Enter a CTC to see what an employee actually costs beyond it — employer PF, EDLI, gratuity accrual, ESI, statutory bonus, and your own tooling overhead.
Built for founders and finance teams budgeting headcount at Indian tech companies.
CTC is annual, in ₹. Overhead is monthly, in ₹.
The Code on Wages sets a 50% floor for "wages" used in statutory dues — many older CTC structures still run lower.
HR/payroll software, productivity suite, project tools, laptop amortization — plug in your own stack. Clan itself runs ₹89/employee/month on Growth.
True annual employer cost
₹0
0% above stated CTC · ₹0/month
Approximate gross wages as CTC ÷ 12 for the ESI/bonus wage-ceiling check — confirm against your actual payroll gross before relying on it.
A headcount plan built purely on CTC numbers understates what a team actually costs — EDLI and gratuity accrual almost never show up on an offer letter, and founders scaling past 10-150 employees are often surprised the first time a gratuity provision or an EDLI line shows up in an audit. This is a planning estimate, not a payroll run — for the one-time cost of recruiting the hire itself, use the hiring cost calculator. Run payroll through Clan's payroll plans to keep PF, ESI, and gratuity provisioning calculated automatically instead of estimated by hand.
| Component | Formula / rule | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Employer PF | 12% of basic | Often already included in the CTC structure; toggle off only if your CTC excludes it. |
| EDLI | 0.5% of basic, capped at a ₹15,000 monthly wage base | EPFO's insurance-linked scheme; max ₹75/employee/month. |
| Gratuity accrual | 4.81% of basic annually | The 15/26 formula expressed as a yearly rate; vests after 5 years, or 1 year for fixed-term contracts from 21 Nov 2025. |
| Employer ESI | 3.25% of gross wages | Only applies at ₹21,000/month gross or below. |
| Statutory bonus | 8.33% of a ₹7,000/month calculation base | Uses the minimum statutory floor; also gated at the ₹21,000/month eligibility ceiling. |
| Tools & software | User-entered monthly amount | Payroll/HR software, productivity suite, project tools, laptop amortization. |
This is a planning estimate using common statutory rates. Confirm your own CTC structure, state rules, and wage definitions before relying on it for budgeting or payroll.
CTC is the number printed in the offer letter. True employer cost adds what usually sits outside that number — EDLI, gratuity accrual, ESI and statutory bonus where they apply, and whatever tools or software the person needs to do the job. For most Indian tech companies this runs 5-20% above the stated CTC, depending on how much of it was already folded in.
Most Indian CTC structures already fold the employer's 12% PF match into the stated CTC figure as a line item — so adding it again here would double-count it. Check the CTC breakup in the offer letter: if employer PF is already listed as a component, leave the toggle on (included). If the CTC is quoted as a flat number with no PF line, turn it off so the calculator adds it as an extra cost.
Gratuity vests after 5 years of continuous service under the Payment of Gratuity Act, or after 1 year for fixed-term contracts starting on or after 21 November 2025, when the Labour Codes took effect. But it's a real, growing liability from day one, so most finance teams provision an annual accrual — commonly approximated as 4.81% of basic — rather than ignoring it until someone actually qualifies.
Both are gated at a ₹21,000/month gross wage ceiling. Most salaried software engineers, designers, and managers at Indian IT companies are paid well above that, so employer ESI (3.25% of gross) and the statutory bonus (8.33-20% of a ₹7,000/month calculation base) genuinely don't apply to them. They're more likely to be relevant for interns, support staff, or office administration roles paid at or below the ceiling.
The hiring cost calculator estimates the one-time cost of recruiting and onboarding a brand-new hire — sourcing, process overhead, training bandwidth, and productivity ramp. This tool estimates the ongoing annual cost of someone already on payroll, beyond their stated CTC. Use the hiring cost calculator to budget the hire; use this one to budget what they cost every year after that.
Only if you enter it in the tools and software field — this calculator doesn't assume a number for you, since every company's stack is different. As a real reference point, Clan itself runs ₹89 per active employee per month on the Growth plan, bundling HR, payroll, and project management in one subscription instead of several separate tools.
