Once you factor in employer-paid benefits, pension, etc, the employer's cost is something like 140% of the employee's gross pay. This turns the $84,000 into a $60,000 gross salary.

If you include other costs, like the office space and equipment used by the employee, it starts to sound pretty reasonable.

So true! Also, in most organizational structures, every X employees will need one manager, which is also a cost that needs to be factored into the cost of hiring an employee.

An employee costs a lot more than just the cost of their salary.