Salary is not cost. Choose your market, the United Kingdom, the United States or the UAE, put your own figures in and see the fully loaded employer number, which is the only figure worth comparing an offshore rate against.
Defaults are the UK statutory figures published by GOV.UK for the 2025 to 2026 tax year. Change them if your scheme is more generous or the rates have moved.
Sources: GOV.UK National Insurance rates · GOV.UK workplace pensions
| Gross salary | £55,000 |
|---|---|
| Employer National Insurance | £7,500 |
| Employer pension (auto-enrolment minimum) | £1,321 |
| Equipment and software | £1,500 |
| Ongoing annual cost | £65,321 |
| Recruitment fee, year one | £11,000 |
| Year one total | £76,321 |
This is the employer cost of the role on your own payroll in the United Kingdom. It is the figure to compare an inclusive offshore rate against, not the salary alone.
Almost every in-house versus offshore comparison we see starts by putting a local salary next to an inclusive monthly rate. Those are not the same quantity, and the comparison is wrong before it begins.
A salary is what lands in somebody’s bank account. An employer cost is that plus the employer’s taxes and contributions (National Insurance and pension in the UK, Social Security, Medicare, unemployment tax and a health plan in the US, visa, insurance and gratuity in the UAE), plus whatever you paid to find the person, plus the kit they work on. An inclusive offshore rate already carries employment, payroll, insurance and benefits inside it. Compare the first against the third and the in-house option looks cheaper than it is.
These are real costs. We have left them out because putting a fabricated number on them would make the total look precise when it is not.
The number this produces is the employer cost of one role on your payroll for one year. It is not an argument for going offshore. Plenty of roles should be hired in-house, and we have written about when offshore is and is not the right answer without hedging.
What the number does is make the comparison fair. If you are weighing a requisition against an augmented seat, this is the figure that belongs on the in-house side of the page. For the structural breakdown of what sits inside an inclusive rate, see what offshore staffing actually costs.
No. Everything above is calculated from figures you entered about your own hiring. Our rate card is issued on request against a specific role, because the honest answer depends on the discipline, the seniority and the hours of overlap you need. Asking for it is not a commitment to anything.
Each market names its sources inside the assumptions panel: GOV.UK for the UK National Insurance and pension figures, the IRS, the Social Security Administration and the KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey for the US, and the UAE Government portal for gratuity and health insurance. The defaults are shown rather than buried in the arithmetic, and you can change any of them. Rates move and state rules differ, so check them if precision matters to your decision.
No. It is an arithmetic tool using public statutory rates. For anything that turns on your specific circumstances, including employment status, IR35 in the UK, state payroll rules in the US, free zone rules in the UAE, or the treatment of a particular benefit, take advice from your accountant.
Want the other side of the comparison? Request the rate card for the role you have in mind, and we will send the inclusive figure against that specific discipline and seniority.
