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Employer Payroll Cost Calculator

Compute the fully-loaded monthly cost of a Philippine hire, including employer SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, and 13th-month accrual.

Published

Fully-loaded monthly cost of a Philippine hire.

Total monthly cost

Employer SSS

Employer PhilHealth

Employer Pag-IBIG

13th-month accrual

A salary is never the whole bill

When a founder offers PHP 40,000 a month, that figure is not what the hire costs the company. Philippine labour law layers several mandatory employer contributions and an accrued bonus on top, and a payroll budget that ignores them runs short every single month. This calculator answers the question every employer and finance lead should ask before extending an offer: what is the fully-loaded monthly cost of this person? It takes the monthly gross and the monthly basic salary and returns the employer share of SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG, the monthly accrual for 13th-month pay, and the grand total you should pencil into the budget.

The four costs stacked on top of pay

Each add-on follows its own rule, drawn from the agency that administers it. The Social Security System (SSS) charges a combined contribution on the monthly salary credit, of which the employer carries the larger share, plus a small Employees' Compensation premium that is the employer's alone. The salary credit is capped, so above a ceiling the SSS cost stops rising. PhilHealth, the national health insurer, sets a premium as a percentage of basic salary split evenly between employer and employee, also between a floor and a ceiling. Pag-IBIG, the housing fund, takes a flat percentage of monthly compensation up to a fund-salary cap. Finally, 13th-month pay is a legally required extra month of basic salary paid by December, which a careful employer accrues at one twelfth each month rather than scrambling for the lump sum at year-end. The specific rates, caps, and the EC premium this calculator applies are its working model. Confirm the live figures with SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG, since each revises its schedule on its own cadence.

What a PHP 40,000 hire truly costs

Take an employee whose gross and basic are both PHP 40,000, using the rates this calculator applies. The salary credit is capped, so the employer SSS share lands at PHP 3,500 plus a PHP 30 EC premium, PHP 3,530 in all. The PhilHealth premium on PHP 40,000 basic is PHP 2,000, and the employer pays half, PHP 1,000. Pag-IBIG caps the fund salary, so the employer share is PHP 200. The 13th-month accrual is PHP 40,000 divided by twelve, about PHP 3,333. Add them to the salary and the loaded cost is PHP 48,063 a month, roughly PHP 8,063 above the headline pay.

Cost component Monthly amount

The chart shows the stack: the salary is the base, and the employer add-ons make up the rest of the fully-loaded cost.

What this tool deliberately leaves out

The total here is a baseline, not a ceiling. Real employment carries more. Five days of service incentive leave, the cost of leave conversions, night-shift differential and overtime where they apply, HMO premiums that most competitive employers now offer, equipment, and the withholding-tax administration burden all add up. Note also that the employer contributions are separate from the amounts deducted from the worker's own pay: the employee carries their own share of SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG out of gross, which is not what this calculator shows. A frequent error is budgeting only the salary and then being surprised by the December 13th-month outlay, which is exactly why accruing one twelfth each month keeps cash flow smooth.

Is 13th-month pay taxable to the employee?

It is exempt up to a ceiling, which this tool's wider model treats as PHP 90,000 combined with other benefits, with anything above that added to taxable income. For the employer, though, the full 13th-month is a real cash cost regardless of the employee's tax treatment, which is why it belongs in the loaded figure. Confirm the current exemption ceiling with the BIR.

Why do you ask for both gross and basic salary?

Because they drive different contributions. The SSS salary credit and the Pag-IBIG fund salary key off monthly compensation, while the PhilHealth premium and the 13th-month accrual are computed on basic salary. For a worker with allowances, gross can exceed basic, so entering both gives a sharper estimate. If your worker has no allowances, set them equal, as the defaults do.

Frequently asked questions

What does an employer pay on top of salary in the Philippines?
On top of gross salary an employer pays its share of SSS (10% of the salary credit plus the EC contribution), PhilHealth (half of the 5% premium), and Pag-IBIG (2%). Employers also accrue the 13th-month pay, which is one twelfth of basic salary each month. This tool sums those into a fully-loaded monthly cost.
How much more than the gross salary does a Philippine hire actually cost?
For a PHP 40,000 gross salary, employer contributions and the 13th-month accrual add roughly PHP 8,000 per month, making the fully-loaded cost about 20% above the headline pay. The gap is proportionally larger for lower salaries where the fixed caps on SSS and Pag-IBIG represent a bigger slice of gross, and smaller for very high salaries where the SSS salary-credit ceiling limits the employer SSS share.
Is the employer's SSS share different from the employee's?
Yes. The employer carries a larger portion of the combined SSS rate plus the full Employees Compensation (EC) premium, which is an employer-only cost that funds workplace injury and disability benefits. The employee share is the smaller slice of the same combined rate. This calculator shows the employer share only, which is what matters for budgeting a hire, not the employee-side deductions that appear on the worker's payslip.
When must the employer pay 13th-month pay and how is it accrued?
13th-month pay must be paid in full to covered employees by December 24 of each year. The amount is at least one twelfth of an employee's total basic salary earned during the calendar year. A cash-conscious employer sets aside one twelfth of basic salary every month rather than scrambling for the lump sum in December. This calculator uses that monthly accrual approach to show the true monthly cost of an employee from day one.

Related calculators

Sources

  1. SSS / PhilHealth / Pag-IBIG — Mandatory Contributions, Social Security System, Philippines
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