By Scott Goodman, Chief Revenue Architect at Alba Talent. Built with 2024 to 2025 RepVue, PayScale, BLS OES, and ONS data.
TL;DR: A fully-loaded UK SDR averages £62,000 vs £107,000 for a US SDR (at $1.25/£1). A 42% saving for comparable output. From Alba's 400+ placements: UK SDRs hit quota at 63% at 12 months (US domestic: 61%), and attrit at 19% (US: 28%). The calculator below personalises the estimate to your hire level, location, and commission structure.
Configure your hire
UK SDR (fully loaded)
£0
Base salary£0
OTE commission£0
Employer NI + pension (13.8% + 3%)£0
Tools and onboarding£0
EOR / entity overhead£0
US SDR (fully loaded)
£0
Base salary£0
OTE commission£0
Employer taxes + benefits (28%)£0
Tools and onboarding£0
Health insurance premium£0
Annual saving per SDR
£0
0% cheaper than US
Annual saving across team
£0
for X SDRs
Want a named, CV-ready UK SDR in your Calendly within two weeks?
Book a 30-minute placement call with Scott. We'll scope your ICP, pipeline target, and show you candidates you can interview this week.
From Alba's 400+ placements of UK SDRs into US B2B SaaS companies (2022 to 2025), matched against published US-domestic benchmarks:
12-month quota attainment: UK 63% vs US 61% (Bridge Group 2024 benchmark)
Ramp time to 80% quota: UK 4.2 months vs US 4.6 months
12-month attrition: UK 19% vs US 28% (Bridge Group)
Meetings booked per week (mid-ramp): UK 7.3 vs US 6.9
Caveat: the UK cohort is Alba's placement book, pre-filtered for US-SaaS fit. Domestic US averages are across all SDR roles, not pre-filtered. Interpret as directional, not a controlled comparison.
Frequently asked questions
How much cheaper is a UK SDR than a US SDR in 2026?
Mid-level hire averages £62,000 UK fully loaded vs £107,000 US fully loaded, at $1.25/£1. 42% saving. Delta widens for Senior SDRs (50%+) and narrows for Junior SDRs (35%).
Can UK SDRs cover US working hours?
Yes. 13:00 to 21:00 GMT covers all of US East Coast day and half of West Coast. Most Alba placements use this shift. Timezone is an advantage over LATAM or Philippines alternatives for US SaaS selling into Fortune 2000.
What are the legal options for hiring a UK SDR in a US SaaS company?
Employer of Record (Deel, Remote, Velocity Global): fastest, +15% fee. Direct contractor: cheapest but IR35 risk and permanent-establishment tax exposure after 183 days. Direct UK entity: highest cost, most control. Alba defaults to EOR unless client already has UK entity.
Why does this calculator say US SDR is £107,000 when Glassdoor shows £75,000?
Glassdoor shows base salary. Fully loaded includes OTE commission (hit rate-adjusted), employer FICA + unemployment + workers' comp taxes (~10%), health insurance employer contribution (~£10k/year), 401k match, tools (Salesforce, Outreach, Gong, LinkedIn Sales Nav), and onboarding ramp cost. The delta is consistently 1.6 to 1.8x base salary in 2024 to 2025 data.
Does the saving apply if I use a SaaS vendor like Martal or SalesHive instead of hiring directly?
Partially. Managed SDR-as-a-service vendors charge approximately £6,000 to £10,000/month for US-dedicated SDRs. Hiring a dedicated UK SDR directly via EOR averages £5,200/month. The calculator assumes direct hire; subtract ~15% for managed service pricing.
Methodology: UK salary data from PayScale UK 2024 and RepVue UK 2024. US salary data from RepVue US 2024 and BLS OES May 2024 for code 41-9031 (Sales Engineers). UK employer costs derived from HMRC NI Class 1 employer rate (13.8%), auto-enrolment pension (3% employer), statutory sickness and holiday. US employer costs from BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) Q3 2024. Exchange rate user-configurable, default $1.25/£1. City-specific US base salary adjustments from RepVue market modifiers.