Meeting Cost Calculator
Because someone should be keeping track of this, and it isn't your manager.
Per attendee. Use an average if salaries vary.
This meeting is why the budget's tight.
Meetings cost money. Not just your time, everyone's. Put in who's in the room and how long it drags on, and this works out roughly what that meeting cost the company in salary alone.
A six person, one hour meeting at $75k average salary is about $540. Gone. And that's not counting the prep beforehand or the "just circling back" email three days later. This bit we can calculate. The rest is on you.
How we work it out
Take everyone's yearly salary, break it down to what they earn per minute, multiply by how long the meeting ran, add it all up. The tool assumes a standard 40-hour week. It doesn't include payroll taxes or benefits, so the real cost to the company is usually 20-30% higher than what you see.
Why does this matter?
Meetings are the one business cost that almost never appears on a budget line. Office space, software licenses, and equipment all get scrutinized. But a recurring weekly all-hands with twenty people is just "Tuesday." Research consistently finds that knowledge workers spend somewhere between 35-55% of their working time in meetings, with a significant portion rated as unnecessary by the people attending them. Running this calculator on your own calendar for a week tends to clarify things quickly.
Questions
What salary figure should I use if people earn different amounts?
Use the average across attendees, or err on the side of whoever earns the most. Senior people in optional meetings skew the number up fast. Either way, the result will be directionally correct.
Does this include employer costs like payroll taxes and benefits?
No. The figure shown is raw salary cost only. Add roughly 20-30% to get closer to the true employment cost to the business.
Can I use this for non-US salaries?
Yes. Ignore the $ sign and enter your local currency figure. The math is currency-agnostic. The existential dread is universal.
Need a break from all this calculation?