Pricing
£1.75 an hour plus a share of the wage bill that falls as you hire more. Four lines on one monthly invoice - and the calculator below runs the same code that bills you.
No subscription·No joining fee·Nothing if nobody works
What you pay
There is no fifth line. Nothing for posting a role, nothing for a seat, nothing for cancelling.
Placement fee
£1.75 / hour
Charged on every hour worked, whatever the role and whatever the rate. It's the only part that doesn't move.
Service fee
4.5%–9.5% of wages
A share of what you pay your temps, stepping down as the month's hours add up. The more you hire, the smaller the share.
Urgent posting premium
£0.25 / hour
Only on roles that go live inside 48 hours of the first shift. Fixed when you post, and it runs for the life of that role.
Transaction fee
£0.20
One per invoice, not per payment attempt. If a card retries, it's still the same invoice.
The service fee
The share of the wage bill steps down through four bands as the month's hours mount up. It's graduated, so your first hours are always charged at 9.5% and only the hours above each threshold drop into the next band - crossing a threshold can never make your bill leap.
Hours in the month
Share of wages
First 120 hours
9.5%
121 to 350 hours
7.5%
351 to 800 hours
6.5%
Above 800 hours
4.5%
Work out your month
Put in the hours you expect and the rate you pay. What comes back is the invoice itself, line for line, because this calculator imports the same module that bills you on the first of the month.
Your month
Every hour your temps work across all of your sites.
The wage you pay your temps. Starts at the £12.71 National Living Wage.
Roles that go live inside 48 hours of the first shift carry £0.25 an hour.
UK hospitality agencies typically charge 20–30% on top of what the hour costs to employ. Put in the rate you're quoted.
What Cooper charges
£929.80.
£2.91 an hour, all in - you're in the 7.5% band
This is the invoice, line for line - the page runs the same calculator that bills you.
Against an agency
An agency employs the worker, so one charge rate covers their wage, their holiday, their National Insurance, their pension and the agency's margin. Cooper never handles wages - you pay your temps through your own payroll, an umbrella company or their invoice, and we charge for the platform. So the fair comparison is margin against fee.
What you pay to find and manage the staff
Cooper's fee
£930
Agency margin at 25%
£1,456
£526 less a month - 36.1% below the agency.
What the month costs you in total
Wages, on-costs and our fee
£6,757
Agency charge rate
£7,283
£526 less a month - 7.2% below the agency.
Comparable if you run your own payroll: the £5,827 of wages, holiday, NI and pension is the same money either way - inside their rate, outside ours.
Compared fairly
An agency quotes one charge rate because the worker is their employee - the wage is inside it. Cooper's fee sits beside a wage you pay yourself. Both sides are listed below so you can see exactly what moves onto your books and what doesn't.
Agency margins quoted on this page are the published UK hospitality range of 20–30%, with same-day cover typically 30–35%. Statutory on-costs use the April 2026 figures: a 12.07% holiday accrual, employer National Insurance at 15% above the £5,000 secondary threshold, and the 3% auto-enrolment minimum. Your own costs will differ - the sliders are there so you can use your real ones.
The small print, in plain words
Once a month, in arrears, for the hours actually worked. The invoice is raised in the first few days of the following month and charged to the payment method you saved.
There's no invoice at all. No subscription and no minimum means a quiet month costs you nothing - not even the transaction fee.
No. Every figure on this page excludes VAT, which is added to your invoice at the prevailing rate.
They're graduated, not all-or-nothing. Your first hours are always charged at the top rate and only the hours above each threshold move down a band, so crossing a threshold can never make your bill jump.
We chase it before the month closes. If it's still outstanding when we bill, that week is estimated from the schedule you posted and the estimate is final - so it's worth signing off.
Yes. Your billing page carries a running month-to-date estimate built by the same calculator as this page and the invoice itself.
The binding version lives in our terms of service, which sets out the same figures.
Post a role, pay for the hours worked, and see the arithmetic before the invoice arrives.