How PF works on a monthly salary
Provident fund is 12% of the PF wage (basic plus dearness allowance) from the employee, matched by 12% from the employer. The employer's share is split between the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) and the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS), with EPS fixed at 8.33% of wages up to ₹15,000. That cap is why the pension share flattens out at about ₹1,250 a month once the wage crosses ₹15,000.
Each page above shows the full monthly split for that salary. PF is a forced saving: the money leaves your salary but builds a retirement corpus that earns interest each year. For staffing firms running PF for hundreds of workers, the employer share and the EPS cap are the two figures that most often get miscalculated by hand.
What counts as the PF wage
PF is calculated on basic wage plus dearness allowance, not on the full CTC or gross salary. Where the basic is high, many employers cap the PF wage at ₹15,000 a month, which limits both the deduction and the employer cost. Allowances such as house rent allowance and conveyance are usually excluded, though the exact treatment depends on your salary structure, so the figures above assume PF is applied on the salary shown.
Two workers on the same gross salary can therefore have different PF deductions if their basic components differ. If you are comparing job offers, look at the PF wage, not just the headline salary, because a higher PF means a smaller cash in hand today but a larger retirement balance later.
Run PF for your whole workforce
ZeniaHR calculates EPF and EPS for every worker and files the returns, so nothing slips.
Open the PF calculator