[guide]
Startup Hiring Cost Guide
The first-year cost of a hire is usually higher than base salary. A practical estimate includes hiring fees, equipment, software seats, benefits, overhead, and ramp-up loss.
Core formula
First-year cost = salary plus recruiter fees, equipment, onboarding, SaaS seats, benefits or overhead, and estimated productivity loss during ramp-up.
Why ramp-up matters
A new hire rarely contributes at full productivity on day one. Ramp-up loss estimates the cost of partial productivity during the first months.
Budget use
Use the result to compare whether a role should be opened now, delayed, outsourced, or supported with tooling before hiring.
Limit
Actual cost depends on contract terms, local employment law, benefits, taxes, equipment policy, and the role's ramp-up curve.
Worked example
For one employee with an 81,000,000 KRW salary, a 15% recruiter fee adds 12,150,000 KRW. Equipment and
onboarding add 3,500,000 KRW, a 200,000 KRW monthly software seat adds 2,400,000 KRW for the year, and 12%
overhead adds 9,720,000 KRW. Three months at a 50% ramp-up loss adds another 10,125,000 KRW.
The resulting first-year estimate is 118,895,000 KRW, about 46.8% above base salary. This does not mean the
employee creates no value during ramp-up. It reserves budget for the gap between full salary cost and the
assumed productive output while the person learns the product, systems, and team practices.
Questions to answer before opening the role
Which costs scale per hire?
Recruiter fees, laptops, software seats, benefits, and training usually scale with headcount. Shared office or management costs may not increase at the same rate.
What does ramp-up mean?
Define expected output by month for the specific role. A senior specialist, junior hire, salesperson, and operations role will have different learning curves.
Is the cost one-time or recurring?
Equipment and recruiter fees are usually front-loaded, while salary, benefits, and software recur. Cash-flow planning should preserve that timing.
What is outside this estimate?
Workspace, employer taxes, severance, equity, management time, replacement risk, and local legal obligations may need separate budget lines.
Open the startup hiring cost calculator