Employment cost calculator | Deel

The Employment Cost Calculator API helps you estimate the total cost of hiring employees globally. Get accurate cost breakdowns including salary, employer taxes, benefits, and Deel’s service fees before creating contracts.

Overview

Use this API to:

Estimate total employment costs by country and salary
Compare costs across different countries for budget planning
Include benefits in cost calculations (health insurance, pension, etc.)
Show candidates transparent total compensation packages

Basic cost calculation

Calculate employment costs for a specific country and salary.

API endpoint: POST /eor/employment_cost

1 import requests
2 import os
3 
4 url = "https://api.letsdeel.com/rest/v2/eor/employment_cost"
5 headers = {
6     "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.getenv('DEEL_API_TOKEN')}",
7     "Content-Type": "application/json"
8 }
9 payload = {
10     "data": {
11         "country": "Netherlands",
12         "salary": 5000,
13         "currency": "EUR"
14     }
15 }
16 
17 response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)
18 print(response.json())

Request parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`country`	string	Yes	Country name (e.g., “Netherlands”, “United States”)
`salary`	number	Yes	Monthly or annual salary amount
`currency`	string	Yes	ISO currency code (e.g., “EUR”, “USD”)
`benefits`	array	No	Array of benefit provider IDs to include

Response fields:

salary - Input salary amount
currency - Input currency
country / country_code - Country name and ISO code
frequency - Payment frequency (Monthly/Annual)
deel_fee - Deel’s service fee
employer_costs - Employer taxes and contributions
total_costs - Total monthly cost (salary + employer costs + Deel fee)
costs - Breakdown of individual employer costs
benefits_data - Details of included benefits (if any)
severance_accrual - Accrued severance costs (if applicable)

Including benefits in calculations

To get accurate cost estimates with benefits like health insurance or pension, follow these steps.

Step 1: Check available benefits

First, check which benefits are available for the target country.

API endpoint: GET /eor/validations/{country_code}

1 import requests
2 import os
3 
4 url = "https://api.letsdeel.com/rest/v2/eor/validations/NL"
5 headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.getenv('DEEL_API_TOKEN')}"}
6 
7 response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
8 print(response.json())

Look for benefit types with "status": "ENABLED" and note the provider id values — use these in the cost calculation.

Step 2: Calculate costs with benefits

Include the benefits array with provider IDs in your cost calculation request.

1 import requests
2 import os
3 
4 url = "https://api.letsdeel.com/rest/v2/eor/employment_cost"
5 headers = {
6     "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.getenv('DEEL_API_TOKEN')}",
7     "Content-Type": "application/json"
8 }
9 payload = {
10     "data": {
11         "country": "Netherlands",
12         "salary": 5000,
13         "currency": "EUR",
14         "benefits": [
15             {"provider_id": "01c60f26-fe0e-48f3-82d5-b899848eee7b"}
16         ]
17     }
18 }
19 
20 response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)
21 print(response.json())

total_costs increases to include benefit costs. The benefits_data array contains the applied benefit details. Benefit costs are added on top of employer taxes.

Use cases

Budget planning for global expansion

Compare employment costs across multiple countries to determine where to hire next. Calculate total costs for the same role in different countries to optimise your hiring budget.

1 import requests
2 import os
3 
4 headers = {
5     "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.getenv('DEEL_API_TOKEN')}",
6     "Content-Type": "application/json"
7 }
8 countries = [
9     {"name": "Netherlands", "salary": 5000, "currency": "EUR"},
10     {"name": "United Kingdom", "salary": 4500, "currency": "GBP"},
11     {"name": "Spain", "salary": 4000, "currency": "EUR"},
12 ]
13 
14 for country in countries:
15     response = requests.post(
16         "https://api.letsdeel.com/rest/v2/eor/employment_cost",
17         json={"data": country},
18         headers=headers
19     )
20     data = response.json()["data"]
21     print(f"{country['name']}: {data['total_costs']} {data['currency']}/month")

Real-time cost estimates in hiring tools

Integrate the cost calculator into your internal hiring platform or ATS to show real-time cost estimates as recruiters build job offers.

1 import requests
2 import os
3 
4 def get_employment_costs(country, salary, currency):
5     response = requests.post(
6         "https://api.letsdeel.com/rest/v2/eor/employment_cost",
7         json={"data": {"country": country, "salary": salary, "currency": currency}},
8         headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.getenv('DEEL_API_TOKEN')}"}
9     )
10     data = response.json()["data"]
11     return {
12         "monthly_cost": data["total_costs"],
13         "annual_cost": float(data["total_costs"]) * 12,
14         "breakdown": data["costs"]
15     }

Benefits comparison tool

Help hiring managers compare different benefit packages and their impact on total costs.

1 import requests
2 import os
3 
4 def calculate_cost(country, salary, currency, benefits=None):
5     payload = {"data": {"country": country, "salary": salary, "currency": currency}}
6     if benefits:
7         payload["data"]["benefits"] = [{"provider_id": b} for b in benefits]
8     response = requests.post(
9         "https://api.letsdeel.com/rest/v2/eor/employment_cost",
10         json=payload,
11         headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.getenv('DEEL_API_TOKEN')}"}
12     )
13     return response.json()["data"]
14 
15 without_benefits = calculate_cost("United States", 8000, "USD")
16 with_health = calculate_cost("United States", 8000, "USD", [health_provider_id])
17 with_all = calculate_cost("United States", 8000, "USD", [health_provider_id, pension_provider_id])
18 
19 print(f"No benefits: ${without_benefits['total_costs']}/month")
20 print(f"Health only: ${with_health['total_costs']}/month")
21 print(f"Full package: ${with_all['total_costs']}/month")

Best practices

Handle currency conversions

If comparing costs across countries, convert to a common currency for accurate comparison. The API returns costs in the requested currency; apply exchange rates in your own code before comparing totals.

Show cost breakdowns

Display itemised costs (salary, taxes, benefits, fees) rather than only the total. Use the costs array in the response to render a clear breakdown for hiring managers or candidates.

Calculate annual costs

Multiply monthly total_costs by 12 for annual budget planning. For fixed-term contracts shorter than 12 months, multiply by the actual contract duration in months.

Recalculate before contract creation

Tax rates and benefit costs change regularly. Recalculate costs immediately before contract creation rather than relying on cached estimates from earlier in the hiring flow.

Include severance accrual

Some countries require severance accrual. The severance_accrual field in the response shows the monthly accrual amount — include this in long-term cost planning even when it is not part of the upfront total.

Next steps

EOR introduction

Learn about the full EOR API capabilities and available endpoints.

Hiring

Create EOR contracts after estimating costs.

Authentication

Set up API authentication before making requests.

Webhooks

Subscribe to contract lifecycle events.