OFFICE BLUES — MEETING TAX

How much does this meeting actually cost?

Pick who's in the room. Set the cadence. We'll do the receipts. Including benefits & overhead (1.3× burden).

This meeting costs

$18,395

/ year

Put this calculator on your site.

Free. No signup. Paste this where your CMS takes HTML — your readers get the full calculator, with the receipt math intact.

<iframe src="https://officeblues.net/tools/meeting-tax?embed=1" title="Meeting Tax Calculator by Office Blues" width="100%" height="640" style="border:0;max-width:720px;" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://officeblues.net/tools/meeting-tax">Meeting Tax Calculator</a> by Office Blues</p>
<script>
(function () {
  window.addEventListener("message", function (e) {
    if (e.origin !== "https://officeblues.net") return;
    var d = e.data || {};
    if (d.type !== "ob-embed-resize" || typeof d.height !== "number" || d.height <= 0) return;
    var frames = document.querySelectorAll('iframe[src^="https://officeblues.net/tools/meeting-tax"]');
    for (var i = 0; i < frames.length; i++) {
      if (frames[i].contentWindow === e.source) frames[i].style.height = d.height + "px";
    }
  });
})();
</script>

What does a recurring meeting actually cost?

The room above — 2 × Software Engineer, 1 × Product Manager, 1 × Eng Manager, weekly, 60 minutes — costs $18,395 a year. Same math, three rooms you've definitely sat in:

A daily 15-minute standup — 6 engineers and their manager: $152 every time it runs, $39,528 a year.
A weekly 1-hour exec sync — 3 directors, 2 VPs, 1 C-suite: $938 every time it runs, $48,750 a year.
A monthly 1-hour all-hands — 47 people: $4,169 every time it runs, $50,025 a year.

Salaries are the defaults listed under the receipt, loaded at 1.3× for payroll tax, benefits and overhead. Put your own numbers in above and the figure changes.

What does the research say about meeting costs?

You don't need our calculator to know meetings are expensive. But if you're making the case to your manager, the receipts are published:

$399 billion a year. That's Doodle's estimate of what poorly organized meetings cost the US in 2019, from a survey of 6,500 professionals in the US, UK and Germany. Those professionals spent two hours a week in meetings they found pointless — more than $541 billion in employee time across the three countries — which by Doodle's math makes about two-thirds of all meetings unnecessary. (Doodle, State of Meetings Report 2019 [PDF])
23 hours a week. Executives spend close to 23 hours a week in meetings — up from under 10 hours in the 1960s. In a survey of 182 managers, 71% called their meetings unproductive and 65% said meetings keep them from doing their own work. (Perlow, Hadley & Eun, "Stop the Meeting Madness," Harvard Business Review, July 2017)
55 million meetings a day. That's organizational psychologist Steven Rogelberg's estimate for the US, every single day. (Rogelberg, The Surprising Science of Meetings, Oxford University Press, 2019)
$25,000 per employee, per year. A 2022 study by Otter.ai with UNC-Charlotte's Steven Rogelberg found companies pay an average of $80,000 per professional employee per year for meeting attendance — $25,000 of it (31%) for meetings the employees themselves deemed unnecessary. (Otter.ai / UNC-Charlotte study, September 2022)

The receipts differ. The direction doesn't. Run your own meeting through the calculator above and get its number.

Meeting cost FAQ

How much do meetings cost US companies each year?

An estimated $399 billion per year in the US, according to Doodle's 2019 State of Meetings report on the cost of poorly organized meetings. Per employee, a 2022 Otter.ai / UNC-Charlotte study put the average at $80,000 per year in meeting-attendance costs — $25,000 of it for meetings employees consider unnecessary.

Are most meetings a waste of time?

Surveys say yes: 71% of 182 managers surveyed by Perlow, Hadley & Eun (Harvard Business Review, July 2017) called their meetings unproductive, and Doodle's 2019 State of Meetings report estimated that about two-thirds of meetings are unnecessary or a waste of time.

How many hours a week do executives spend in meetings?

Close to 23 hours a week — up from under 10 hours in the 1960s (Harvard Business Review, July 2017). Organizational psychologist Steven Rogelberg estimates about 55 million meetings take place in the US every day (The Surprising Science of Meetings, Oxford University Press, 2019).

How we get to that number

We use BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 for base salary medians where available, sector-adjusted gut-feel for roles BLS doesn't slice cleanly (Eng Manager, Director, VP, C-Suite). Then we apply a 1.3× burden to cover payroll taxes, benefits, and pro-rated overhead — a conservative figure within the US Chamber of Commerce 1.25–1.4× range.

Working hours per year: 2,080 (52 weeks × 40 hrs)
Daily frequency = 260 weekdays/year
Career horizon: 22 years (median remaining for a 43-year-old US worker)
You can override any role with your actual salary.

Defaults (USD/yr base): Software Engineer $133,000 · Product Manager $125,000 · Designer $98,000 · Eng Manager $175,000 · Director $210,000 · VP $260,000 · C-Suite $350,000

Full methodology → — sources, formula, what's anonymized, license, and how to cite.