Meeting Cost Calculator
Meetings have a real dollar cost measured in salary time. This calculator reveals how much your meetings actually cost by multiplying the number of attendees by their average hourly rate and the meeting duration. See the true expense per meeting, per week, per month, and per year.
The formula is straightforward but the results are often eye-opening:
- Cost per meeting = Attendees x Hourly rate x Duration (hours)
- Annual cost = Cost per meeting x Meetings per week x 52 weeks
A typical 6-person, 1-hour meeting with an average hourly rate of $50 costs $300 per meeting, or $15,600 per year if it happens weekly. That is equivalent to a quarter of an employee's salary spent in a single recurring meeting.
According to research, the average employee spends 15-25% of their work week in meetings, and executives spend 50% or more. Studies by Harvard Business Review and Microsoft found that 70% of meetings keep employees from doing productive work. Reducing meeting frequency, shortening durations, limiting attendees, and replacing status updates with written summaries can dramatically cut costs while improving team productivity.
To calculate the hourly rate, divide annual salary by 2,080 (52 weeks x 40 hours). For fully-loaded cost (including benefits, overhead), multiply the hourly salary by 1.3-1.5.