Payroll is the part of Workday where a setup mistake reaches people's pay. A badly built time-off plan annoys a manager. A badly built earning (Workday's name for a type of pay, like overtime or a bonus) lands in employees' bank accounts and tax filings. At year-end it lands on their W-2s, the US yearly wage form, or their T4s, the Canadian one.
That changes how you should hire. The cheapest consultant who can find their way around your Workday system is rarely the right choice. The most expensive one is not always needed either.
The figures below come from vetted Payroll consultants on Turbin who work on US or Canadian payroll. They are the hourly rates consultants set themselves, before Turbin's fee.
How much does a Workday Payroll consultant cost per hour?
The median Workday Payroll consultant for the US and Canada charges $90 an hour. The middle half charge between $80 and $115. That is $10 more than Core HCM ($80), the main HR module, and Payroll has about a third as many consultants. Fewer experts and higher stakes both push the rate up.
Payroll work rarely comes alone. Time Tracking feeds hours into it, and Absence and Benefits change what it pays out. Many consultants work in two or three of these areas, so the table shows them side by side. UK Payroll is a separate, much smaller group with its own tax calendar.
| Module | Middle half | Median | Certified median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payroll (US and Canada) Pay groups, earnings, tax setup, retro | $80–$115 | $90 | $120 |
| Payroll (UK) UK pay, HMRC, pensions | $80–$90 | $80 | n/a |
| Time Tracking Time entry, calculations, approvals | $60–$105 | $80 | $90 |
| Absence Leave plans, accruals, time-off eligibility | $60–$100 | $80 | $95 |
| Benefits Plans, enrollment events, carrier files | $65–$109 | $85 | $105 |
USD per hour, set by the consultant, before Turbin's fee. Certified median shown where at least ten consultants in the row hold a certification Turbin has validated; "n/a" means fewer than ten.
Why certified Payroll consultants cost more
A certification moves a Payroll rate more than almost anything else. Consultants with a Payroll certification Turbin has checked charge a median of $120. That is $30 above the module as a whole. Across Workday, only Compensation shows a wider gap (+$33), and Recruiting and Learning match it.
Part of the premium is scarcity. Just 23% of Payroll consultants on Turbin hold a checked certification, against 66% across the whole network.
Part of it is what the certificate tells you. Payroll certifications come through a Workday partner, a consulting firm Workday has approved. They stay current only with training on each new Workday release. So a current certificate usually means recent, supervised project work, not a course taken years ago.
Country matters too. Workday sets up US and Canadian payroll in much the same way, but their tax rules, government reports and year-end forms differ. A consultant who has closed three US year-ends is not automatically ready for a Canadian one. The rate will not tell you which they have done, so ask.
How to check a Payroll consultant before you hire
Start with the country and how often you pay: weekly, every two weeks or monthly. Ask which payrolls they have actually run in Workday, not only set up. A consultant who has built a system but never closed a pay period on one will learn on your payroll.
Then ask how many year-ends they have closed, in which years and in which country. A real practitioner answers with numbers. The year-end guide has a month-by-month checklist to test the answer against.
Ask which pay items they built themselves. "The standard ones" is not an answer. A good answer names specific earnings and deductions, how each one is calculated, and the one that needed a custom rule.
Then confirm the certification. On Turbin, certifications we have checked against the partner's records show on the consultant's profile. Elsewhere, ask for the issuing partner and the year. The certification guide covers the rest of the check.
Finish with one scenario: a back-dated pay change lands on a pay period you already closed. Ask them to walk you through what happens. A strong answer explains Workday's retro calculation, the catch-up for back-dated pay. It covers what that does to the next regular payroll and how they would check the totals still match. The interview guide shows what good answers sound like for other payroll scenarios.
If a staffing agency sent the candidate, run these questions yourself. The agency recruiter is usually not a Workday practitioner, and often matches on the words "Workday Payroll" alone. That screen will not catch the gap between a US year-end and a Canadian one. On Turbin, matching is by module and country, and each consultant was admitted on 3 verified references and their Workday project history.
What a Payroll engagement costs in total
At the Payroll median of $90 an hour, Turbin's flat 20% fee brings what you pay to $108 an hour. Through a staffing agency, the same consultant typically bills at $126–$180, because most agencies add 40–100% on top of the consultant's rate. Ask the agency what the consultant is paid. Most won't say, because the gap is their margin. Here is what three common projects cost on Turbin.
- Year-end support: three months at 15 hours a week, about $21k.
- Fixing issues after go-live (the day you start paying people from Workday): six months at 20 hours a week, about $56k. This covers payroll errors, back pay, pay-item fixes and audit reports.
- A parallel run and cutover: four months at 30 hours a week, about $75k. A parallel run means running the old and new payroll side by side to check they match. This is where a certified consultant at $120 is worth the premium.
Most of this work is part-time. Across projects run through Turbin, the median is 15 hours a week for about 6 months. On Turbin, 68% of Payroll consultants take part-time work.
There is no minimum length, and 30 days' written notice ends a project. If the first week's work is not good enough to bill, Turbin replaces the consultant within 72 hours at no charge.
Timing is the other cost. Through a staffing agency, expect 3–6 weeks from request to a signed consultant. On Turbin the median is 48 hours from request to hire. Payroll demand peaks before year-end, so a request in October or November finds more consultants free than one in December.
Be specific in your request. Name the country, how often you pay and the type of work, such as "US, paid every two weeks, year-end, back-pay corrections". That gets you a sharper shortlist than "Workday Payroll consultant".
Questions we get asked.
For high-stakes work, usually yes. Certified Payroll consultants on Turbin charge a median of $120, against $90 for the module. That $30 gap matches Recruiting and Learning and trails only Compensation (+$33). Pay it for a parallel run, a cutover or your first year-end on Workday. With a strong payroll lead on your side, a backlog of small fixes is different. There, an uncertified consultant with recent year-ends is a sensible saving.
Often. The Payroll figures here combine the US and Canada, because many consultants work in both and Workday sets them up in a similar way. Tax setup, government reporting and year-end forms differ: W-2s in the US, T4s in Canada. So ask which country they have closed a year-end in, and how recently. If you need both, say so in your request.
UK Payroll is one of the smallest groups on Turbin. Its median is $80 an hour, and none of its consultants yet hold a certification Turbin has checked. UK payroll runs on a different calendar (the tax year ends on April 5) with different government reporting. So it is rarely combined with North American payroll in one project. Ask for UK year-end experience specifically.