December 19, 2025
by Staff Writer

The Estimated $6,900-per-Month Hire vs. the $1,990-per-Month Subscription

December 19, 2025
by Staff Writer

The full employment cost most owners never calculate

A practical worksheet for small Canadian service businesses comparing a junior marketing hire with a monthly marketing service, using current sources and plain language.

Key Takeaways

Estimate salary, employer payroll contributions, benefits, tools, recruitment, and management time before setting a monthly hiring budget.
Compare hiring and monthly services by scope, approval speed, internal effort, and the work that is completed and published.
Decide what must remain inside the business, what can be assigned externally, and how approvals will be handled before work begins.

Why the Salary Is Rarely the Full Cost

When marketing happens only when someone has spare time, the problem is usually limited capacity rather than a lack of intent.

Website changes, social posts, email campaigns, sales materials, forms, and basic advertising tasks accumulate. The owner or manager then becomes responsible for assigning the work, finding source material, reviewing drafts, and following up until something is published.

A junior marketing hire may appear to solve the problem. However, the backlog can simply change form.

The employee may be waiting for direction. Website updates may be waiting for approval. Social content may be held because no one has confirmed the offer or publication date. The owner may still be acting as editor, approver, and project manager.

The missing step is often a full employment budget that includes costs beyond the salary shown in the offer letter.

Canadian employers generally pay an employer share of Canada Pension Plan contributions and Employment Insurance premiums. They must also calculate, deduct, and remit the required employee payroll amounts.

Starting With a $60,000 Salary

This worksheet uses a $60,000 annual salary for a marketing coordinator-type position.

Government of Canada Job Bank data lists national hourly wages for professional occupations in advertising, marketing, and public relations from $20.50 to $57.44, with a median of $35.58. The wage data was updated in November 2025 and is based primarily on a 2023–2024 reference period. The category is broad and does not define a separate junior salary range.

A $60,000 salary is therefore an example, not a prescribed wage or a claim about what every junior marketing employee should earn.

The 2026 Mandatory Employer Costs

For 2026, employers and employees each contribute 5.95% to CPP on pensionable earnings above the $3,500 basic exemption, up to the applicable annual limit.

For an employee earning $60,000:

Pensionable earnings after the exemption: $56,500
Employer CPP contribution: $3,361.75 per year
Average monthly employer CPP cost: $280.15

For 2026, the employee EI premium rate outside Quebec is 1.63% on insurable earnings up to $68,900. Employers generally pay 1.4 times the employee premium.

For an employee earning $60,000:

Employee EI premium: $978.00 per year
Employer EI premium: $1,369.20 per year
Average monthly employer EI cost: $114.10

CPP2 does not apply to a $60,000 salary because it applies only to earnings above the first annual CPP earnings ceiling, which is $74,600 for 2026.

The Basic Cost Worksheet

Cost category	Annual cost	Monthly average
Base salary	$60,000.00	$5,000.00
Employer CPP	$3,361.75	$280.15
Employer EI	$1,369.20	$114.10
Salary plus mandatory employer CPP and EI	$64,730.95	$5,394.25
Additional costs required to reach the example estimate	$18,069.05	$1,505.75
Illustrative full employment estimate	$82,800.00	$6,900.00

The $6,900 figure is therefore not a mandatory payroll calculation. It is a planning scenario that assumes approximately $18,069 per year in additional employment costs.

Those additional costs may include:

Health and dental benefits
Retirement-plan contributions
Computer equipment
Software licences
Recruitment expenses
Onboarding and training
Payroll or HR administration
Management and review time
Temporary coverage during absences
Workspace and related overhead

A commonly cited planning rule estimates the full cost of an employee at approximately 1.2 to 1.4 times base salary. Under that range, a $60,000 salary would produce an estimated annual cost of $72,000 to $84,000, or $6,000 to $7,000 per month. This is a general rule of thumb, not a government payroll formula. Actual costs depend on the employer, role, location, benefit plan, and operating structure.

The $6,900 title uses a multiplier of 1.38. A business should not use that number without replacing the assumed costs with its own figures.

Do Not Double-Count Vacation

Ontario employees are generally entitled to vacation pay of at least 4% of gross wages when they have less than five years of employment and at least 6% after five years.

That does not mean every employer should automatically add another 4% to an annual salary.

For many salaried employees, paid vacation is already included within the annual salary. The employer continues paying the salary while the employee takes vacation.

The additional business cost may arise when:

Someone else must be paid to cover the work
Work is delayed during the absence
Overtime is required
Temporary support is hired
The business loses productive capacity

The worksheet should count the actual cost created by the company’s employment and coverage arrangements, not add the same expense twice.

What the $1,990 Monthly Service Changes

Markage’s Studio Expert service is listed at $1,990 CAD per month. It is a flat monthly fee rather than an hourly or part-time employment arrangement.

The service supports recurring marketing work such as:

Website and page updates
Email campaign preparation
Social media planning and scheduling
Basic marketing design
Forms and booking tools
Simple marketing funnels
Ongoing task coordination

The model changes how the work is organized.

Instead of recruiting an employee, setting up payroll, providing equipment, and managing an employment relationship, the business sends agreed marketing priorities through a recurring service workflow.

The Studio Expert organizes the requests, prepares or coordinates the work, and returns it for review and approval.

This does not make the service identical to hiring an employee.

A Studio Expert is not:

A full-time employee assigned exclusively to one company
Unlimited monthly labour
A guarantee of same-day completion
A replacement for customer service or sales staff
A substitute for senior legal, financial, development, media-buying, or public-relations specialists

The business must still provide accurate information, identify priorities, review drafts, and approve work.

The Difference Is the Operating Model

Hiring and subscribing should not be compared only by subtracting $1,990 from $6,900.

The two models provide different forms of access, control, capacity, and responsibility.

A Junior Hire Provides

Scheduled employee capacity
Greater access to daily internal discussions
The opportunity to develop company-specific knowledge
Availability for work outside a predefined external service scope
Direct managerial control over assigned responsibilities

The business also assumes responsibility for:

Recruitment
Payroll
Equipment
Training
Performance management
Workload planning
Employee absences
Retention
Termination obligations
Quality review

A Monthly Studio Expert Service Provides

A fixed monthly service cost
One main point of contact
A managed queue of agreed marketing work
Access to support from the wider studio when needed
A recurring review and approval process
No employee recruitment or payroll administration

The business retains responsibility for:

Business decisions
Accurate facts and claims
Priorities
Access credentials
Timely approvals
Work outside the agreed scope
Final publication authority

Compare Completed Work, Not Available Time

The fairest comparison is based on what the business needs to accomplish.

Start with the recurring work already being delayed:

Are website pages current?
Are contact forms working?
Are email campaigns being sent?
Are social posts being prepared and scheduled?
Are offers and service details accurate?
Are sales documents current?
Are approved items actually being published?

Then measure four things.

1. Completed Work

Count items that reached an agreed usable state.

Do not count an incomplete draft as finished simply because time was spent on it.

2. Delivery Time

Measure the time from an accepted request to a review-ready draft.

Then measure the time from the draft to approval and publication.

This separates production delays from internal approval delays.

3. Review Effort

Track the time the owner or manager spends:

Preparing requests
Finding files
Answering questions
Reviewing drafts
Combining feedback
Approving work
Following up

A low external invoice can still carry a high internal cost when the business must manage every detail.

4. Publication Consistency

Track whether approved work is published or sent according to the intended schedule.

The aim is not to create the largest possible number of items. It is to maintain a reliable flow of useful work.

A Practical Side-by-Side Worksheet

Question	Junior marketing hire	Studio Expert service
What is the recurring price?	Salary plus employer costs and overhead	$1,990 CAD per month
Is payroll required?	Yes	No
Who provides equipment and software?	Usually the employer	Depends on the service and required client accounts
Who manages priorities?	The employer and employee	The client and Studio Expert
Who reviews the work?	The employer or internal manager	Markage reviews the work internally, with client approval required
Is the person exclusive to the business?	Generally during scheduled working hours	No
Is capacity unlimited?	No	No
Can the role attend frequent internal meetings?	Yes, if assigned	Only within the service’s communication process
Who handles performance management?	The employer	Markage
What happens during quiet periods?	The employer must identify useful work	The queue moves according to submitted priorities
What happens during peak periods?	Work may exceed employee capacity	Priorities must be ordered within the available service capacity
Who handles final approval?	The employer	The client
Who carries employment risk?	The employer	Markage

What Should Stay Inside the Business?

Some responsibilities should generally remain with the business owner or an authorized employee:

Final pricing decisions
Legal and regulatory claims
Financial information
Sales conversations
Live customer service
Sensitive employee matters
Final approval of public statements
Access decisions for business systems
High-risk advertising decisions

These areas depend on authority, confidential information, or business judgement that should not be transferred casually.

What Can Be Assigned to a Studio Expert?

Recurring execution work is easier to assign when the business can provide the required information and approval.

Examples include:

Updating existing website content
Preparing email campaigns
Organizing social content
Scheduling approved posts
Creating basic marketing materials
Updating contact or booking forms
Preparing presentation slides
Coordinating routine marketing requests
Maintaining a visible task list

The boundary should be agreed before work begins.

Keep Approvals From Becoming the Bottleneck

Neither an employee nor a monthly service can complete work reliably when approval authority is unclear.

Use a simple process:

Keep one shared task list.
Assign one person to approve each item.
Provide source material before production begins.
Include the purpose and deadline with every request.
Combine feedback into one response.
Limit revision rounds.
Record final approval.
Publish or schedule the approved work promptly.

When several people provide separate instructions, the work may slow down regardless of which operating model is used.

A Four-Week Test

A short working period can provide better evidence than a theoretical cost comparison.

Before the Test

Write down:

The recurring marketing tasks
The expected deadlines
The required source material
The person responsible for approval
The work that is outside scope
The measures that will be tracked

During the Test

Record:

Requests submitted
First drafts delivered
Items approved
Items published
Revision rounds
Approval time
Internal review time
Work that remained blocked

After the Test

Ask:

Did more work reach completion?
Did approved work go live more consistently?
Did the owner spend less time coordinating tasks?
Were priorities easier to see?
Which work still required outside specialists?
Were delays caused by capacity or by approvals?
Did the service scope match the actual workload?

Making the Decision

A junior hire may make more sense when:

Marketing demand is continuous
The person must participate in daily operations
The business needs broad internal availability
Company knowledge must develop over time
A qualified manager can provide regular direction
The role includes responsibilities outside an external service scope

A monthly marketing service may make more sense when:

Marketing work is recurring but uneven
The business wants a predictable monthly cost
The owner wants one person managing the work queue
Website, email, social media, and basic design work must be coordinated
The business does not want to recruit or administer another employee
The team can provide information and approvals promptly

The lower price is not automatically the better choice.

The relevant question is:

Which model produces the required work at an acceptable standard, with a level of internal effort the business can sustain?

Article Recap

A $60,000 salary equals $5,000 per month, but that is not the employer’s full cost.

Using 2026 rates, employer CPP and EI bring the basic monthly employment cost to approximately $5,394. Benefits, equipment, software, recruitment, training, coverage, and management time may increase the total.

A $6,900 monthly estimate is plausible only when those broader costs are included. It is not a mandatory payroll figure.

The $1,990 Studio Expert service uses a different operating model. It removes employee recruitment and payroll administration, but it does not provide unlimited capacity or eliminate the client’s responsibility to set priorities and approve work.

The comparison should be based on completed work, delivery time, internal review effort, and publication consistency.

FAQ

What costs should be counted beyond salary?

Count employer CPP and EI contributions, benefits, equipment, software, recruitment, onboarding, training, payroll administration, management time, and any coverage required during absences.

Is the 1.2 to 1.4 times salary rule reliable?

It is a planning range, not a government formula. Replace the estimate with actual payroll rates, benefit costs, tools, recruitment expenses, and management assumptions before making a hiring decision.

Does a $60,000 employee automatically cost $6,900 per month?

No. Using 2026 employer CPP and EI rates, salary plus those mandatory employer contributions is approximately $5,394 per month. Additional costs must total approximately $1,506 per month to reach $6,900.

Should vacation pay be added on top of salary?

Not automatically. Paid vacation may already be included in an annual salary. Count additional costs only when the business must pay for replacement coverage, overtime, or another measurable expense.

When does a junior hire make more sense?

Hiring may make sense when work is continuous, internal access is important, the role covers varied responsibilities, and someone in the business can manage and develop the employee.

When does a monthly service make more sense?

It may make sense when the work is recurring and execution-focused, the business wants a managed queue and predictable monthly cost, and decision-makers can provide timely information and approvals.

How can scope be kept under control?

Maintain one list for recurring work and another for one-time projects. Define what completion means, identify the approver, and decide which existing priority will move when new work is added.

What should be measured during the first month?

Track completed and published work, time to first draft, approval time, number of revisions, internal review effort, and work that remained blocked.

Is a Studio Expert the same as an employee?

No. A Studio Expert is part of an external monthly marketing service. The service provides defined support and a managed workflow, not exclusive full-time employment or unlimited labour.