Research and evidence
What a hire actually costs, and when the money leaves
The cost of a hire is salary plus statutory employer costs plus recruitment cost, and the three have completely different timing. Employer National Insurance and pension contributions recur monthly from the start date; a traditional recruitment fee lands once, usually within weeks of the start date; a monthly recruitment fee spreads across the employment. Only the statutory rates are fixed and published — the recruitment element depends entirely on the model you agree.
In short
The cost of a hire is salary plus statutory employer costs plus recruitment cost, and the three have completely different timing. Employer National Insurance and pension contributions recur monthly from the start date; a traditional recruitment fee lands once, usually within weeks of the start date; a monthly recruitment fee spreads across the employment. Only the statutory rates are fixed and published — the recruitment element depends entirely on the model you agree.
Published 2026-08-15 · Last reviewed 2026-08-15 · Reviewed by Joseph Edney, Managing Director, Humand Talent Solutions
The three cost layers
Founders usually budget the salary and are then surprised by the shape of everything else. Splitting a hire into three layers makes the cash-flow question answerable rather than vague.
| Layer | What it is | When it is paid | Is there a published rate? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salary | Gross pay agreed in the employment contract | Monthly, from the start date | No — set by you and the market |
| Statutory employer costs | Employer National Insurance contributions and workplace pension contributions for eligible staff | Monthly, alongside payroll | Yes — published by GOV.UK, see the evidence below |
| Recruitment cost | The fee model you agree with a recruiter, or the internal time cost of doing it yourself | Depends entirely on the model: once at hire, monthly, or in retained stages | No — commercially agreed case by case |
Why the timing matters more than the total at seed stage
A business with eighteen months of runway is not indifferent between paying the same amount now and paying it over two years. A single upfront recruitment fee is a large withdrawal at the exact moment payroll for the new person also starts. A monthly fee is smaller each month and stops when the employment stops, but keeps running while the person stays, and can total more over a long tenure.
Neither shape is universally better. The honest way to decide is to model both against your own runway rather than accept a claim about which is cheaper.
- Model the month the fee lands against your cash balance, not just the annual total.
- Ask what happens to the fee if the person leaves in month three, and get it in writing.
- Work out the point at which the cumulative monthly cost passes a one-off fee — the crossover — and decide whether the expected tenure is above or below it.
What we can state, and what we cannot
The statutory layer is published law and we cite it. The recruitment layer is commercial and varies by supplier, so any number you see here is an illustration you can change, not a market rate. We do not publish average cost-per-hire figures because we hold no dataset that would make such a figure honest.
Evidence
Each statement below is linked to the source it came from, with the publisher and the date we last checked the link.
1.For the 2026 to 2027 tax year, GOV.UK shows employer Class 1 National Insurance at 15% on the employee's earnings above the relevant threshold for the standard category letters, with different thresholds and reliefs applying to some categories.
Check the category letter that applies to your employee — several categories are charged at 0% within particular bands.
- National Insurance rates and categories — GOV.UK (HM Government), Rates shown for the tax year 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. Checked 2026-08-15.
2.An employer must enrol and make an employer contribution for staff who are aged between 22 and State Pension age, earn at least £10,000 a year and normally work in the UK, from the employer's duties start date.
- Set up and manage a workplace pension scheme — GOV.UK (HM Government). Checked 2026-08-15.
3.Under the SUS model the client pays an agreed monthly percentage of the employee's gross monthly salary while that person remains employed, invoiced monthly in arrears, and billing stops when the employment ends.
Percentages are agreed individually and confirmed in writing; the figures in our calculators are illustrative.
- How the SUS monthly recruitment fee works — Startup Staffing. Checked 2026-08-15.
- Startup Staffing website and service terms — Startup Staffing. Checked 2026-08-15.
4.The crossover point between a monthly recruitment fee and a one-off fee can be calculated from the salary, the two percentages and the tenure, and is shown for your own inputs in our calculator.
- Rate calculator and team planner — Startup Staffing. Checked 2026-08-15.
What this page does not say
These are the numbers a page like this is often expected to carry. We hold no evidence we would stand behind for any of them, so they are left blank rather than estimated.
- Average or median cost-per-hire for technology roles — we hold no dataset, and every published figure we could find is either vendor marketing or behind a licence we do not hold.
- Salary ranges by role, seniority or country — deliberately absent. We will not publish a benchmark table we cannot source.
- Employer cost rates outside the UK — the operating company is UK-registered and we do not claim country-specific payroll expertise elsewhere.
Questions this raises
- Is a monthly recruitment fee cheaper than a one-off placement fee?
- Not automatically. It is smaller each month and stops if the person leaves, but over a long tenure the cumulative total can exceed a one-off fee. The crossover point depends on the salary, both percentages and how long the person stays, which is exactly what the calculator shows.
- What statutory costs sit on top of salary in the UK?
- Employer National Insurance contributions and workplace pension contributions for eligible staff are the two that recur monthly. GOV.UK publishes the current rates and the auto-enrolment criteria; both are linked in the evidence on this page.
Every source on this page is listed together on the research index.