Free tool

FTE vs contractor vs fractional.

Salary is not the cost of a hire. This calculator loads KiwiSaver, ACC, leave, recruitment, and kit — then compares that with a contractor at a day rate, and a fractional PM a few days a month.

Over 12 months

A fractional retainer is the lowest cost in this scenario.

Full-time hire (loaded)

$194,897

$890 per productive day

Contractor (same days)

$262,800

$1,200 × 219 days

Fractional PM

$57,600

4 days/month × 12 months

Salary (pro-rata): $140,000
Leave load: $22,077
KiwiSaver: $4,200
ACC: $1,120
Recruitment (year 1): $21,000
Equipment & other: $6,500

If you need senior judgement a few days a month — planning, steering, unblocking — a retainer usually beats a hire and a full-time contractor. That is the gap fractional work is built for.

A number this calculator cannot give you

Institutional knowledge is not a headcount problem.

Chief executives sometimes hire because they want the organisation to learn — someone who was in the room, who will still be there next year. That instinct is real. It is also often a substitute for work the organisation never bothered to do.

Most of what people mean by “they know how we do things” can be written down: a decent handover, a lessons-learned bank that is actually opened, decision logs, and the discipline to capture what went wrong before the team scatters. A contractor or a fractional PM can leave that behind. A permanent hire often does not either — if there is no habit, the knowledge walks out with whoever happens to leave.

This calculator compares dollars. It does not price what you already fail to write down. If “we need them on staff so we keep the knowledge” is the argument, ask first whether you have a knowledge problem or a process problem.

Want a view on whether you need a hire, a contractor, or a few days a month? That is a conversation, not a spreadsheet.

Talk it through