Free Design Hire Calculator
What does a design hire really cost?
The job ad says £65k. The real number is bigger. Employer NI, pension, recruitment fees, software and three months of ramp-up — see the true first-year cost in 30 seconds.
Who are you hiring?
Where are they based?
How would you recruit?
Base salary
£65,000
True first-year cost
Base salary
What the job ad says
Employer National Insurance
15% above the £5,000 threshold
Pension contribution
3% auto-enrolment minimum
Recruitment
Typical 20% agency placement fee
Software, kit & seat
Figma, Adobe, fonts, stock, laptop
Ramp-up time
First 3 months at half speed
Real cost, year one
£8,356/month, before they've shipped anything
The same money at Milktree
Design Lead plan
A dedicated senior designer on your Slack, backed by a full team across brand, ads, decks, packaging and web. Starts this week. Cancel any month.
£47,988/yr
That hire costs £52,287 more in year one — for one skill set instead of a whole team.
Email me this breakdown
Your personalised numbers as a keepable one-pager, plus the side-by-side with both Milktree plans. Send it to your CFO.
Estimates use 2025/26 employer NI rates, the 3% auto-enrolment pension minimum and typical UK recruitment fees. Your exact numbers will vary — that's why the email version is itemised.