The CLASP-CEPR Turnover Calculator

How Much Does Employee Turnover Really Cost Your Business?

Use This Turnover Calculator To Find Out

Turnover is costly. Despite the harm it can cause to the bottom line, many businesses do not actually know how much turnover costs them. Policies that support workers, such as paid sick days, a fair minimum wage, investments in workforce training, and work sharing, can help decrease turnover and reduce these costs. This turnover calculator provides an estimate of how much turnover costs your organization.

Please note that these questions are best directed to human resources professionals or to business owners who handle their own staffing. Costs may vary for different types of employees. The turnover calculator allows you to vary wages, weekly hours, and recruiting and hiring costs to calculate the cost of turnover for different categories of workers. ^[1]

Turnover
Do you wish to calculate for exempt or non-exempt workers?
	Non-exempt, or hourly
	Exempt, or salaried
1		What is the typical hourly pay of an exempt or salaried employee in your business? (Employees are exempt if they are not eligible for overtime pay.) If you DO NOT know the typical hourly pay, click here.			1
	a	What is the typical annual pay of an exempt or salaried employee in your business?		1a
	b	How many hours a week does an exempt or salaried employee in your business usually work? (Exempt employees typically work 40 hours a week.)	1b
	c	Take the number of hours worked per week and multiply it by 52 weeks		1c
	d	Divide annual pay by this number to determine hourly wage.		1d
2		What is the typical hourly wage of a non-exempt or hourly employee in your business? (Employees are non-exempt if they are eligible for overtime pay.)			2
3		In the past year, did you replace any non-exempt or hourly exempt or salaried employees who separated from the firm for any reason?
		No
		Yes... If yes, how many in the past 12 months?			3
4		Using a typical situation in which you sought to fill a vacancy, how much does your organization spend in recruiting a typical new non-exempt or hourly exempt or salaried employee...
	a	... on advertising?		4a
	b	... on agency fees?		4b
	c	... on travel for interviews?		4c
	d	... on other?		4d
		Total of lines 4a through 4d			4
5		Using a typical situation in which you sought to fill a vacancy, estimate how many exempt hours were spent to fill the position...
	a	... on screening? (e.g., reviewing resumes)	5a
	b	... on selecting? (e.g., preliminary telephone interviews with candidates)	5b
	c	... on hiring? (e.g., interviewing top candidates, calling references)	5c
	d	... on drug testing and background checks?	5d
	e	... on other?	5e
6		Using a typical situation in which you sought to fill a vacancy, estimate how many hours your non-exempt or hourly staff spent on administrative tasks (e.g., entering the new hire into the payroll system, signing the new hire up for health insurance or other benefits).		6
7		Is there an orientation/training for new non-exempt or hourly exempt or salaried employees AFTER they are hired, i.e. on company time? If so, how many hours are typically devoted to this...
	a	... by the trainer, the new hire and other exempt workers?	7a
	b	... by the new hire and other non-exempt workers?		7b
8		How long does it take a typical non-exempt or hourly employee to become fully proficient at the job? (Note : Because the new worker will be less than fully proficient over this time, the cost will be half* the specified hours.*)
		Hours...
		Days... (xhours worked per day)		8
8		How long does it take a typical exempt or salaried employee to become fully proficient at the job? (Note : Because the new worker will be less than fully proficient over this time, the cost will be half* the specified hours.*)
		Weeks...
		Months...	8
9		Total hours spent... (add hours in lines 5-8)
	a	... by exempt workers	9a
	b	... by non-exempt workers		9b
10		Hourly wage...
	a	... of exempt workers (line 1)	10a
	b	... of non-exempt workers (line 2)		10b
11		Total wage bill...
	a	... for exempt workers (line 9a times line 10a)	11a
	b	... for non-exempt workers (line 9b times line 10b)		11b
		Total of lines 11a and 11b			11
12		Cost of Turnover per Non-Exempt or Hourly Exempt or Salaried Employee (add line 4 to line 11)			12
		Total Cost of Turnover from Non-Exempt or Hourly Exempt or Salaried Employees (multiply by line 3)			13

Designed by David Rosnick, Center for Economic and Policy Research. Data last updated: January 2019.

^[1]This calculator provides a simple way for you to calculate the basic costs of turnover, but it is not all-inclusive. There are other hidden costs to calculating turnover, including increases in unemployment insurance contributions, costs to process exit paperwork for the departed employee, and staffing costs to cover the position while it is vacant.