Some of the arguments made are not very good. > Tack on a few free lunches, and your employee costs about 10% more than you thought they did. Only if you can'

Some of the arguments made are not very good. > Tack on a few free lunches, and your employee costs about 10% more than you thought they did. Only if you can't count. Over in parts of Europe direct employee cost (payroll tax) can be 20-30% on top of salary, and if you don't factor in that... well. > rare for someone to show up every week across an entire year. I would hope no one shows up every week. Again, if you don't factor in vacations/normal sick days... > Your employees take an hour to sustain life through bathroom, water cooler, and other breaks I would be surprised if a consultant manages to not charge for every unproductive break. > Your employees spend an hour a day meeting with you or someone else, conducting pre-work planning I would hope that consultants also plan their work (and charge for it). Otherwise -> mess. I know from first hand experience that consultants also do meetings. > I can keep an employee busy indefinitely Yeah. Where I'm working that's true. Or has been for the last several years. But yes, when used correctly consultants can be a valuable asset. There's no need to try and make it look like they same hourly cost as an employee.