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Research

What fractional executives actually cost

Almost every fractional rate figure online is published without a source. We went looking for the real numbers, and found that the honest answer starts somewhere else: with what a full-time executive actually costs.

Updated 18 July 2026 · Figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics

The short version

A fractional executive is usually sold against a comparison: cheaper than hiring full time. That comparison is only as good as the number on the other side of it, and that number is almost never sourced.

So we sourced it. A full-time technology leader costs $281,130 a year once benefits are counted — not the salary figure, the loaded cost. Across the five roles we cover, loaded cost runs from $197,417 to $281,130.

We then checked the published fractional rate figures against their own sources. Of the four publishers we examined, two could not be verified at source at all, and of the ten numeric claims in one widely-cited article, eight named no source.

1. What a full-time executive costs

These are national figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, reference period May 2025 (annual, A01). Salary is what the employer pays in wages. Loaded cost adds employer-paid benefits at 46.3% — the current BLS figure for civilian workers.

Annual salary and loaded employer cost by executive role, BLS OEWS May 2025 (annual, A01)
RoleBLS occupation usedMean salaryMedian salaryLoaded cost
COOGeneral and Operations Managers$134,940$105,770$197,417
CFOFinancial Managers$186,910$166,570$273,449
CMOMarketing Managers$177,770$166,790$260,078
CTOComputer and Information Systems Managers$192,160$175,140$281,130
CHROHuman Resources Managers$164,230$149,280$240,268

For context, BLS records 204,350 people employed as Chief Executives, at a mean of $269,630 — $394,469 loaded.

2. Which roles companies are actually looking for

Cost is one half. Demand is the other, and it is lopsided in a way the rate guides never mention. These are monthly US search volumes across 379 tracked terms, with the median advertiser cost-per-click — what companies pay to put an ad in front of someone searching for that role.

Monthly search demand and median cost-per-click by fractional executive role
RoleSearches / monthTerms trackedMedian CPC
CFO27,540183$24.35
CMO10,490141$12.08
CTO3,57027$16.23
COO3,36023$8.15
CHRO3105$22.12

Two things stand out. Finance dominates: CFO terms draw more monthly searches than the other four roles combined. And CHRO is the interesting outlier — the lowest search volume of any role, at one of the highest costs per click. Few companies are looking, but the ones that are, are worth a great deal to whoever reaches them.

Source: DataForSEO (licensed pull, 2026-07-08). Search volume is monthly US volume; CPC is the advertiser cost-per-click, used here as a market-priced signal of commercial competition for each role.

3. Where the published fractional rates come from

We could not find an authoritative dataset of fractional executive rates, because there does not appear to be one. What exists is a set of figures published by companies that sell into the market. Here is each source we checked, and what its numbers rest on.

Kompella Technologies

2026 Fractional CTO Compensation & Engagement Survey

Checked at source
Figures published
$200–$500/hr · $15,000/mo median at 2 days per week · 12-month median engagement
Sample
50+ practicing fractional CTOs, seven countries
What it rests on
Self-selected respondents recruited through the author's own network and a public open call. No percentiles published. The fieldwork dates are unfilled template placeholders in the published methodology.
Quoted verbatim
“The survey collected responses from 50+ practicing fractional CTOs across seven countries between [Week 8 of survey period] and [Week 11 of survey period].”

Quoted verbatim, confirmed on two independent fetches. This is the most transparent source we found — it publishes its methodology and offers anonymised data to researchers. The placeholder is a publishing error, not evidence of bad faith.

View the source

Vendux

10 Numbers That Will Reshape How You Think About Fractional Executives in 2026

Checked at source
Figures published
$5.7B global market, 14% annual growth · Fractional CFO TAM $3.2B (2026)
What it rests on
We checked all ten numeric claims against their stated attribution. Two name a source (Gartner; Heidrick & Struggles 2026 Talent Lens Survey). The other eight — including the headline $5.7B market size — name none. One is attributed only to "one analyst estimates". A reference list appears at the end but does not map to individual claims.

8 of 10 claims carry no named source.

View the source

Go Fractional

Fractional CTO / CFO Benchmarks (2026)

Could not verify
Figures published
CTO mean $213/hr (p25 $150, p75 $250) · CFO mean $189/hr
What it rests on
NOT VERIFIED — the page returns HTTP 403 to automated access, so we could not read the stated methodology or sample size.

Figures listed for completeness of the landscape. We do not present them as data because we could not check them.

View the source

DataIntelo

Fractional Executive Market Research Report

Could not verify
What it rests on
NOT VERIFIED — returns HTTP 403 to automated access and the full report is commercial.

Deliberately not quoted. A market-size figure attributed to this report circulates widely, but we could not confirm it at source, so we do not repeat it.

View the source

Methodology, and what this does not tell you

Every figure in the cost and demand sections comes from a public primary source (US Bureau of Labor Statistics) or our own licensed keyword data. Published fractional rate figures are carried separately as attributed claims, never mixed into the data.

Where the numbers come from

  • Salary and employment: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), reference period May 2025 (annual, A01). Pulled via the BLS Public Data API. Public domain (U.S. federal government work).
  • Benefits load: BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, 1st Quarter 2026. Civilian workers, all occupations (national). Employer benefit costs run 46.3% on top of wages, or 31.6% of total compensation.
  • Search demand and CPC: DataForSEO (licensed pull, 2026-07-08).

The limitations

  • These are proxy occupations. BLS publishes no "fractional" occupation and no CTO/CMO/CHRO categories. Each role below is mapped to the closest standard SOC occupation. These are PROXIES for full-time employed equivalents, not measurements of fractional work.
  • The benefits load is an all-worker average. This is the all-occupation civilian average. BLS does not publish an executive-specific benefits load, and executive packages skew toward equity and bonus, so treat this as a conservative floor, not an exact executive figure.
  • These are national figures. Executive pay varies sharply by metro area and company stage. A national mean is a starting point for a conversation, not a quote for your situation.
  • We do not publish a fractional rate figure. We could not source one we would stand behind. We would rather leave a gap than fill it with a number we cannot defend.

Using this research

These figures are free to cite and reuse with attribution to FractionalChiefs and a link to this page. The underlying BLS data is US public domain. If you want the raw dataset or spot an error in our working, we would rather hear about it than not — get in touch.

Working out what you need

The numbers above tell you what the full-time version costs. If you are weighing that against a fractional engagement, these two work through the comparison for your own situation.

Cost calculator

Compare a fractional engagement against the full-time loaded cost for your role and stage.

Executive finder

Work out which role your business actually needs before you price it.