Got a good package and a new job offer but cannot understand your take-home or in-hand salary? With a new job offer often comes happiness and a curiosity to calculate the take-home amount. Understanding your salary can be tricky, right? A salary calculator is a tool that could make it super easy to figure out. It helps you estimate how much amount you’ll take home after all the deductions.
Now, what exactly is a salary calculator, and how does it use the different components of salary for calculation?
Let’s understand how it works, clarify gross salary vs. CTC, and explore the benefits of a salary calculator.
What is Salary Calculator?
A salary calculator in India is an online tool that helps employees calculate their take-home pay. It helps you quickly find out how much money you will earn over a certain period.
How does that happen?
You just need to add simple figures like your annual salary and the usual deductions that you are aware of.
Now, in India, most of the employers pay on a monthly basis. However, if you get the pay on an hourly basis, here is how a salary calculator works:
For example, if you earn ₹500 per hour and work 40 hours a week, the calculator will multiply ₹500 by 40 to get your weekly salary of ₹20,000.
Features of a Salary Calculator
Here are some common features of a salary calculator:
- Easy-to-Use Tool: The salary calculator is simple and user-friendly.
- Calculate Take-Home Salary: It helps you calculate your annual and monthly in-hand salary.
- Calculate Deductions: It shows total annual and monthly deductions based on amount that your company fixed for each month.
- Monthly and Annual Results: It provides detailed results for both monthly and annual deductions.
This calculator helps you understand how much you will earn after all deductions like provident fund, professional tax, and employee insurance are accounted for.
Now that we know the basics of the salary calculator, are you aware of the different components of a salary?
You must have heard about gross salary, net salary, CTC, etc.
What are they, and what about gross salary vs CTC?
Let us understand!
What is the Cost to Company (CTC)?
The CTC is the total salary package of an employee, representing the total expense an employer incurs to retain an employee for a year.
CTC includes both direct and indirect benefits provided to the employee throughout their tenure.
The components of CTC are:
- Basic Salary: The fixed part of your salary that you receive on a monthly basis.
- Allowances: Additional benefits to cover daily expenses like leave, travel, and accommodation.
Common Allowances
Companies in India usually offer the below-mentioned allowances:
- Dearness Allowance (DA): Compensates for inflation-related cost of living increases.
- House Rent Allowance (HRA): Provided for employees living in rented accommodation, with possible tax benefits.
- Leave Travel Allowance (LTA): Covers domestic travel expenses for work purposes (excluding food and accommodation).
What is Gross Salary?
Gross Salary is the total salary that you, as an employee, receive before any deductions.
Gross Salary includes:
- Basic Salary: The core part of your salary.
- House Rent Allowance (HRA): Allowance for rented accommodation.
- Dearness Allowance (DA): Compensation for inflation.
- Conveyance Allowance: Transportation expenses.
- Special Allowance: Flexible component.
- Medical Allowance: Medical expenses.
- Leave Travel Allowance (LTA): Travel expenses during leave.
- Bonus: Performance or company-based annual incentive.
- Other Allowances: Various other allowances depending on company policy.
These are general allowances, and their provision may depend on each company’s policy.
Gross Salary = Basic Salary + HRA + DA + Special Allowance + Medical Allowance + LTA + Bonus + Other Allowances
What is the formula for basic salary?
The formula to calculate the basic salary from the gross salary in India is as follows:
Basic Salary= Gross Salary− (All allowances+benefits+bonuses, etc.)
Deductions from Gross Salary
- Provident Fund (PF): Employee’s contribution to PF.
- Professional Tax: Tax levied by the state government.
- Employee State Insurance (ESI): Health insurance deduction.
- Income Tax: As applicable based on income slabs.
After these deductions, you get the Net Salary or Take-Home Salary.
Gross Salary vs CTC- Key Differences
These two terms often confuse many of us. Here is how they differ:
- Gross Salary: The total salary before deductions, including all types of allowances and bonuses.
- CTC: The total expense incurred by the company on an employee, including Gross Salary and additional benefits like PF, gratuity, insurance, etc.
Gross Salary is what you earn, while CTC is what the company spends on you.
The take-home pay is what you get after all the deductions from your Gross Salary.
How Do Salary Calculators Work?
For instance, considering Rajat’s scenario, if his CTC is Rs 6,00,000.
First, we must deduct the professional tax of Rs 2,400 annually (a compulsory state tax deduction)
Both the employer and employee contribute to the Employee Provident Fund (EPF).
The EPF contribution, at 12% of a maximum salary limit of Rs 15,000 per month, sums up to Rs 21,600 annually for the employer and the employee (each).
Additionally, there is an annual deduction of Rs 600 for the Labour Welfare Fund (Rs 5-10 per month).
Total Deductions = Professional Tax + EPF (Employee Contribution) + Labour Welfare Fund
Total Deductions = Rs 2,400 + Rs 21,600 + Rs 60 = Rs 24,060
Hence, the take-home salary is determined by subtracting the total deductions from the gross pay.
Take Home Basic Salary Formula = Rs 6,00,000 – Rs 24,600 = Rs 5,75,940
What are the Different Components of Salary in India
Here are the different components of a salary:
- Basic Salary
This is the core part of your salary and typically makes up 40-50% of the total salary. It is fixed and based on your experience, knowledge, skills, and qualifications.
Your basic salary is a fixed component of the Cost To Company (CTC) package.
- House Rent Allowance (HRA)
This allowance is provided to employees living in rented accommodation. It is partially/ fully exempt from taxes under Section 10(13A) of the Income Tax Act 1961.
- Dearness Allowance (DA)
This allowance is given to offset the effects of inflation and is a percentage of the basic salary.
- Special Allowance: This component can cover various needs and is fully taxable.
- Leave Travel Allowance (LTA)
Given by the employer to cover travel expenses during leave. Employees must submit proof of travel to claim LTA, and it is exempt from taxes under Section 10(5) of the Income Tax Act.
- Bonus
An extra amount paid periodically, often annually, based on performance or the company’s performance.
It is fully taxable.
- Provident Fund (PF)
Both the employer and the employee must contribute 12% of the employee’s basic salary each month to the Employee Provident Fund (EPF).
The employee’s contribution is deductible under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act.
- Professional Tax: A tax levied by the state government on your income. The maximum amount charged can be ₹2,500 per financial year.
That’s it!
The salary calculator quickly shows you how much you’ll earn, taking into account the figures in respect to above.
You may also want to know the TDS Calculator
Benefits of a Salary Calculator
Here are some advantages of using a salary calculator:
- Salary calculators provide precise calculations based on the inputs you provide.
- Manual calculation of salaries can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Salary calculators automate the process, saving time for both employers and employees.
- Salary calculators offer transparency by breaking down the salary components and deductions.
- Salary calculators are available online, accessible anytime and anywhere.
Conclusion
Learning about your salary is important for managing your money wisely. Salary calculators are like easy-to-use tools that help you understand how much money you’ll actually get from your job. It makes take home pay calculation easy after figures like taxes and deductions are taken out.
FAQs| Salary Calculator
Your salary is calculated by subtracting deductions like state-tax and provident fund contributions from your gross salary.
To calculate CTC salary, add the gross salary to additional benefits such as gratuity and the employer’s contribution to PF.
CTC (Cost to Company) is the total amount an employer spends on an employee, including salary and benefits.
Gross salary reflects the total income earned by an employee before any deductions like taxes and provident fund.
CTC includes all benefits and contributions by the company, while gross salary is the amount before any deductions.
CTC is calculated based on gross salary by adding benefits like gratuity (payable only after 5 years of employment) and the employer’s PF to the gross amount.
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