Salary slip format: what an Indian payslip must show

A payslip is the one HR document every employee reads every month, and the one that leaves the company most often: it goes to banks for loans, to landlords, to visa offices and to the next employer. It is also the first exhibit in any dispute about pay. A payslip that is complete and consistent prevents most of those disputes from starting.

The legal baseline

The Code on Wages requires every employer to issue a wage slip to every employee for every pay period, on or before payment, electronically or on paper. A PDF in the employee portal or an email attachment satisfies this; a WhatsApp screenshot of a spreadsheet technically does too, but it will not survive a bank's scrutiny. The older state rules under the Shops and Establishments Acts and the Minimum Wages Act said much the same thing. The content below goes beyond the bare legal form because the readers of a payslip expect it.

Fields a payslip must show

Header. Company legal name, address and logo; the pay period (month and year); date of payment.

Employee details. Full name, employee code, designation, department, date of joining, location. Statutory identifiers: Universal Account Number (UAN) for EPF, PAN, and the ESI insurance number where applicable. Bank account (masked) and payment mode.

Attendance summary. Days in the month, paid days, loss-of-pay days, leave taken. This is where most queries start, so it must match the attendance system exactly.

Earnings. Each component on its own line with the fixed monthly amount and the amount actually paid after proration: basic, house rent allowance, special or other allowances, any reimbursements paid through payroll, arrears, overtime, bonus or incentive. The salary structure sets these lines; the payslip should not invent new ones.

Deductions. Employee's EPF contribution (12 percent of basic and dearness allowance, on wages up to the ₹25,000 ceiling unless the company contributes on full basic), employee's ESI contribution (0.75 percent of gross, for employees with gross wages up to ₹21,000), professional tax at the state slab, income tax deducted at source, labour welfare fund where the state levies it, and any advance or loan recovery.

Totals. Gross earnings, total deductions and net pay, in figures and ideally in words.

Employer contributions, shown separately. Employer EPF and ESI, and gratuity provision if your CTC includes it. These are not deductions from the employee, and showing them in the deductions column is the most common cause of "my salary is less than promised" complaints.

Year-to-date. Cumulative gross, TDS and PF for the financial year, which the employee needs for tax planning and which makes the final tax certificate reconcile.

A worked sample

A ₹40,000 monthly cost-to-company employee in Karnataka, full month, no loss of pay, under the new tax regime:

Employer contributions shown below the line: employer EPF ₹2,160, bringing the monthly cost to company to ₹40,000. ESI does not apply because gross exceeds ₹21,000. TDS is nil because annual taxable income after the standard deduction falls below the threshold at which tax becomes payable under the new regime. Professional tax is at the Karnataka slab for this salary; your state's figure will differ.

Two consistency rules make this sample trustworthy. EPF is computed on the same basic that appears in the earnings column, and gross minus deductions equals net to the rupee. A payslip that fails either arithmetic check will be questioned, correctly.

Mistakes that cause disputes

• Employer contributions in the deductions column. Covered above; it is the top complaint.
• Loss of pay without the day count. A deduction labelled "LOP" with no days shown reads as arbitrary.
• Reimbursements mixed into salary. Fuel or mobile reimbursements paid through payroll should be on separate lines, since they are not wages for PF or tax purposes.
• Rounded components that do not sum. Compute each line exactly and round only the net.
• Missing UAN or PAN. Both appear on every loan and visa checklist.
• A different designation from the appointment letter. Fix the record, not the payslip.
• Arrears without a reference. State the period the arrears relate to.

Digital payslips and the employee portal

Generate payslips from the payroll run, not from a template filled in by hand, and publish them to each employee's own login where they can download any month on demand. The payroll system should produce them in the same format every month, password-protect any emailed copy, and keep every historical slip available; an employee asking for "payslips for the last six months" for a home loan should be able to self-serve in a minute. ZekoHR's payroll module issues them this way, but the principle holds for any system: one source of truth, generated, never edited.

This article describes common practice and general legal provisions, not legal advice. Statutory rates, ceilings and state slabs change; confirm the figures applicable to your establishment.