Meeting Cost Calculator
Calculate the true cost of meetings based on attendees' salaries. Find out if that meeting should have been an email.
Understanding Meeting Costs
The Hidden Math
A meeting isn't just 1 hour—it's 1 hour times every attendee. A 10-person meeting consumes 10 hours of company time. That's more than a full workday gone in a single meeting.
True Cost with Benefits
Salary is just part of the cost. Health insurance, 401k matching, payroll taxes, and overhead add 25-40% to what an employee actually costs. We use 30% as a reasonable estimate.
Recovery Time
Studies show it takes 23 minutes to refocus after an interruption. Meetings fragment the workday, so the real cost includes the lost productivity before and after.
Making Meetings Worth the Cost
Fewer Attendees
Every person you remove cuts the cost proportionally. Ask: "Who actually needs to be here?" Often the answer is fewer people than you think. Send notes to others.
Shorter Meetings
Parkinson's Law: work expands to fill time available. Schedule 25 minutes instead of 30, or 50 instead of 60. You'll cover the same ground more efficiently.
Clear Agendas
No agenda, no meeting. Require a written agenda 24 hours before. If there's nothing to discuss, cancel it. Your team will thank you.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you calculate the cost of a meeting?
To calculate meeting cost, multiply each attendee's hourly rate by the meeting duration, then sum all attendees. Hourly rate is typically annual salary divided by 2,080 work hours per year (40 hours × 52 weeks). For a true cost, add 30% for benefits and overhead like health insurance, retirement contributions, and office space.
How much does a typical meeting cost?
A 1-hour meeting with 8 employees earning an average of $75,000/year costs approximately $288 (or $374 with benefits). Weekly recurring meetings of this type cost over $15,000-19,000 per year. Senior-level meetings cost significantly more—a 1-hour meeting with 5 executives at $200K average costs about $625 per meeting.
What makes meetings so expensive?
Meeting costs multiply quickly because every attendee's time counts. A 10-person meeting isn't 1 hour—it's 10 hours of collective work time. Plus, meetings have hidden costs: preparation time (often 30-60 min), context switching (23 minutes to refocus), and lost "flow state" productivity. Some estimates put the true cost at 2-3x the raw salary calculation.
Did you know?
- The average employee spends 31 hours per month in unproductive meetings—almost 4 full workdays every month, or 46 days per year.
- At a $75K salary, that's over $13,000 per employee per year spent in meetings that could have been emails.
- Studies show it takes 23 minutes to refocus after an interruption, meaning a single meeting can cost an hour of productive work beyond its scheduled time.
- Executives spend an average of 23 hours per week in meetings, up from 10 hours in the 1960s.
- 71% of senior managers say meetings are unproductive and inefficient, yet the number of meetings continues to increase each year.