Estimate monthly employee and employer EPF contributions on PF wage. This is a simplified employer-cost model — not a payslip replica.
How SalaryExit calculates estimates (methodology, FY scope, and limits).
Employer-side EPS diversion is not modeled separately — see accuracy card.
Engine snapshot: PF wage ₹15,000/month with default ceiling rules → employee ₹1,800/mo, employer ₹1,800/mo, total ₹3,600/mo (simplified).
Employers split contributions across EPF/EPS/EDLI and may use different wage definitions.
Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) is the statutory retirement savings scheme that applies to establishments with 20 or more employees in India. For salaried employees covered by EPF, the scheme determines a mandatory deduction from your payslip every month — and a matching employer contribution. Understanding how EPF works helps you accurately estimate both your take-home salary and your long-term retirement corpus.
The contribution rate for both employee and employer is 12% of the PF wage. PF wage is defined as Basic salary plus Dearness Allowance (DA). Critically, this is not gross salary and not CTC — it is specifically Basic + DA. Many employers keep Basic salary at 40–50% of gross to manage their EPF contribution cost. The result: two employees with the same gross salary at different employers may have different PF deductions if their Basic+DA splits differ.
Of the employer’s 12% contribution, 8.33% goes to the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) — capped at a wage ceiling defined by EPFO rules — and the remainder goes into the EPF corpus. The employee’s full 12% goes to EPF. When you see “employer PF” in a CTC breakup, it includes both these streams. Employees cannot access the EPS share directly at withdrawal — it is part of the pension fund and has different rules at retirement. These nuances are why employer PF in CTC does not translate linearly to your EPF balance.
Employees can contribute beyond the statutory 12% through Voluntary Provident Fund (VPF) — up to 100% of Basic+DA. VPF has the same interest rate as EPF and the same tax treatment. If you are looking to increase tax-efficient long-term savings beyond 80C (which EPF counts toward), VPF is one mechanism — but it further reduces your monthly in-hand. Use this calculator to see how different PF wage levels and voluntary contributions change your monthly cash balance.