How do we calculate taxes and benefits for project employees?

Personnel costs nearly always constitute the largest part of a project’s total budget (often 65%-80%). In addition to each employee’s gross salary, the employer (in this case, Community Partners, using project funds) must pay certain state and federally mandated benefits, like Social Security and Medicare (FICA), California State Unemployment Insurance (SUI), and workers’ compensation insurance. These are charged to the project every other week to correspond with the preceding pay period.

A general rule of thumb is to multiply annual gross wages by about 25% to determine how much employees benefits/taxes will cost for your project for a full-time employee. The following are examples of how these taxes and benefits are currently calculated. All dollar amounts reflect approximate rates as of July 1, 2019.

For current rates, please contact [e-mail]. If you have any questions on benefits that are not answered here, please refer to the Community Partners Employee Handbook or contact [e-mail] for additional information. 

Tax/Benefit	% of Salary/Wage
Employer Portion FICA	- 6.2% of Maximum Taxable Earnings to $132,900 in 2019 (Social Security) - 1.45% with no Earnings Limit in 2018 (Medicare)
CA State Unemployment Insurance (SUI)	Approximately 5.0% of the first $7,000 of salary each calendar year
Workers' Comp Insurance	1% to 2% of gross salary (varies with job classification)

Projects must also budget for group insurance premiums for each employee who is eligible. Part-time employees are eligible for workers' comp and may be eligible for other project paid benefits as well, depending on hours worker per week. Contact Human Resources at [e-mail] for more information.

Typical costs to your project for employee benefits are as follows:

Tax/Benefit	Cost/Calculation Formula
Group Medical Insurance	Approximately $562 per month for Kaiser and approximately $844 per month for Blue Shield
Group Dental Insurance	Approximately $18 per month
Group Life & Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) Insurance	Annual salary x .00012 per month
Long Term Disability Insurance	Monthly salary x approximately .00275 per month

NOTE: All benefit information and rates refer to California employees. Please contact [e-mail] for benefit information for out-of-state employees.