correct.

in the US, there will be an extra ~10% above that for FICA/unemployment. The company will probably shell out another ~$12k for health insurance (I'm speaking averages here - I know some companies are very generous, and others aren't). Factor in some x% salary matching in to a 401k - say another 5%, and perhaps some other perks. Let's say there's another ~$20k on top of the $70k - that $70k employee may cost the company $95k.

If you then want to apportion office/equipment costs, you can do that too, but that $70k employee is not costing $140k (unless, perhaps, they're being very generous with some shares and there's a cost associated with that, and perhaps tuition reimbursement, company car and some other perks on top of what was mentioned above... maybe). Those sorts of things aren't generally given to someone in the US making $70k.

sure - wasn't trying to correct you, just to add on in the same vein as you were posting, that's all.

To be honest, my number was based on my rembering of opinions from people who were in management but were certainly not experts on HR budgets or something. So it could be very wrong

It’s the right idea but a bit inflated :) 100k total cost for someone making 70k may be a better starting spot for a guess.