PAYROLL CALCULATOR
What headcount actually costs.
Gross salary is not the cost of employing someone. This adds every employer-side contribution and scales it to your headcount.
Enter your details
Fields are pre-filled with typical values — type your own or drag the sliders, and everything recalculates instantly. Nothing is sent to a server.
Calculated on FY 2025-26 statutory rates. Indicative only — confirm against current notifications before filing.
Total monthly payroll cost
₹33,33,333
Per employee per month
₹66,667
Annual payroll cost
₹4,00,00,000
Headcount
50
What the workforce costs the employer each month
Full breakdown
Step-by-step calculation
HOW IT WORKS
The formula used
Employer cost builds up from gross salary, then adds each statutory employer contribution.
Basic + HRA + allowancesPF wage × 12%PF wage × 1%Gross × 3.25% where within the wage limitSum of the above × headcountUNDERSTANDING IT
About the employer cost calculator
Employment cost is routinely underestimated because the visible number — gross salary — excludes several mandatory employer contributions. Provident fund at 12%, administration charges and insurance at 1%, and employer state insurance at 3.25% for covered employees all sit on top.
For a workforce concentrated below the ESI wage limit, the employer-side loading is substantially higher than for a workforce above it. That makes blended assumptions unreliable when the salary distribution is wide.
This calculator models a per-employee cost and scales it to headcount, which is the figure finance teams need for budgeting and hiring plans.
Worked example
Take an average annual CTC of ₹8,00,000 across 50 employees.
Monthly CTC per employee is ₹66,667, so total monthly payroll cost is ₹33,33,333 and annual cost is ₹4 crore. Within that, employer provident fund on the ceiling wage and administration charges account for roughly ₹1,950 per employee per month.
WHY IT HELPS
What this calculator is good for
Budget headcount properly
Model the fully loaded cost rather than gross salary alone.
Scale a correct unit cost
An error in per-employee cost multiplies across the workforce.
Separate salary from statutory
See how much of payroll spend is contribution rather than pay.
WATCH OUT
Common mistakes
These are the errors that most often produce a wrong number.
Budgeting on gross salary and omitting employer contributions entirely.
Applying one blended rate across a workforce with a wide salary distribution.
Forgetting employer ESI for employees below the wage limit.
Excluding gratuity accrual from long-term cost models.
HR TIPS
Practical guidance
Model bands, not averages
Split the workforce into salary bands so ESI applicability is modelled correctly.
Include gratuity accrual
For a long-tenured workforce this becomes a material annual charge.
Revisit after revisions
An increment cycle changes both salary and the statutory loading on it.
QUESTIONS
Employer Cost Calculator — frequently asked
Gross salary plus employer provident fund, administration charges, deposit-linked insurance, employer ESI where applicable, and gratuity accrual where the employer provisions for it.
Typically an additional 13% of the provident fund wage, plus 3.25% of gross for employees within the ESI limit. The loading is higher for lower-paid employees.
In most Indian organisations yes — cost to company is intended to express exactly this total. Practices vary on whether gratuity and insurance premiums are included.
Results are indicative and computed on FY 2025-26statutory rates using conventional salary-structure assumptions. Your actual figures depend on your employer’s structure, your state and your declarations. Confirm against current notifications before relying on these numbers for filing.
Run this on real payroll, not a calculator
Stop calculating payroll in a spreadsheet. BizzField Payroll runs the whole cycle, applies every statutory rule and files what regulators expect.