The wage on the offer letter is rarely the full cost of a hire. Employer payroll taxes, workers' compensation, and any benefits contribution typically add a meaningful percentage on top before the person has done a day of work.
Holiday and sick-leave accrual is the quieter cost — time the employee is paid for but not working. It builds gradually, so it rarely shows up as a single alarming number, but over a year it adds up to real weeks of wages.
Add the payroll software or provider fee, and the true cost of a hire is consistently higher than the headline wage. Budgeting with that fuller number before extending an offer avoids the uncomfortable recalculation that follows the first pay run.
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