• “Why Training Workers Costs More Than You Think”

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“I pay Bill $24 an hour (like Bill himself, this is a made up number but a good approximation of the wages I pay experienced bench hands). With taxes and benefits, he costs me $30 an hour. When he’s working at the bench, I can sell his labor for $80 an hour. If I move him into the office, no product will be built. So that costs me $80 an hour in lost production, but I’m still paying him his wages. That means the cost of his training is already $110 an hour. ”Of course, someone has to train Bill. That would be my engineer. Guys like him cost about $48 an hour, including taxes and benefits. We bill him out at $90 an hour. If the engineer stops doing productive work and starts training Bill, I forgo both his production and the revenue we charge for it — but I still have to pay him for his services. That’s another $138 an hour. So the initial cost of training Bill is $248 an hour.” Source: NYTimes.com

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