What A Hire Actually Costs

Office roles carry more than salary

• Base salary
• Annual or project bonus — ask what it actually paid last year, not what the target was
• Vehicle allowance or company truck, plus fuel
• Cell phone and technology allowance
• Profit sharing, ESOP, or 401k match

On a commercial construction PM, truck, fuel, and bonus routinely add fifteen to twenty percent on top of base. A candidate comparing your base to their base can turn down a raise without realizing it.

Field roles are a different math entirely

• Hourly rate, and whether overtime is guaranteed or opportunistic
• Scheduled hours — a 6x10 with twenty guaranteed OT hours is a different job than a 40-hour week at the same rate
• Per diem, and critically whether it pays five days or seven
• Travel pay, mobilization, and whether drive time is compensated

Seven-day per diem versus five is roughly a fifteen thousand dollar annual difference. Candidates know this. Recruiters who do not lose placements over it.

What to do

• Build the total package number before you make the offer, and present it that way
• Ask candidates for their whole current package early — not just base
• If you are ten percent under market, know it going in and decide what you are offering instead: project quality, schedule, growth, or home time

The pattern we see

A search that stalls at offer stage is almost never a candidate problem. It is a package that was benchmarked on the wrong number.