Costing & FinanceFree calculatorPDF, Excel, Word exportKingdee / YonyouManufacturingChina

China Plant Labor Cost Calculator

Chinese labor cost is more than the pay slip. Employers pay pension, medical, unemployment, injury and housing fund contributions on top, and overtime carries a legal premium. This tool builds the loaded rate you should use in standard costing and quotes.

Your numbers

Headcount

workers

Monthly base salary

CNY

Employer pension rate

Varies by city. Confirm with the local social insurance bureau.

Employer medical plus maternity rate

Employer unemployment plus injury rate

Employer housing fund rate

7 %

Overtime per worker per month

12 hours

Overtime multiplier

Your results

Loaded monthly cost per worker

CNY 9,304

Annual plant labor cost

CNY 22,330,593

Base hourly rate (21.75 days x 8 h)

37.3563

Overtime pay per worker per month

CNY 672

Employer insurance and housing fund per worker

CNY 2,132

Assumes salary sits within the local contribution base limits.

Loaded cost per paid hour

50.0237

Burden over base salary

43.1%

Rates and contribution base limits differ by city and change yearly. Defaults are placeholders, not legal rates. Excludes bonuses, 13th month pay, union fees and severance.

Save results:

Loaded monthly cost vs overtime hours

Sweeps Overtime per worker per month from 0 to 36, holding your other inputs fixed.

Labor rate feed to ERP

Optional: we can review how labor rates and overtime reach your work center costs.

Optional. The tool and every export work without this. No spam.

How to use it

Enter headcount, the base monthly salary and the employer contribution rates for your city. Set typical overtime hours and the multiplier. The tool shows loaded cost per worker, per paid hour and for the whole plant over a year. Use the loaded hourly figure as the labor rate in your ERP routing and standard cost rather than the shop floor wage, otherwise product costs are understated and quotes lose margin.

The calculation

Hourly base uses 174 hours per month, which is 21.75 paid days times 8 hours. Overtime pay is hourly rate times overtime hours times the multiplier. Employer contributions are the base salary times the sum of the rates, assuming the salary is inside the local floor and ceiling for contribution bases. Loaded cost is base plus overtime plus contributions.

Weekday overtime is typically 1.5x, rest day 2x, statutory holiday 3x
Contribution base is capped and floored by city, so check local limits
Loaded hour = monthly loaded cost / paid hours

Common mistakes

Many plants use the base wage as the labor rate and treat contributions as overhead, which hides the true cost of overtime-heavy products. Another error is assuming one national rate. Rates and bases differ by city and are reset each year. In Kingdee or Yonyou, keep the labor rate by work center in a table that finance reviews annually, and update routing cost rolls after the update.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are the default rates official?

No. They are placeholders close to common ranges. Employer rates depend on the city, industry injury class and year. Replace them with the figures from your local bureau or payroll provider.

Why 174 hours per month?

Chinese rules commonly use 21.75 paid working days per month, which times 8 hours gives 174. Some companies use 168 or a different convention, so match your payroll policy.

Does it include the employee share?

No. Employee deductions come out of gross pay and are not an extra employer cost. Only the employer share and housing fund are added here.

Does the plant total include bonuses?

No. Add year-end bonus, allowances and any severance accrual separately, or fold them into the base salary field as an average monthly figure.

If you want labor rates and overtime flowing from payroll into ERP work center costs automatically, we can help design that data feed.

Talk to an Expert Explore More Free Tools

Related Tools

ERP Migration & Selection

More Costing & Finance tools

See all

Back to All Tools