The data
Every figure on this page comes from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) for May 2025, published on 15 May 2026. It is the government's survey of what employers pay, by occupation, across the whole US.
We use the median annual wage for each occupation: half the people in that job earn more and half earn less. Medians are less pulled about by a few very high earners than averages are, which makes them a better guess for a typical colleague.
Each hourly rate is the annual median divided by 2,080 hours (52 weeks of 40 hours), the same basis the meeting cost calculator uses.
What an hour costs, by role
| Occupation | Median annual wage | Per hour | A 30-minute meeting | A weekly 1-hour meeting, per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chief executives | $213,990 | $102.88 | $51.44 | $5,350 |
| Computer and information systems managers | $175,140 | $84.20 | $42.10 | $4,378 |
| Marketing managers | $166,790 | $80.19 | $40.09 | $4,170 |
| Financial managers | $166,570 | $80.08 | $40.04 | $4,164 |
| Lawyers | $159,670 | $76.76 | $38.38 | $3,992 |
| Human resources managers | $149,280 | $71.77 | $35.88 | $3,732 |
| Sales managers | $148,270 | $71.28 | $35.64 | $3,707 |
| Software developers | $135,980 | $65.38 | $32.69 | $3,400 |
| Information security analysts | $129,180 | $62.11 | $31.05 | $3,230 |
| Data scientists | $120,230 | $57.80 | $28.90 | $3,006 |
| General and operations managers | $105,770 | $50.85 | $25.43 | $2,644 |
| Software quality assurance analysts and testers | $104,300 | $50.14 | $25.07 | $2,608 |
| Project management specialists | $102,320 | $49.19 | $24.60 | $2,558 |
| Management analysts | $101,860 | $48.97 | $24.49 | $2,546 |
| Accountants and auditors | $83,680 | $40.23 | $20.12 | $2,092 |
| Market research analysts and marketing specialists | $78,760 | $37.87 | $18.93 | $1,969 |
| Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing (non-technical) | $72,080 | $34.65 | $17.33 | $1,802 |
| Graphic designers | $62,960 | $30.27 | $15.13 | $1,574 |
| Customer service representatives | $44,770 | $21.52 | $10.76 | $1,119 |
| All occupations | $50,980 | $24.51 | $12.25 | $1,274 |
Every column is per person. A meeting's cost is the sum of everyone in it.
Each role also has its own page, with a calculator already set to that role's pay, a table of meeting costs by size and length, and priced example meetings.
Four typical meetings, priced
Engineering standup
Six software developers, a QA tester and a project manager. Fifteen minutes, every weekday.
- Per standup: $123
- Per year, at 260 standups: $31,953
Weekly leadership meeting
A chief executive with the heads of finance, marketing, sales, technology and HR. One hour, weekly.
- Per meeting: $490
- Per year: $25,501
The leadership meeting has fewer people than the standup and runs for an hour instead of 15 minutes, yet the standup costs more over a year, because it runs five times as often. Frequency is usually the biggest number in the calculation.
Campaign review
A marketing manager, three marketing specialists and two graphic designers. One hour, every two weeks.
- Per meeting: $254
- Per year, at 26 meetings: $6,612
Sales pipeline review
A sales manager and six sales representatives. Thirty minutes, weekly.
- Per meeting: $140
- Per year: $7,259
What these figures leave out
Benefits and overheads. OEWS measures wages. It does not include what employers pay on top: health insurance, retirement contributions, payroll taxes, equipment and office space. The true cost of each hour is higher than the table shows, so treat these figures as a floor.
Your own pay levels. A national median hides a lot of variation by city, industry, company size and seniority. A software developer in a large coastal city may be paid well above $135,980; one elsewhere may be paid well below it. If you know your own salary bands, use them.
The work that did not happen. An hour in a meeting is an hour not spent on whatever else that person would have done. For most people that work is worth more to the business than their wage, or the business would not be paying them.
Using this with your own team
- Find each attendee's role in the table, or the closest one.
- Add up their hourly rates.
- Multiply by the meeting's length in hours, then by how many times a year it runs.
Or let something do it for you. Hourari's role-based costing works the same way: each role carries a salary (sensible defaults, or your own figures on any paid plan), and every meeting on your team's calendars is priced from who actually attended, without anyone needing to see anyone else's pay. For the arithmetic in more depth, see how much does a meeting cost?
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 national estimates, released 15 May 2026. Hourly rates and meeting costs are Hourari's calculations from those medians.