In Broward, a decent front-desk hire is not $15 an hour anymore. Put a real number on the table — say $20 — and then stop pretending that is the cost. Employer taxes, workers’ comp, a modest health contribution, and the software seat they need to see the calendar. You are already north of $28 before anyone takes lunch.
Lunch is the part owners skip. Forty hours on paper is not 40 hours on the line. A single person still uses the restroom. They still get sick. They still go to a closing at their kid’s school. Those hours do not disappear from inbound. They just go to voicemail or to whoever is standing nearest the desk, which is often a tech who should be on a truck.
Turnover is a coverage event
The last two shops I sat with in Fort Lauderdale both lost a coordinator inside 11 months. Training the next one took three weeks of the owner sitting at the desk. That is not a hiring win. That is a hidden overtime bill with a different name.
Write the loaded week, not the wage
Take the offer, add 25 percent for burden if you do not have a better number, then divide by the hours the phone is actually answered — not scheduled. If that loaded hour is fine, hire. If you are shocked, you were never pricing the job. You were pricing a line on a napkin.