--- title: "What does an hour of downtime cost? The maths for 20 workstations" description: "Using INE data: an hour without systems costs a 20-workstation company close to €1,000. The formula, the table and what cuts the risk. No-obligation proposal." language: en url: https://www.dataroad-it.com/en/cost-of-it-downtime-calculation/ source: https://www.dataroad-it.com/en/cost-of-it-downtime-calculation/ publisher: DataRoad IT (DataRoad - IT Services and Consulting), Portugal --- > Using INE data: an hour without systems costs a 20-workstation company close to €1,000. The formula, the table and what cuts the risk. No-obligation proposal. # What does an hour of downtime cost? The maths for 20 workstations At a glance For decision-makers short on time. - 01 An hour of downtime costs around €1,000 in a 20-workstation company, according to our model. - 02 Only a third is salary: the rest is lost revenue and restart time. - 03 Each idle employee costs around €14.30 an hour (INE 2025 average + employer social security). - 04 Monitoring, redundancy and tested backups cut both the frequency and length of outages. ### In this article The question a CFO should ask before approving the IT budget is simple: **what does an hour of downtime cost**? In a 20-workstation company, our model gives close to €1,000, and only a third of that is salary; the rest is revenue that evaporates. Four hours without a server on a Tuesday morning takes more than €3,500. Below is the full calculation, with official sources, ready to apply to your own figures. ## Which figures should you keep in mind? | Indicator | Reference value | | --- | --- | | Labour cost of one person unable to work | ≈ €14.30/hour (pay + employer social security) | | One hour of total downtime, 20 workstations | ≈ €1,000 | | A 9am fault resolved at 1pm | ≈ €3,560 | | Two mornings like that in a year | > €7,000 | Left out of these figures are the client who went to a competitor, the late delivery and the morale of a team that spent the morning waiting. ## How does the cost of an outage break down? Three components, which add up: - **Unproductive payroll**: paid in full, producing nothing. Formula: people affected × individual hourly cost. - **Lost revenue**: orders, bookings or appointments that do not happen. Part is recovered later; the rest is not. - **Slow restart**: with systems back, the inbox is full, tasks have to be redone and calls returned. Beware a common mistake: an employee's hourly cost is not obtained by dividing salary by the hours in a month. Add up everything the company pays out in a year (salary, allowances, employer contribution) and divide by the hours actually worked. ## What does an idle employee cost on average? The starting point is INE, Portugal's statistics institute: in 2025, average total gross pay was €1,694 a month, with allowances and bonuses already spread across twelve months. Full year: around €20,330. Add the employer's social security contribution (TSU), 23.75% in most cases, and the annual cost comes to around €25,160. On the hours side: 220 days of actual work (after weekends, public holidays and 22 working days of annual leave) times 8 hours, i.e. 1,760 hours. **Final sum:** €25,160 divided by 1,760 hours gives approximately €14.30 per person per hour. It is a floor, not a ceiling: in clinics, offices and professional services, where pay is above average, the figure is higher. ## How much does a 10, 20, 30 or 60-workstation company lose per hour? Assumptions used (swap them for yours): - **Revenue per employee** €100,000 a year; calculate yours by dividing annual turnover by headcount. - **Share that is not recovered** Half. - **Half an hour of restart** Per person after service returns. - **Scenario** Complete outage, the whole team affected. | Component | 10 workstations | 20 workstations | 30 workstations | 60 workstations | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Salaries (1 h) | €143 | €286 | €429 | €858 | | Lost revenue (1 h) | €284 | €568 | €852 | €1,705 | | Restart (30 min) | €71 | €143 | €214 | €429 | | **Total per hour** | **≈ €500** | **≈ €1,000** | **≈ €1,500** | **≈ €3,000** | *Illustrative figures: salaries based on the INE 2025 average with a 23.75% employer contribution; revenue and restart are adjustable assumptions.* ## Which costs stay hidden? The model is deliberately conservative. Some factors, on a bad day, outweigh everything else: - **Data loss** A failed disk or ransomware without a working copy turns hours into days. - **Reputation** A hotel reception without its system or a clinic without its diary: the client sees it and does not forget. - **Penalty clauses** In contracts with your own clients. - **Overtime** To clear the backlog. - **Compliance** A personal data breach may require notifying the authorities; in several sectors [NIS2](https://www.dataroad-it.com/en/nis2-compliance-portugal/) applies. ## What reduces this number measurably? Two levers: fewer incidents and shorter incidents. A premium MSP works on both. ### Prevention: the alert before the failure Disks with failing sectors, worn UPS batteries, packet loss on the line, certificates about to expire: all of these give warning in advance. A [NOC with proactive monitoring](https://www.dataroad-it.com/en/noc-it-monitoring-portugal/) receives the warning and acts before the user feels it. The comparison is set out in [prevent or react: what pays off](https://www.dataroad-it.com/en/noc-proactive-monitoring-vs-reactive/). ### Redundancy: from a lost day to 15 minutes A secondary internet line with automatic failover. Backups whose restore has been proven. A written script for the first hour. This is what drastically shortens the incident, see our [disaster recovery and continuity](https://www.dataroad-it.com/en/disaster-recovery-services-portugal/) model. ### Accountability with an SLA When there is a contract with response times, nobody wastes time looking for someone to call. DataRoad's [IT Unlimited](https://www.dataroad-it.com/en/managed-it-services/) guarantees remote, on-site and telephone support, with immediate response. Operations that do not stop at night choose [Premium 365](https://www.dataroad-it.com/en/premium-365-24-7-managed-it/): it adds nights, weekends and public holidays and is the only tier with 24/7 support and monitoring. ## How does Boost Portugal protect its sales? Boost Portugal (tourism activities in Lisbon, Porto, the Douro and Madrid) has an IT Unlimited contract with DataRoad. The business sells to tourists in real time; without the network, the till closes. The architecture combines two internet links with automatic failover, remote monitoring with alerts and availability reports, backups and IP PBX support. Details in the [Boost Portugal case study](https://www.dataroad-it.com/en/boost-portugal-redundant-internet-managed-it/). ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the formula for the cost of an hour of downtime? The cost of an hour of downtime is the hourly cost of the people affected + the unrecoverable revenue for that hour + restart time. Using the INE national average, the salary portion is around €14 per person per hour. ### Does a failure of just email or invoicing count? Yes, applied only to those who are blocked and to the revenue that depends on that system. Small, repeated failures that are never logged are often the biggest hidden cost. ### How much should you invest in prevention? At least the equivalent of the annual cost of likely outages. If you lose two mornings a year, monitoring, redundancy and tested backups already pay for themselves. ### Is DataRoad's support 24/7? Only on Premium 365, which includes 24/7 support and monitoring. Essential and Premium run during business hours, with immediate response times. ## Next step: a downtime risk map in 5 working days We identify single points of failure (internet, server, power, backups) and calculate with you the value of each hour of downtime in your company. Request a no-commitment proposal. **More than 10 workstations · support contract · remote, on-site and telephone support.** Call +351 211 459 950 * or write to sales@dataroad.pt. **Call to a Portuguese landline.* ## Sources - [Government: real wage growth in 2025 (INE average of €1,694)](https://portugal.gov.pt/gc25/comunicacao/noticias/salarios-reais-cresceram-32-em-2025) - [INE: highlights on earnings](https://www.ine.pt/xportal/xmain?xpid=INE&xpgid=ine_destaques&xlang=pt) - [PwC, Tax Guide 2026: employer contribution rate](https://www.pwc.pt/pt/pwcinforfisco/guia-fiscal/2026/seguranca-social.html) - [Diário da República: Labour Code, Article 238](https://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/legislacao-consolidada/lei/2009-34546475) Chosen by respected and international companies ★★★★★ 5,0 · 52 Google reviews ★★★★★ 5,0 · 52 Google reviews DataRoad ## Related articles [IT UnlimitedHow to measure the quality of your IT provider’s supportAlmost every IT provider says it responds quickly. 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