What does a meeting really cost?
The maths is simple; the figure isn't. Every attendee's hour costs more than their salary implies — employers pay National Insurance (15% from April 2025), pension contributions and overheads on top, which we model at roughly 28% extra. And every recurring meeting multiplies that figure by 46 working weeks a year.
So a weekly hour-long stand-up for six people on median UK salaries doesn't cost an hour — it costs 276 people-hours, about 37 working days of collective time, every year.
Typical meeting costs (mixed team, ~£29/hr fully loaded)
| Meeting | 4 people | 8 people | 12 people |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 min | £59£2,712/yr weekly | £118£5,424/yr weekly | £177£8,136/yr weekly |
| 60 min | £118£5,424/yr weekly | £236£10,848/yr weekly | £354£16,272/yr weekly |
| 90 min | £177£8,136/yr weekly | £354£16,272/yr weekly | £531£24,408/yr weekly |
Per-meeting figures; yearly assumes 46 working weeks. Add ~25% if you count preparation and refocus time — the calculator above includes it by default.
What the research says
- 71% of senior managers say meetings are unproductive and inefficient; 65% say meetings stop them completing their own work, and 64% say they come at the expense of deep thinking. (Harvard Business Review, “Stop the Meeting Madness”, 2017)
- Executives spend ~23 hours a week in meetings — up from under 10 hours in the 1960s — and only 17% call meetings a generally productive use of time. (HBR, 2017)
- The UK median full-time salary is £37,430 (£18.64/hr gross) — the baseline behind this calculator's “mixed team” preset. (ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2024)
- Employer on-costs now run ~28%: 15% National Insurance above the £5,000 threshold (April 2025) plus statutory pension and workspace costs. (GOV.UK employer rates, 2025–26)
How to cut the bill without killing collaboration
- Default to 25 or 50 minutes. Calendar defaults create meeting time; shorter defaults claw it back and sharpen agendas.
- Make attendance optional by design. If someone's only there for the minutes, send them the minutes instead.
- Convert status meetings to async. Updates that inform but don't decide belong in a doc or channel, not a room.
- Audit recurring meetings quarterly. If a weekly meeting can't name its decision or its owner, try fortnightly — or cancel it and see who notices.
- Price the invite. Multiply attendees by duration before you send. If the number surprises you, shrink the room.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate the cost of a meeting?
Attendees × duration × fully-loaded hourly cost. We convert salary to an hourly figure by dividing by 1,650 usable working hours a year, then add 28% for employer National Insurance, pension and workspace overheads. A 60-minute meeting with six people on £38,000 salaries costs about £177 of staff time.
What does "fully loaded" hourly cost mean?
Salary alone understates what an hour of someone's time costs the business. On top of gross pay, UK employers pay 15% National Insurance above the secondary threshold, at least 3% pension contributions under auto-enrolment, plus workspace and equipment costs — roughly 28% on top in total.
How much time do UK workers spend in meetings?
Harvard Business Review research found executives spend an average of nearly 23 hours a week in meetings — up from under 10 hours in the 1960s. 71% of senior managers surveyed called meetings unproductive and inefficient, and only 17% of senior executives considered them a productive use of time.
Should I include preparation time in the cost?
Yes — a meeting costs more than the minutes in the room. Attendees prepare, travel or set up, and then need time to refocus afterwards. Our +25% toggle is a conservative allowance for that wrap-around time.
Sources & method
- ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2024 — median full-time earnings £37,430/yr
- Harvard Business Review — Stop the Meeting Madness (2017) — 182 senior managers; 23 hrs/wk in meetings
- GOV.UK — Employer rates and thresholds 2025–26 — 15% secondary Class 1 NI above £5,000
Model: salary ÷ 1,650 working hours × 28% on-costs × attendees × duration. Weekly meetings run 46 times a year; fortnightly 23; monthly 11; daily 230. Figures are estimates for planning, not accounting.
Cost is only half the diagnosis — the other half is how your team actually works together. Run the Team Health Check, or ask the desk how to fix a meeting-heavy culture.
Team Health Check → Ask Agile →