (hours/week)Source: User assumption
- Hₑ
- Productive hours per employee (hours/year)Source: Calculated output
Cw = Nₑ × E + Nc × CcWhere
- E
- Loaded employee cost (EUR/year)Source: Calculated output
- Cw
- Selected workforce cost (EUR/year)Source: Calculated output
- Nₑ
- Employee headcount (people)Source: Business record
- Nc
- Contractor headcount (people)Source: Business record
- Cc
- Annual contractor cost per contractor (EUR/year)Source: Calculated output
Hw = Nₑ × Hₑ + Nc × HcWhere
- Hₑ
- Productive hours per employee (hours/year)Source: Calculated output
- Nₑ
- Employee headcount (people)Source: Business record
- Nc
- Contractor headcount (people)Source: Business record
- Hw
- Total productive workforce hours (hours/year)Source: Calculated output
- Hc
- Contractor annual hours for the relevant cost or capacity term (hours/year)Source: Business record
Cph = Cw ÷ HwWhere
- Cw
- Selected workforce cost (EUR/year)Source: Calculated output
- Hw
- Total productive workforce hours (hours/year)Source: Calculated output
- Cph
- Workforce cost per productive hour (EUR/hour)Source: Calculated output
G = max(0, D − Hw)Where
- D
- Required productive hours (hours/year)Source: User assumption
- G
- Capacity gap (hours/year)Source: Calculated output
- Hw
- Total productive workforce hours (hours/year)Source: Calculated output
- max
- Maximum operator (operator)Source: Calculated output
Co = G × Ce × MoWhere
- G
- Capacity gap (hours/year)Source: Calculated output
- Co
- Overtime cost for the capacity gap (EUR)Source: Calculated output
- Ce
- Employee cost per productive hour (EUR/hour)Source: Calculated output
- Mo
- Overtime cost multiplier (multiplier)Source: User assumption
Nh = ceil(G ÷ Hₑ)Where
- Hₑ
- Productive hours per employee (hours/year)Source: Calculated output
- G
- Capacity gap (hours/year)Source: Calculated output
- ceil
- Round up to the next whole unit (operator)Source: Calculated output
- Nh
- Whole hires required for the capacity gap (whole people)Source: Calculated output
Ch = Nh × (Fh + E)Where
- E
- Loaded employee cost (EUR/year)Source: Calculated output
- Ch
- Whole-hire cash cost for the capacity gap (EUR)Source: Calculated output
- Fh
- Fixed cost per additional hire (EUR/hire)Source: Business record
- Nh
- Whole hires required for the capacity gap (whole people)Source: Calculated output
E = S + B + Cs + OWhere
- S
- Annual base salary (EUR/year)Source: Business record
- B
- Annual other cash remuneration (EUR/year)Source: Business record
- O
- Other annual employee on-costs (EUR/year)Source: Business record
- Cs
- Total employer statutory contribution (EUR/year)Source: Calculated output
- E
- Loaded employee cost (EUR/year)Source: Calculated output
Cs = (Q ÷ 52) × (39 × rpre,b + 13 × rpost,b) + (Q ÷ 52) × min(52, ceil(Tae ÷ (Q ÷ 52))) × raeWhere
- Q
- Confirmed annual statutory contribution earnings basis (EUR/year)Source: Business record
- b
- First matching annualised weekly-pay band (band selector)Source: Reviewed official rule · Ireland 2026 employer PRSI Class A supported rate
- rpre, b
- Employer PRSI rate for weekly band b through 30 September 2026 (decimal rate)Source: Reviewed official rule · Ireland 2026 employer PRSI Class A supported rate
- rpost, b
- Employer PRSI rate for weekly band b from 1 October 2026 (decimal rate)Source: Reviewed official rule · Ireland 2026 employer PRSI Class A supported rate
- Tae
- MyFutureFund cumulative annual earnings threshold (EUR/year)Source: Reviewed official rule · Ireland 2026 MyFutureFund employer contribution
- rae
- MyFutureFund employer rate for 2026–28 (decimal rate)Source: Reviewed official rule · Ireland 2026 MyFutureFund employer contribution
- Cs
- Total employer statutory contribution (EUR/year)Source: Calculated output
- min
- Minimum operator (operator)Source: Calculated output
- ceil
- Round up to the next whole unit (operator)Source: Calculated output
Ce = E ÷ HₑWhere
- E
- Loaded employee cost (EUR/year)Source: Calculated output
- Hₑ
- Productive hours per employee (hours/year)Source: Calculated output
- Ce
- Employee cost per productive hour (EUR/hour)Source: Calculated output
Cc = Rc × Hc + OcWhere
- Cc
- Annual contractor cost per contractor (EUR/year)Source: Calculated output
- Hc
- Contractor annual hours for the relevant cost or capacity term (hours/year)Source: Business record
- Rc
- Contractor hourly rate excluding tax (EUR/hour)Source: Business record
- Oc
- Other annual contractor costs (EUR/year)Source: Business record
X = ceil((Fh + E) ÷ (Ce × Mo)), when X ≤ HₑWhere
- E
- Loaded employee cost (EUR/year)Source: Calculated output
- Hₑ
- Productive hours per employee (hours/year)Source: Calculated output
- X
- Overtime-to-hire crossover (hours)Source: Calculated output
- ceil
- Round up to the next whole unit (operator)Source: Calculated output
- Ce
- Employee cost per productive hour (EUR/hour)Source: Calculated output
- Mo
- Overtime cost multiplier (multiplier)Source: User assumption
- Fh
- Fixed cost per additional hire (EUR/hire)Source: Business record
Money inputs and outputs use EUR. Rates, margins, utilisation and buffers are entered as percentages and converted to decimal values for calculation.
2. Worked example
Input assumptions
The worked Ireland fixture starts with €55,000.00 annual salary and €7,000.00 of user-entered other on-costs. Where MyFutureFund applies, the example confirms an active payroll instruction; the live default remains unconfirmed.
Calculation and outputs
Example
The worked Ireland fixture starts with €55,000.00 annual salary and €7,000.00 of user-entered other on-costs. Where MyFutureFund applies, the example confirms an active payroll instruction; the live default remains unconfirmed.
- Total workforce cost
- €231,066.25
- Total productive hours
- 4,568 hours
- Workforce cost per productive hour
- €50.58
- Capacity gap
- 432 hours
- Overtime cost for gap
- €28,240.82
- Whole hires required for gap
- 1
- Whole-hire cash cost for gap
- €77,033.13
- Employee annual cost
- €69,033.13
- Employer PRSI and MyFutureFund
- €7,033.13
- Employee cost per productive hour
- €43.58
- Contractor annual cost
- €93,000.00
- Overtime-to-hire crossover
- 1,179 hours
The exact engine returns €7,033.13 for the displayed official contribution components, €69,033.13 loaded employee cost and €231,066.25 total entered workforce cost.
Interpretation
Use the Irish result as a bounded commercial workforce plan, not a worker-classification, payroll or employment-law determination.
3. Validation and boundary checks
- Contribution components validate finite rates, floors and ceilings and retain full calculation precision.
- Age/status/industry scope codes must match the displayed supported policy fixture.
- Market-specific category, province, residency, wage-type and effective-period controls fail closed outside the verified fixture.
- Annual salary must remain inside any source-versioned earnings range declared by the market adapter.
- The statutory contribution earnings basis is validated separately from total salary.
- Leave and non-productive time cannot eliminate all productive capacity.
- Headcounts are whole non-negative numbers and overtime multiplier cannot be below 1.
- A capacity gap is covered by the ceiling of gap hours divided by one employee’s productive capacity; no-gap scenarios require zero hires.
- Unsupported policy scope fails closed instead of falling back to a global percentage.
4. Assumptions and source classification
- Class A employee with even weekly pay of at least €38 in 2026
- All contribution and threshold dates match the displayed source version.
- Annual earnings are paid evenly across 52 weekly pay periods.
- The PRSI calculation applies 39 equal weekly pay periods through 30 September 2026 and 13 equal weekly pay periods from 1 October 2026; it does not flatten the calendar year to one rate.
- The worked example confirms an active NAERSA payroll instruction. The live tool starts MyFutureFund unconfirmed and will not infer eligibility, exemption, opt-in/out, suspension or enrolment timing.
- MyFutureFund contributions include the complete weekly pay period that crosses the €80,000 cumulative earnings threshold, then stop for the remaining supported pay periods.
- Every cost not listed as an automatic contribution component is entered by the user.
- Productive-time, contractor, demand, overtime and hire-cost inputs use a consistent annual basis; every required hire carries one full annual loaded employee cost plus the entered fixed cost.
Official dependencies used by this planner are captured in the Margin101 evidence register and version-acknowledged in this page history. User-entered commercial assumptions remain separate from those official inputs.
5. Limitations
- Supports even weekly pay across 52 weeks: 39 PRSI weeks through 30 September and 13 weeks from 1 October. MyFutureFund is included only after the user confirms an active NAERSA payroll instruction; eligibility, opt-in/out, suspension, pension exemptions, delayed enrolment, multiple employments and payroll corrections are not inferred.
- The tool is not payroll software and does not calculate employee deductions, withholding, benefits, awards, leave liability, insurance or filing obligations.
- The overtime-versus-hire comparison uses entered commercial costs and does not determine whether overtime or a hire is lawful or available.
- The tool does not classify a worker or provide tax, employment, payroll or legal advice.
This is educational decision support, not tax, accounting, legal or financial advice. Check the treatment of your actual transactions under the rules that apply in Ireland and seek qualified advice where appropriate.
6. Update and evidence policy
Registered family-level suites test formula invariants and example reconciliation; the release ledger records that coverage without claiming a separate oracle for every line of public copy. Registered official sources block dependent public workflows when their evidence or version acknowledgement is unavailable or invalid. Commercial inputs remain user-supplied because they vary by business and contract.
Change history
- : Initial public release of the planner and methodology after pre-launch calculation, content, source and interaction review.
Related reading
Guides to interpret the decision and its assumptions.
- Ireland Employer Cost: PRSI and MyFutureFund
Confirm the supported Class A and active-instruction scope, reconcile the registered 2026 employer-cost result and identify what remains before a service quote.
Read guide