Fractional executive cost calculator
What a fractional hire actually costs, next to what the full-time version of the same seat costs once employer National Insurance, pension and the recruitment fee are counted. No email, no sign-up, and it will tell you when hiring full-time is the better deal.
| Fractional, first year | £92,000 |
| Full-time equivalent | |
| Base salary assumed | £140,000 |
| Employer NI 15% | £20,250 |
| Pension statutory minimum, capped | £1,321 |
| Recruitment fee 20%, one-off | £28,000 |
| Full-time, first year | £189,571 |
At £1,000 a day, the two cost the same at about 4.1 days a week. Past that, a full-time hire is the better deal and we would tell you so.
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What is in the numbers, and what is assumed
The fractional side is simply the day rate times the days, across 46 billable weeks a year rather than 52, because operators take holidays too. There is nothing else to add: no employer costs, no notice period, and no commission, because the operator is paid direct and keeps all of it.
The full-time side is the part companies underestimate. Employer National Insurance runs at 15 per cent of everything above the £5,000 threshold, and a senior search costs 20 per cent of first-year salary at the low end. Pension is the one people get wrong in the other direction: the compulsory employer minimum is 3 per cent of qualifying earnings, the band between £6,240 and £50,270, so it caps at £1,321 a year and does not rise with salary. Most companies pay an executive more than that, but more is a choice, and this calculator counts only what is actually compulsory.
Two figures here are assumptions and we would rather say so. The base salary is a mid-market UK figure for the seat, not a London top-end one, chosen deliberately so the comparison does not flatter the fractional side. The recruitment fee is the bottom of the usual 20 to 30 per cent range. Move either upward and fractional looks better, which is exactly why we did not.
We have an interest in one of these answers, so here is how we handled it. We earn only when a company pays us to run a search, which gives us a reason to want the fractional number to look good. So every assumption on this page is set where it makes fractional look worse, the calculator says outright when to hire an employee instead, and the first version of this page had the pension figure wrong in our own favour until we checked it against the statutory basis and corrected it downward. Browsing the bench and booking direct costs nothing either way, so the honest answer costs us nothing.
Not counted on either side: equipment, software seats, the cost of the role sitting empty during a four-month search, or the cost of a hire that does not work out. Those all fall on the full-time side, and all of them are real.
When full-time genuinely wins
When the work fills a week every week, when there is a team that needs managing daily, or when you need someone whose entire attention belongs to you. The calculator will tell you that itself: push the days up and the verdict flips. We have no reason to hide it, since nobody pays us to list on the bench either way.
If the honest answer for you is interim cover or a permanent hire, the comparison of all three lays out which solves which problem.
Common questions
How much does a fractional CFO cost per month in the UK?
At a typical £1,000 day rate and two days a week, roughly £8,000 a month. The range across the bench runs from about £2,400 a month for half a day a week to £24,000 for three days a week at the top of the band. There are no employer costs on top, and no commission, because you pay the operator direct.
Is a fractional executive really cheaper than hiring full-time?
Up to about two or three days a week, comfortably. Past that the gap closes fast, and this calculator will tell you when it flips rather than pretending otherwise. The saving comes from buying only the days you need and avoiding employer National Insurance, pension contributions and a recruitment fee.
What does a full-time executive actually cost beyond salary?
Employer National Insurance at 15 per cent of everything above the £5,000 threshold, statutory pension auto-enrolment, and a recruitment fee of 20 to 30 per cent of first-year salary. On a £140,000 CFO that is about £20,250 of NI, £1,321 of compulsory pension and £28,000 of recruitment: roughly £49,500 on top in year one, before equipment, software, or the months the seat sits empty during the search.
Do you take a commission on a fractional engagement?
No. Operators list free and keep 100 per cent of their rate, and companies browse and book free. We only earn when a company pays us to run a search for them, which is priced openly. That is also why we can publish these numbers at all.
Where these numbers come from
The day-rate bands are the ones we publish for every seat on the 2026 UK day rates page, drawn from the operators on the bench and the wider market. The statutory employer costs are current UK rates. Everything else is marked as an assumption, on this page, in the open.