The True Cost of Employing a Florist in the UK

Why the Hourly Rate Is Only the Beginning

When you advertise a florist position at £12 per hour, that number feels concrete. Multiply it by 37.5 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, and you land on a gross salary of £23,400. But once you add employer NI, pension, paid holidays, sick pay, training, uniforms, and recruitment, the true cost climbs 30% to 40% above the headline salary.

Most shop owners only discover this gap when they sit down with their accountant at year end. Understanding these costs upfront means you can price your arrangements properly from the start.

Use our True Cost of Employment Calculator for a quick answer tailored to your own numbers.

Employer National Insurance Contributions

For 2025/26, employers pay Class 1 secondary NICs at 15% on earnings above the secondary threshold of £5,000. This rate rose from 13.8% in April 2025.

• Earnings above threshold: £23,400 - £5,000 = £18,400
• Employer NICs: £18,400 x 15% = £2,760

Remember that employer NICs apply to overtime too. At £12 per hour, six weeks of overtime at ten hours per week during Valentine's and Mother's Day adds roughly £180 in employer NICs alone on top of the overtime wages.

Workplace Pension (Auto-Enrolment)

Under auto-enrolment rules, the minimum employer contribution is 3% of qualifying earnings (earnings between £6,240 and £50,270).

• Qualifying earnings: £23,400 - £6,240 = £17,160
• Employer pension contribution: £17,160 x 3% = £515

Budget an extra £50 to £100 per year per employee for pension administration fees charged by your provider.

Paid Holiday Entitlement

Full-time employees are entitled to 28 days paid holiday per year, including bank holidays. For a florist on £23,400, that holiday pay costs approximately £2,523 — over five weeks where you are paying wages but receiving no productive work. During those 28 days, you either work alone, hire temporary cover at £14 to £18 per hour, or turn away work.

Our Staff Holiday Manager helps you plan holiday allocation across your team so you are never caught short during peak weeks.

Training and Development

A new florist needs two to four weeks before they are fully productive, during which they work at 50% to 70% efficiency. Ongoing development — short courses, supplier workshops, and trade shows — also adds up. Budget £400 to £800 per employee per year for training.

Uniforms, PPE, and Equipment

Florists need practical workwear: aprons, gloves for thorny stems, safety footwear for wet cold room floors, and branded clothing for deliveries. A basic kit costs £80 to £150 per employee per year. Add tool costs if you supply secateurs, knives, and stem strippers — a decent pair of secateurs costs £25 to £40 and needs annual replacement.

Seasonal Overtime

Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas, and the summer wedding season all demand extended hours, often starting at 5am for market runs. If your employee works five hours overtime per week across ten peak weeks, that adds roughly £600 in wages plus £90 in employer NICs — a total overtime cost of £750 to £850 per year.

Recruitment Costs

When a florist leaves, you face advertising costs (£100 to £300), interview time, trial shifts, and the productivity dip while the new hire learns your systems. Spread across an average tenure of two to three years, annualised recruitment costs sit around £500 to £1,000 per employee.

The Full Picture

Add the lost productivity during holidays and training, and you are comfortably looking at £30,000 to £31,000 per year — roughly 30% above the headline salary. That figure should inform every pricing decision you make.

Planning With Confidence

Knowing the true cost of each team member lets you calculate how much revenue they need to generate. If your florist costs £30,000 per year, they need to produce at least that in gross profit — a specific number of arrangements each week.

Use our True Cost of Employment Calculator to run the numbers with your actual hourly rate. Pair it with the Staff Holiday Manager to plan coverage across the year.