Net gain from a pay rise after EPF, SOCSO/EIS, and tax.
Monthly net gain
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New gross
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New net
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Share kept
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A raise is never the full raise
When your manager says you are getting an eight percent bump, your bank account does not grow by eight percent. Three things take a slice on the way through: EPF, your retirement fund managed by KWSP; SOCSO and EIS, the social-insurance contributions to PERKESO; and income tax assessed by LHDN. This tool reverse-engineers the take-home figure twice, once on your old salary and once on the new one, and reports the difference. The headline you want is the monthly net gain, because that is what actually lands in your pocket each month after every deduction has been settled.
How the model works out your net
For each salary, the calculator takes the employee EPF contribution at the rate it applies of 11 percent, adds the employee shares of SOCSO and EIS, and subtracts an estimate of monthly income tax. The tax piece annualises your pay, subtracts the automatic individual relief the model sets at RM9,000, runs the result through the resident progressive bands, applies the RM400 rebate where chargeable income is at or below RM35,000, then divides by twelve. These are the rates and reliefs the calculator assumes for the current year of assessment, and you should confirm the live figures with LHDN and KWSP, since contribution rates and bands are reviewed periodically.
An eight percent rise on RM6,000 a month
Take the defaults: a current salary of RM6,000 with an eight percent increment, lifting gross pay to RM6,480. That is a gross raise of RM480 a month. After the model runs both salaries, the new take-home is about RM5,428, against roughly RM5,054 before, so the monthly net gain is about RM374. You keep about 78 percent of the gross raise.
| Where the RM480 goes | Monthly (RM) |
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Notice two things this example does not do. SOCSO and EIS do not rise, because both the old and new salaries sit at or above the RM6,000 monthly wage ceiling those contributions are capped at, so the figure stays put. And the raise does not push you into a higher tax band: chargeable income moves from about RM63,000 to RM68,760, both inside the same band the calculator taxes at 19 percent at the margin, so the extra tax is simply 19 percent of the part of the raise that is taxable after EPF.
The 78 percent figure undersells it
Here is the practical judgement most pay-rise calculators miss. Of your RM480, the RM52.80 routed to EPF has not vanished. It is your money, sitting in your KWSP account and compounding at the annual dividend, and you get it back at withdrawal. So while take-home rises by RM374, your total economic gain is closer to RM427 a month once you count the forced retirement saving. Only the RM52.80 of tax is genuinely gone. When you weigh up a counter-offer or a new role, judge it on total value, not just the take-home line.
When the share you keep actually falls
On a small raise inside one band the kept share holds steady. The squeeze appears on a large jump that straddles a band edge, for example a promotion that lifts annual chargeable income from below RM100,000 to well above it, where the top slice meets the 25 percent rate the model applies rather than 19 percent. The bigger and more band-crossing the raise, the smaller the proportion you keep, which is worth knowing before you feel short-changed by a generous-sounding offer.
Does my bonus follow the same maths?
Broadly yes for EPF and tax, since a contractual bonus is part of EPF wages and is taxable, but a bonus is a one-off, so it can land you in a higher band in the month it is paid even when your base salary would not. It also does not lift your recurring monthly take-home the way a permanent increment does. Use a dedicated bonus tool for that calculation.
Why is my real payslip slightly different?
SOCSO and EIS in practice follow PERKESO's banded contribution table rather than a flat percentage, and your employer may use the LHDN monthly tax deduction schedule, which factors in your declared reliefs and dependants. This tool uses simplified percentages and the automatic individual relief only, so treat its output as a close estimate, not a payslip to the sen.