India Employee Cost Calculator

EOR cost estimatorUpdated for the ₹25,000 PF wage ceiling (from 17 Sep 2026)

What will one India hire cost you each month?

Enter the monthly gross salary you plan to pay. You get an indicative all-in monthly cost: salary, employer statutory contributions and the TMS EOR fee.

Last updated 14 October 2026. Figures checked by the TMS compliance team.

Monthly gross salary per employee

Gross pay before deductions. USD is converted at ₹93 = USD 1 (indicative).

Number of employees on TMS EOR

The TMS fee is banded: USD 100 each for the first 5, USD 75 for 6 to 10, USD 65 for 11 to 25, USD 50 from 26 onwards. Each band applies only to the employees inside it.

Indicative cost per employee, per month

This salary is above USD 3,000 a month. Our published fees apply up to USD 3,000; above that, a separate fee applies, set out in your proposal. Contact us

Gross salary

Employer PF12% of PF wages, capped at ₹25,000

Employer ESIC3.25% of Code wages (Basic + DA), if ₹21,000 or less

Gratuity provision4.81% of basic

Group mediclaim + accident coverExtra, billed at the actual premium for the cover you chooseAt actual premium

TMS EOR feeUSD 100 per employee

Indicative all-in cost per employee, per month (before insurance)

Get my exact quote →

Indicative only, not a quote. Assumes basic pay is 50% of gross (the Labour Codes wage rule). Salary and employer statutory contributions are billed at actuals; small PF admin charges, PT and LWF vary by state and are not shown. Group mediclaim and accident cover are extra, billed at the actual premium for the cover you choose, and are not included in this estimate. Fees are in USD, exclude applicable taxes and are confirmed in the TMS service agreement. Prices apply to Indian nationals hired in India through TMS EOR, earning up to USD 3,000 gross a month (or the INR equivalent at the exchange rate in your proposal). Above USD 3,000, a separate fee applies, set out in your proposal or order form. Terms & Conditions apply.

How the EOR cost estimate works

Your estimate combines the employee's gross salary with the statutory employer contributions and a flat TMS service fee. There is no setup cost and you don't need a legal entity in India — TMS acts as the Employer of Record.

What's included in your fully-loaded cost

Gross salary (CTC) — the package you agree with the employee.
Employer PF — 12% of PF wages, subject to the statutory wage ceiling.
Employer ESIC — 3.25% of Code wages (Basic + DA) for employees whose Code wages are within the ESIC limit (₹21,000/month). Since 21 November 2025 ESIC is decided on Code wages, not gross.
Professional Tax & LWF — as applicable, by state.
Gratuity accrual — funded over tenure for eligible employees.
TMS service fee — a flat per-employee monthly fee, never a percentage of payroll.

Worked example

For a software engineer on ₹12,00,000 CTC per year based in Maharashtra, the monthly cost is the gross salary plus roughly 12% employer PF (up to the ceiling), ESIC where applicable, Professional Tax and LWF for Maharashtra, gratuity accrual, and the flat TMS per-employee fee. The calculator above breaks this down for your exact salary and state.

What this estimate covers, and what it cannot know

The number above is the monthly cost of employing one person in India through TMS. It has three parts: the gross salary you agree with the candidate, the statutory employer contributions that sit on top of it, and our management fee. Everything else on a TMS invoice is a pass-through at actuals.

A worked example

Take a mid-level engineer on ₹90,000 a month gross.

Gross salary: ₹90,000
Employer statutory contributions: roughly 10 to 25 percent depending on how the salary is structured and which state the person sits in. On this salary, budget somewhere near ₹9,000 to ₹13,000
TMS management fee: USD 100 for your first five employees, stepping down to USD 50 above 25

So the fully loaded monthly cost lands close to ₹1,00,000 to ₹1,04,000 plus the fee. The fee is the only part that is fixed per person. The statutory part moves with the structure.

Three things move this number more than people expect

Salary structure. Provident fund is calculated on basic wages, not on gross. Two offers with identical gross pay can carry different employer costs depending on how much of the package sits in basic. Under the Labour Codes the wage definition constrains how far you can push this.

State. Professional tax and labour welfare fund are state subjects. They are small amounts, but they differ by state and they are the line most often missed by teams running payroll from outside India.

When gratuity starts biting. Gratuity is a liability that accrues from day one and becomes payable at five years. Some providers bill it monthly, some only when it crystallises. That single choice changes the monthly number by a noticeable margin, so ask before you compare quotes.

What the estimator deliberately does not include

Variable pay, bonuses and incentives, because they are your policy, not a statutory figure
Background verification, which is quoted separately per employee
Insurance premiums, which are billed at the actual premium your chosen cover attracts
Equipment, workspace and travel, all of which are pass-through
Anything involving a foreign national on Indian payroll, which carries visa and tax questions this tool cannot model

Treat the output as a planning figure, not a quote. We issue a binding cost sheet per role once we know the state, the structure and the start date.

EOR cost questions we get asked

Is the EOR fee charged on top of salary?

Yes. You fund the gross salary and the employer statutory contributions, and the management fee sits on top of both. Nothing is deducted from the employee's pay to cover it.

Why is a flat fee better than a percentage of salary?

Percentage pricing makes senior hires disproportionately expensive and quietly raises your cost every time someone gets an increment. The compliance work does not scale with salary, so the fee should not either.

Does the cost change if my employee is outside a metro?

The management fee does not. Statutory items can, because professional tax and labour welfare fund are set by the state. We confirm the exact figures for the employee's state in the quote.

What is the minimum team size?

One. There is no minimum headcount, and onboarding usually runs 24 to 48 hours from a signed agreement and an accepted offer.

How accurate is this estimate?

Close enough to budget with, not close enough to sign. It uses indicative statutory percentages and an indicative exchange rate. The binding number comes from the cost sheet, which is priced against the actual role, state and salary structure.