Part-Time Employee vs. AI Employee: The Math for Small Businesses

You need help but you can't afford a full-time hire. So you're thinking about bringing on a part-time employee — maybe 20 hours a week for customer support, admin work, or social media.

It feels like the smart, budget-conscious move. But the actual cost of a part-time employee is higher than most business owners realize, and the coverage you get is lower than you'd expect.

Let's do the math honestly.

The Real Cost of a Part-Time Employee

Most small business owners think about part-time cost as: hourly rate times hours per week. If you're paying $18/hour for 20 hours a week, that's $360/week or $1,560/month. Affordable, right?

Not so fast. Here's what that hire actually costs.

Direct compensation: $18/hour x 20 hours x 52 weeks = $18,720/year

Payroll taxes (employer's share):

Social Security (6.2%): $1,161
Medicare (1.45%): $271
Federal unemployment (FUTA): $42
State unemployment (SUTA, varies): ~$200
Subtotal: $1,674/year

Workers' compensation insurance: $300–$600/year depending on your state and industry

Hiring costs: Job posting fees ($200–$500), background check ($30–$100), your time interviewing and vetting candidates (conservatively 10 hours at your effective hourly rate)

Training costs: 2–4 weeks of reduced productivity while they learn. If they're producing at 50% capacity during training, that's $720–$1,440 in wages for work you're essentially not getting.

Software and tools: Email account, software licenses, any tools they need. Estimate $50–$150/month.

Management time: The hours you spend assigning tasks, reviewing work, providing feedback, and handling HR basics. Even a low-maintenance employee needs 2–3 hours of your time per week. At your billing rate, that's real money.

The real annual total: $22,000–$26,000 for a $18/hour part-time employee working 20 hours per week. That's $1,833–$2,167/month all-in.

Not the $1,560/month you thought.

The Turnover Tax

Here's the number that really hurts: part-time employees have significantly higher turnover than full-time employees. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that part-time worker turnover runs 2–3x higher than full-time in many industries.

Why? Part-time workers are often looking for full-time work. They take your job as a bridge. The moment something better comes along, they're gone. Average tenure for part-time workers in small businesses is 6–10 months.

Every time someone leaves, you're paying the hiring and training costs again. If you go through two part-time hires per year (not uncommon), add another $3,000–$5,000 to your annual costs. Plus the productivity gaps during transitions.

What You Actually Get

For your $22,000–$26,000 per year, you get:

20 hours of work per week (minus breaks, slow starts, and context-switching)
Coverage during the hours they're scheduled — and nothing outside that window
Work quality that varies by the individual and their engagement level
Someone who calls in sick occasionally, requests time off, and has bad days
An employee you need to manage, train, and motivate

Let's say their productive output is realistically 16–17 hours per week after breaks and transitions. That's solid, but it's also limited.

The AI Employee Comparison

An AI employee through Stoke costs $2,000 to set up and $500/month. First-year total: $8,000. Every year after: $6,000.

For that investment, you get:

168 hours of availability per week (24/7/365)
Unlimited concurrent task handling
Zero sick days, zero turnover, zero training periods
Consistent quality every single time
No management overhead after initial setup

The annual savings versus a part-time employee: $14,000–$20,000.

Availability: The 20-Hour Problem

Your part-time employee works Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 1 PM. That's the schedule that works for them.

A customer calls at 2 PM. Nobody's there. A lead emails on Saturday. It sits until Monday. Someone needs help at 8 PM. Too bad.

You hired part-time help to free yourself up, but you're still the backup for the other 148 hours of the week.

An AI employee has no schedule. It works when work needs to happen. The 8 PM customer inquiry gets answered at 8 PM. The Saturday lead gets a response in 60 seconds. The Sunday appointment request gets booked instantly.

For many small businesses, this alone justifies the switch. The whole point of getting help is to stop being the bottleneck — but a part-time hire only removes the bottleneck for 20 hours.

Reliability

Your part-time employee texts you at 7 AM: "Hey, not feeling well today. Won't be in." Now you're covering their shift on top of your own work. It happens an average of 5–8 days per year for part-time workers — and usually at the worst possible times.

AI doesn't call in sick. It doesn't have car trouble. It doesn't have a family emergency. It doesn't quietly disengage for three weeks before quitting.

Every single day, it shows up and performs at the same level. That predictability is worth more than most business owners appreciate until they've experienced the alternative.

When a Part-Time Employee Still Makes Sense

To be fair, there are situations where a human part-time hire is the right call:

Physical tasks: AI can't stock shelves, clean a storefront, or make deliveries
Complex interpersonal work: Situations requiring empathy, negotiation, or sensitive conversations with customers or patients
Tasks that change daily: If every day is genuinely different and requires flexible human judgment
Hands-on skilled work: Anything requiring physical presence or manual skill

If you need someone to be physically present in your business, AI isn't replacing that.

When AI Is the Clear Winner

For the tasks most small businesses hire part-time help for — answering phones and emails, managing social media, scheduling appointments, following up with leads, processing routine paperwork — AI does it better, cheaper, and around the clock.

If you're paying $2,000+/month for a part-time person to handle tasks that follow a pattern, you're overspending.

Making the Switch

We're not suggesting you fire anyone. If you have a great part-time employee, keep them — and let AI handle the repetitive work so your human employee can focus on higher-value tasks.

But if you're about to post a job listing for part-time help, do yourself a favor: talk to us first. A 30-minute conversation will show you exactly what an AI employee can handle, what it can't, and whether the math works for your specific situation. It usually does.