Employee Turnover Cost & ROI Calculator
Estimate what attrition is costing your team and the return on investing in connection and retention.
Your team
Teams on Lollipop see up to 20% less turnover.
You keep each year
$39,600
After Lollipop's $2,400 a year at the launch price of $1 a person a month. At the list price of $2.50 you would still keep $36,000.
- more people stay each year
- 6
- to pay for itself
- 3 weeks
- back for every $1
- $17.50
Where the numbers come from
A conservative model built on U.S. workforce research: for every person who leaves, the larger of an industry baseline and a share of their salary.
The calculator estimates replacement cost using a conservative, research-informed two-part framework:
Replacement Cost Per Employee = MAX (Industry Baseline Cost, Salary × Role Floor Percentage)
This approach ensures:
- Alignment with documented U.S. workforce research
- Industry-specific grounding
- Salary sensitivity
- Conservative modeling
- Transparency in assumptions
All assumptions are primarily derived from U.S.-based labor research. Actual costs may vary by region due to wage structures, labor regulations, severance laws, and labor market conditions.
4.1 Industry Baseline Replacement Cost Assumptions (U.S.)
The following baseline costs represent conservative estimates of direct and near-term turnover expenses (recruiting, onboarding, training, vacancy cost).
These figures are informed by industry workforce analyses and national labor research.
| Industry | Baseline Replacement Cost (Per Employee) | Research Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurants / Hospitality | $4,000 | Restaurant workforce benchmarks; industry HR analyses |
| Call Centers / BPO | $6,000 | Contact center workforce cost studies |
| Manufacturing | $8,000 | Industrial workforce replacement benchmarks |
| Construction | $9,000 | Skilled labor shortage & hiring cost analyses |
| Healthcare (Support Staff) | $10,000 | Healthcare workforce turnover research |
| Education (Teachers) | $15,000 | Education labor replacement research |
| Corporate / Office | $12,000 | SHRM & professional replacement cost research |
| General Frontline (Retail / Warehouse / Service) | $5,000 | Service-sector turnover studies |
These baselines reflect conservative direct replacement costs and do not assume aggressive productivity multipliers.
4.2 Role-Based Salary Floor Assumptions
To account for productivity ramp, institutional knowledge loss, and performance disruption, the model applies a minimum salary-based floor.
| Worker Level | Salary-Based Floor |
|---|---|
| Entry-Level (Frontline) | 20% of Annual Salary |
| Skilled Frontline | 30% of Annual Salary |
| Supervisor / Team Lead | 40% of Annual Salary |
| Mid-Level Manager | 50% of Annual Salary |
| Licensed / Professional | 60% of Annual Salary |
The final replacement cost equals the greater of the Industry Baseline or the Salary Floor.
This ensures:
- Lower-wage roles do not produce unrealistically low replacement costs
- Higher-skilled roles reflect productivity and knowledge impact
- Modeling remains conservative and within documented research ranges
4.3 Research Foundation (Primary U.S. Sources)
The following high-integrity research informed the ranges used in this model:
- Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM): Human Capital Benchmarking
https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/research - Center for American Progress: "There Are Significant Business Costs to Replacing Employees"
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/there-are-significant-business-costs-to-replacing-employees/ - Gallup Workplace Research: Turnover & Engagement
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/646538/employee-turnover-preventable-often-ignored.aspx - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS)
https://www.bls.gov/jlt/ - Work Institute: Retention Report
https://workinstitute.com/retention-report/
These sources commonly estimate total replacement costs within the following U.S.-based ranges:
- Entry-level roles: 20%–50% of annual salary
- Skilled/technical roles: 30%–70%
- Supervisory roles: 50%–100%+
The calculator intentionally applies values at the conservative end of documented ranges.
4.4 Regional Considerations
Replacement cost research referenced above is primarily U.S.-based.
Actual turnover costs may vary by region due to:
- Wage levels
- Severance laws
- Labor protections
- Recruiting cost structures
- Labor market tightness
The model uses salary localization (user-entered salary) to adapt cost calculations across regions while maintaining conservative U.S.-anchored assumptions.
Keep more of your team
Your first month is free, with no card. After that, $1 a person a month while we launch.