What is included in your staffing price?

The wage, set to what your local market actually requires

Pay too little and you do not save money, you buy turnover. Federal Reserve researchers studying a Fortune 500 warehouse operator found that a $1 per hour raise cut worker departures roughly in half, reduced unexcused absenteeism 18.6 percent and raised productivity 5.7 percent. We staff your market every week and know the rate at which people show up and stay. That is built into your quote.

Source: Emanuel and Harrington, The Payoffs of Higher Pay, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Report 1182, February 2026, newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr1182. A Federal Reserve staff report, not yet peer reviewed; 14,000 plus workers across 40 plus warehouses.

Every employer payroll tax

For every worker on assignment, C3 is the employer of record. We calculate, withhold, file and pay the employer share of Social Security and Medicare, federal unemployment tax (FUTA) and state unemployment tax (SUTA) under our own account and our own experience rating in every state where we place. Federal data puts legally required benefits at 10.24 to 12.04 percent of wages for clerical, production and warehouse occupations.

Why ours runs heavier than yours is answered in the FAQ below: unemployment taxes restart on a per employee wage base, and a staffing firm restarts that base on every worker it hires.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, Table 4, March 2026, bls.gov/news.release/ecec.t04.htm (percent of wages calculated from BLS dollar figures).

The employer burden table

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, private industry, all workers, March 2026 reference period, released June 12, 2026, bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecec.pdf. BLS publishes these as a percent of total compensation. Percent of wages is calculated by dividing the BLS cost per hour by BLS wages and salaries per hour for the same group ($32.60), so the figures line up with an hourly pay rate. Statutory rates: IRS Topic 751 (irs.gov/taxtopics/tc751), US DOL average state UI tax rates 2025 estimate (oui.doleta.gov), National Academy of Social Insurance workers compensation report, Aug 2026, 2023 data (nasi.org).

Put another way, the same BLS data says total compensation runs about 1.43 times straight time wages in private industry, and about 1.45 times for warehouse and clerical roles, before anyone spends a dollar recruiting or screening. That is the number to hold a bill rate against.

Workers compensation, including the part nobody mentions

Your price includes the workers comp premium for every hour worked. It also includes the claims exposure. A single claim stays in an employer’s experience modification factor for three consecutive rating years, raising premiums long after the injury is closed. Workers on our assignments are covered by our policy. A claim never touches your mod and never shows up in your renewal three years later.

Source: NCCI, ABCs of Experience Rating, ncci.com.

Unemployment claims, on our account instead of yours

When an assignment ends, whatever the reason, the unemployment claim charges the staffing company’s account, not yours. State unemployment tax rates are experience rated everywhere, so every claim an employer absorbs raises its rate for years afterward. The exposure varies by state. In Michigan, for example, the maximum weekly benefit rose to $530 for 26 weeks in 2026, so one full claim can charge $13,780 to an employer’s account. Whatever state you operate in, your price includes absorbing that exposure on every worker, every week.

Sources: Mich. Admin. Code R. 421.190, law.cornell.edu. Michigan UIA, Public Act 173 of 2024 benefit changes, michigan.gov/leo. SC DEW, benefits and 2026 tax rate information, dew.sc.gov. The $13,780 and $7,000 figures are calculated from the agencies’ published maximums (weekly benefit times maximum weeks).

Payroll administration, including the hard parts

Payroll, direct deposit, timecards, W 2s at year end. That is the visible part. The invisible part arrives in the mail: child support orders, friend of the court orders, tax levies, creditor garnishments. Each one must be calculated correctly against the worker’s disposable earnings, withheld on time, remitted to the right agency and answered for. Mishandle one and the liability lands on the employer. We process these orders every week, across multiple states. You never see them.

ACA tracking and 1095 C administration

The Affordable Care Act does not pause because a workforce is temporary. Your price includes tracking every worker’s hours against ACA full time thresholds, managing offers of coverage and waivers with documentation, and generating, distributing and filing 1095 C forms on deadline. Employer penalties for getting this wrong run $3,340 to $5,010 per full time employee per year in 2026. With people starting and ending assignments constantly, the tracking burden is heavy and the error risk is real. It is ours.

Source: IRS Revenue Procedure 2025 26, 2026 Section 4980H(a) and 4980H(b) penalty amounts, as summarized by Equifax Workforce Solutions, workforce.equifax.com.

Recruiting, screening and onboarding

Before anyone reaches your facility, your price has already paid for sourcing and recruiting in your local market, interviews and skill evaluation, drug screening and background checks to your requirements, E Verify and I 9 employment eligibility verification, and onboarding with safety orientation and required notices. Form I 9 paperwork violations alone run $288 to $2,861 per individual. Several states, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida among them, require private employers to run E Verify on every new hire, with penalties that can reach the business license itself. We carry that verification burden for every worker we place, in every state.

Sources: 8 CFR 274a.10, civil penalty amounts current as of August 2026, ecfr.gov. State E Verify mandates: South Carolina Code Title 41 Chapter 8, Georgia O.C.G.A. 36 60 6, Florida Statutes 448.095.