What goes on top
Employer contributions, paid absence, equipment and insurance — ordinary, unavoidable and almost never written down in one place.
Employer Contributions
The statutory layer that sits directly on the wage: what it contains, why it is not a flat percentage, and where to get the figure.
Paid Absence as a Cost Layer
Holiday, public holidays and other paid absence are hours paid and not available. Where they belong in the build-up, and the double-counting trap.
Sickness, and the Rate Rather Than the Person
Sickness belongs in a rate as a population figure, never as a prediction about anybody. How to compute it, and why the framing decides whether the number survives.
Training, Induction and the Ramp
Paid hours spent learning rather than producing. The three components, how to spread them, and why the ramp is the largest and least recorded.
Tools, Licences and the Per-Head Costs
Everything bought per person rather than per hour: what belongs here, why the divisor matters so much, and the part-timer trap.
Space, and Whether It Belongs in the Rate
Premises cost is usually overhead and sometimes per head. The test that decides, and what hybrid working did to both answers.
What Must Not Go in the Rate
A labour rate collects costs by gravity. Six things that get added and should not be, and the test for each.