✲ Free Calculator for Agency Owners
How much could nearshore talent save you?
Salary is only the number on the offer letter. Benefits, recruiting, and ramp time stack on top of it, quietly eating the margin your agency runs on, and most owners don't find out how much until it's already hit the P&L. Enter your numbers below to see your real cost of hire, then see what the same role costs with an embedded nearshore professional instead.
The Real Price Tag
Employer-paid benefits and payroll-related costs add roughly 30% before the hire's first day of work.
Hiring Steals Billable Time
Every interview, debrief, and screening call pulls your existing team away from client work, and that lost time never shows up on a job board invoice.
You Can't Manage What You Don't Track
Only 20% of organizations track quality of hire (SHRM, 2025), meaning some agencies are flying blind on whether their last hire actually worked out.
✲ Calculator
Enter your numbers below.
What's the salary?
The annual base on the offer letter. Everything below is what gets added on top of this number.
Range: $40k to $180k. This is your number, not an industry average, so everything below is calculated directly from what you enter.
What does your benefits package cost?
Employer payroll taxes, health insurance, 401k match, paid leave. These stack on top of every salary dollar you pay.
* Rate shown is an industry average; your actual burden will vary by plan, state, and headcount.
What does it cost to find this person?
SHRM's 2025 benchmarking data puts the average cost-per-hire at $5,475for non-executive roles, a figure that covers job ads, recruiter/agency fees, and staff time spent screening and interviewing. We've set the slider there. Drag it up if you use a staffing agency or a longer interview process, or down if hiring is mostly referrals and internal effort.
What would an embedded nearshore professional cost?
Ghost Sherpa places vetted LATAM professionals embedded directly in your team. Your Slack, your standups, your tools. No benefits overhead. No recruiting cycle. No 90-day ramp before they're useful. Compared below on the same 12-month basis as the hire above, apples to apples.
Your Estimated Cost Breakdown
✲ Estimated First-Year Cost
$102,975
+37% above the offer letter number
✲ Ghost Sherpa Model
$72,000
12 months at $6,000/mo. No benefits, no payroll taxes, no recruiting.
a year vs. FTE
All figures are estimates based on published industry benchmarks. Actual costs vary by company, role, location, and market conditions. This calculator is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or professional advice.
✲ Data Sources & Methodology
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), December 2025 (USDL-26-0505, released March 20, 2026). Private-industry benefit costs: 29.9% of total compensation. bls.gov/ecec
- SHRM, 2025 Benchmarking Reports Press Release, October 15, 2025. Average cost-per-hire for nonexecutive roles: $5,475. Average cost-per-hire for executive roles: $35,879. Only 20% of organizations track quality of hire. shrm.org/about/press-room/shrm-releases-2025-benchmarking-reports--how-does-your-organizat
- SHRM, 2025 Recruiting Executives Benchmarking: Insights to Maximize Recruitment. Median time-to-fill for nonexecutive roles: 44 calendar days. shrm.org/topics-tools/research/2025-recruiting-benchmarking
- Ghost Sherpa working estimate. The recruiting & hiring cost field defaults to SHRM's $5,475 average and is fully adjustable. It is not a separate independently sourced benchmark beyond that SHRM figure. Adjust it to reflect your organization's actual costs.
This calculator provides estimates based on published industry research ranges. Individual results will vary based on company, role, location, market conditions, and benefits structure. For illustrative purposes only.
✲ Legal Disclaimer
This tool provides general estimates for informational purposes only. Actual hiring costs vary widely based on company size, industry, location, benefits structure, and market conditions. Ghost Sherpa does not guarantee the accuracy of these estimates or any specific results. Consult a qualified HR professional before making employment decisions.
This tool provides general estimates for informational purposes only. Actual hiring costs vary widely based on company size, industry, location, benefits structure, and market conditions. Ghost Sherpa does not guarantee the accuracy of these estimates or any specific results. The calculator is not financial, legal, or professional advice and should not be relied upon as such. Figures are based on published third-party research (BLS, SHRM) and general industry benchmarks; Ghost Sherpa makes no representation that these figures apply to your specific situation. Consult a qualified HR professional, accountant, or legal advisor before making employment or financial decisions.
© Ghost Sherpa LLC.
✲ the Ghost Sherpa model
Embedded. Nearshore.
Working your time zones.
Our teams are in LATAM, working US time zones, in your Slack, on your standups, with your tools. Multi-round screening, English verbal evaluations, and 30-day cancellation notice.
Payroll taxes on your end
0x
Benefits overhead
0x
Days notice for cancellation
30
Time zone coverage
US
✲ READY TO START
Become the agency that always delivers. Profitably.
Most agency owners are surprised by what they find. Let's walk through the numbers together and show you what an embedded model looks like for your specific team and pipeline.