Free tool

What work done by hand really costs you

Owners think in net salary. The company pays something else, and nobody works every hour of the year. Enter the salary and the tasks done by hand and see, in your own numbers, what they cost over a year.

An example, calculated exactly for 2026
  1. 4,000 lei net a month
  2. 6,991 lei paid by the company
  3. 45.59 lei for an hour actually workednot 24.00 lei, as the net salary suggests

What an hour of work really costs you

What reaches their account each month. Full-time contract, main job, no dependents.

The company's total yearly cost, divided by the 1,840 hours one person can actually work in 2026: 250 working days minus the legal minimum of 20 days' leave. Tax figures are those for iulie–decembrie 2026.

For the tasks you do yourself. Put what the company earns from an hour you spend selling or working for clients.

What gets done by hand in your company

Pick what fits. The numbers start from an example: replace them with yours.

Everything is calculated in your browser. I receive and keep nothing you type here, unless you choose to send me the calculation.

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Why

Ten minutes a day feels like nothing. Over a year it is a full week of work.

Repetitive work never shows up as an expense. No invoice comes for it; it just adds up: invoices downloaded by hand, shipping labels, the same answers on the phone, numbers copied from one program to another. And the hour you pay for it costs more than it seems, because contributions are added to the salary, and leave and public holidays come out of the year.

The calculator does not tell you what to do. It shows, in your numbers, what it costs to leave things as they are.

How we calculate

  • 2026 contributions and tax: pension 25%, health 10%, income tax 10% after the personal deduction, and the employer contribution (CAM) 2.25%, per the Romanian Fiscal Code.
  • Minimum wage: 4,050 lei gross until June and 4,325 lei from July 2026, with an untaxed amount of 300 lei, then 200 lei.
  • Hours actually worked: 250 working days in 2026, minus the legal minimum of 20 days' leave, i.e. 1,840 hours a year.
  • Results match the payroll calculators accountants use to the leu, across 19 salary levels checked.

Not included: meal vouchers, the first days of sick leave (paid by the company), occupational health checks or workplace safety services. The real cost is therefore somewhat higher than shown.

Questions

What does an employee on 4,000 lei net cost in 2026?
Gross is 6,837 lei, and the company also pays the 154 lei employer contribution, so 6,991 lei a month in total. Divided by the hours one person can actually work in a year, that is 45.59 lei per hour.
What does a minimum-wage employee cost in 2026?
From July 2026 the gross minimum wage is 4,325 lei: the employee receives 2,699 lei and the company pays 4,418 lei in total. From January to June it was 4,050 lei gross, 2,574 lei net and 4,134 lei total cost. Between gross and total cost there is only the employer contribution (CAM) of 2.25%. At the minimum wage it is slightly smaller still, because the untaxed amount is exempt from contributions too.
Why is the hourly cost almost double the net hourly salary?
Two reasons. The employee's contributions, income tax and the employer contribution come on top of the net salary. And nobody works every hour of the year: of 2026's 250 working days, a person is away at least 20 on leave, so works at most 1,840 hours.
What happens if I raise a minimum wage slightly?
The untaxed amount applies only when the base salary equals the minimum. One leu above it, 4,326 lei gross, the employee receives 2,614 lei, less than the 2,699 lei at the minimum wage. For them to receive 2,700 lei, gross has to reach 4,481 lei.
What is not included?
Meal vouchers, the first days of each sick leave (paid by the company), occupational health checks, workplace safety and fire-prevention services, and any bonuses. All of them raise the cost, so the calculator's figure is closer to a minimum.
Do you keep the numbers I enter?
No. Everything is calculated in your browser. The link you can copy keeps the calculation after the # sign, which browsers never send to a server.
How did you decide how much can be automated?
Cautiously: 80% of the time for tasks that automate almost fully, 50% for partial ones and 20% for hard ones, based on what exists today: ANAF's official e-Factura API, the big couriers' shipping-label APIs, and invoicing programs that connect directly to online shops.