Suppose you had an employee with a base salary of $30,000 a year. There are overhead values for that salary. Since some of these values vary tremendously depending on state and employment conditions, I can't even begin to estimate what all of those costs would be.

The employer's portion of SS/Medicare would be 7.65%, or $2025. Providing medical and dental insurance easily exceeds $4000 per employee. Throw in things like unemployment insurance and other payroll expenses and it wouldn't be hard to reach the $50,000 figure.

For industry, it's not uncommon for the total cost of employing a person to be anywhere from 75% to 125% over and above the base salary when all factors are considered, such as 401K contributions, other benefits, office equipment and support, etc.