Labor Rate & Wrap Rate Calculator | Guide GSC Proposal Toolkit

Know your fully burdened rate before you price

Your billing rate is more than the wage. It stacks fringe (taxes, insurance, paid leave), overhead (supervision, facilities, and other costs that support the work), G&A (running the company), and profit or fee. The ratio of the billed rate to the base wage is your wrap rate. Price too low and you lose money or fail a realism review. Price too high and you fall out of the competitive range.

On service contracts covered by the Service Contract Act, the wage determination in the solicitation sets minimum wages and a required health & welfare (H&W) amount per hour. Price at or above them.

References: FAR Part 31 (cost principles and allowability); FAR 15.404-1 (price and cost realism analysis); FAR 15.404-4 (profit); FAR 52.222-41 and Subpart 22.10 (Service Contract Act). Wage determinations are published on SAM.gov.

Inputs

Labor category

Base hourly wage ($)

SCA H&W per hour ($, 0 if not covered)

Fringe (% of wage)

FICA, unemployment, workers' comp, paid leave, benefits

Overhead (% of labor + fringe)

G&A (% of total cost input)

Profit / fee (% of total cost)

Hours per FTE per year

Number of FTEs

The build-up order here (fringe on wage, overhead on labor + fringe, G&A on total cost input, then profit) is common, but your accounting system's rate structure governs. If you have DCAA or provisional rates, use them.

Build-up

Element	Basis	$ / hour	Cumulative

Fully burdened rate

Wrap rate (× base wage)

Annual price (all FTEs)

Sanity checks

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