Donna Cosey, MBA-DM
Business Operations & Startup Specialist | MBA | WordPress & CRM Professional | Artist & Educator Empowering Small Business Growth
March 15, 2026
As a business manager, it is easy to look at a $20/hour wage and compare it to a $50/hour contract rate and see a $30 “loss.” However, experienced managers know that the hourly wage is only the tip of the iceberg. When you hire a part-time employee for 10 hours a week, you aren’t just paying for their time; you are paying for the infrastructure, liability, and administrative friction required to keep them on the payroll.
The 10-Hour-Per-Week Comparison (Annualized)
Why the $20 Employee is a “Slow Leak” in Your Budget
1. The Onboarding “Tax”
In 2026, the average cost to recruit and train a new employee has risen to over $4,600. For a full-time staffer, you can spread that cost over thousands of hours. For a 10-hour-a-week staffer, you are effectively adding $9.00 to every hour they work in the first year just to recover the cost of hiring them. With Cosey Enterprises, your “onboarding” cost is zero.
2. Hardware & Space Liability
An employee requires a company-issued laptop, a secure VPN (like the VMware setup we utilize for staff), and licensed software. These aren’t just “startup costs”—they are recurring liabilities for maintenance and security. As contractors, we provide our own infrastructure. You pay for the work, not the computer it was typed on.
3. The “Productivity Gap”
When you pay an employee $20/hour, you are paying for “presence.” You pay for their coffee breaks, their email-sorting time, and their internal meetings. When you contract with us at $50/hour, you are paying for execution. * The Employee: 10 hours of “time” usually yields 6–7 hours of actual administrative output.
- The Contractor: 10 hours of contracted work yields 10 hours of professional results.
4. Eliminating Administrative Friction
Hiring an employee turns you into a “Manager of People.” You have to handle tax withholdings, I-9 compliance, performance reviews, and potential unemployment claims. Contracting with Cosey Enterprises allows you to remain a “Manager of Strategy.” You send us the task; we send you the result. No HR headaches, no 941 tax forms, and no “people management” required.
The Bottom Line
For a 10-hour-a-week role, the gap between an employee and a professional contractor is roughly $5,000. When you factor in the opportunity cost of the time you spend managing a part-time employee, that gap disappears entirely.
Stop paying for “hours” and start investing in “results.” By contracting your administrative and technical support to Cosey Enterprises Inc., you are choosing a path of lower risk, zero overhead, and professional-grade execution.