Free ESIC eligibility checker for India. Check salary limit (₹21,000/₹25,000 PwD), coverage & contributions. Accurate, trusted, no login. Check now!
Free ESIC eligibility checker India. Check salary limit (₹21,000 / ₹25,000 PwD), employer threshold & sector rules instantly. Know your ESI scheme coverage in seconds.
Updated: FY 2025-26
Check if you're eligible for Employees' State Insurance (ESIC) coverage based on your establishment size, salary, and state. This tool follows official ESI Act rules and calculates employee contribution (0.75%), employer contribution (3.25%), and identifies special exemptions.
Free ESIC eligibility checker based on official government rules. Find out in seconds whether you're covered under Employees' State Insurance at the ₹21,000 wage ceiling (₹25,000 for PwD employees), and see your monthly contribution split (0.75% employee + 3.25% employer) worked out for you.
If you're salaried in India, you've probably spotted an "ESIC" line on your payslip and wondered what it actually means. Are you even supposed to have it? How much should be coming out? If you want the full picture of every statutory line item on your slip, our salary tax calculator is a good place to start, but this guide focuses specifically on ESIC so you can check your own status without guessing.
The Employees' State Insurance (ESI) Scheme is one of the country's biggest social security programmes. It's set up under the ESI Act, 1948 and run by the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), which sits under the Ministry of Labour and Employment. It gives eligible workers health cover, maternity support, disability payouts, and income protection when they need it most.
Not everyone gets swept in automatically, though. Whether you're covered comes down to three things: your gross monthly wage, how many people your employer has on the books, and the sector you work in. We'll go through each one below and tell you exactly where you stand.
ESIC is the statutory body that runs the Employees' State Insurance Scheme, a self-financing health insurance and social security scheme for workers in India's organised sector.
Here's the basic mechanic: you and your employer both pay a small slice of your wages into the ESIC fund every month, alongside other statutory deductions like the EPF contribution that shows up separately on most payslips. In return, you and your dependants get access to a fairly wide safety net, from free treatment at authorised hospitals to cash support if you're off work sick, on maternity leave, or dealing with a disability. For anyone earning under the wage ceiling, it's one of the more useful protections available.
Per the official ESIC website, the scheme covers over 13 crore beneficiaries (insured people plus their families) nationwide. That scale is part of why it matters so much to the workforce.
One thing worth being clear on: it's not optional. If your workplace is covered and your wages sit within the ceiling, enrolment isn't a choice you get to make. It's a legal requirement under the ESI Act, 1948.
Wage ceiling. ₹21,000 a month for regular employees, ₹25,000 for employees with disabilities (PwD). Only recurring monthly pay counts here, basic salary, DA, HRA, and regular allowances. One-off bonuses and overtime don't factor in, and neither does gratuity, which is excluded from the gross wage calculation entirely.
Establishment threshold. 10 or more employees in most states and union territories. In Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, it's 20 or more. Once your employer crosses this line, registering for ESIC stops being optional.
Contribution rates. You pay 0.75% of gross monthly wage, your employer pays 3.25%, for a combined 4.00%. If your average daily wage works out to ₹176 or less, you're exempt from your share (the employer still pays their 3.25%).
Who's covered. Non-agricultural sectors: manufacturing, construction, healthcare, education, retail, hospitality, services, and more. Agricultural workers and domestic staff in private households are left out.
Who isn't covered. Anyone earning above the wage ceiling, anyone at an establishment below the employee threshold, and freelancers, self-employed people, and domestic workers generally.
You need to clear all three of these at once. Miss one, and you're not covered, no matter how well you meet the other two.
This is the big one. As per current rules from the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the ceilings are:
Go above these and you're not covered, even if your employer is fully registered with ESIC. And here's where people trip up: only the recurring monthly parts of your pay count.
Included: Basic salary, Dearness Allowance (DA), House Rent Allowance (HRA), Conveyance Allowance, Uniform Allowance, and any other allowance you get every month.
Excluded: Overtime, annual or performance bonus, gratuity, leave encashment, travel and medical reimbursement, and employer contributions to PF or ESI.
So a one-time ₹5,000 performance bonus won't tip you over the ₹21,000 ceiling. Only your fixed, recurring pay decides your eligibility.
ESIC only kicks in once an establishment employs a minimum number of people, and that minimum changes by state:
Once your employer crosses this line, registration becomes mandatory, and every eligible employee (anyone within the wage ceiling) has to be enrolled. Worth knowing: if the company later shrinks below the threshold through layoffs, existing registrations still hold.
Working at a small startup with fewer than 10 people on payroll? ESIC won't apply to you there, whatever you earn.
ESIC covers people in factories, shops, hotels, restaurants, cinemas, schools, hospitals, construction sites, and the wider services sector. Agricultural workers and domestic staff employed in private homes sit outside the scheme.
Tick all three boxes and you're an eligible insured person under the ESI Scheme.
Employee share: 0.75%. Deducted straight from your salary before you're paid. On a gross salary of ₹18,000, that's ₹135 (0.75% × ₹18,000) a month.
Employer share: 3.25%. Paid separately by your employer, not touched from your pay. On the same ₹18,000 salary, your employer puts in ₹585 (3.25% × ₹18,000). So you end up with full ESIC coverage for a net deduction of just ₹135.
Combined total: 4.00%. Both amounts have to reach ESIC within 21 days of the wage month ending. Miss that window and interest and penalties apply under the ESI Act.
If your average daily wage works out to ₹176 or less (monthly wage ÷ 26 working days), you don't pay the 0.75% employee share at all. Your employer still owes their 3.25%, though.
Say you earn exactly ₹4,576 a month (₹4,576 ÷ 26 = ₹176/day). Nothing comes out of your pay. Your employer contributes ₹148.92 on your behalf, and you're fully covered, medical treatment, maternity benefit, disability protection, all of it. This rule exists specifically to keep the lowest-paid workers from carrying any ESIC cost while still getting the full benefit.
Medical benefits. Cashless treatment at ESIC hospitals and dispensaries for illness, injury, and occupational disease, for you and your family. No waiting period, this one starts from day one.
Sickness benefit. Roughly 70% of wages for up to 91 days a year if illness keeps you off work, provided you've contributed for at least 78 days in the preceding six months. Extended sickness benefit exists too, for certain long-term conditions.
Maternity benefit. Wages for 26 weeks around childbirth for insured women, plus cover for miscarriage and medical termination, subject to contribution norms. Confinement expenses are payable if an ESIC hospital isn't available nearby.
Disablement benefit. A monthly payout for temporary or permanent disability from an employment injury or occupational disease, scaled to the severity. Permanent disability gets paid for life, and there's no minimum contribution period required.
Dependants' benefit. If an insured person dies from an employment injury, their dependants (spouse, children) receive periodical payments, roughly 90% of wages, split according to the ESI Act's rules.
Unemployment allowance. Under the Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojana, employees who lose their job involuntarily (retrenchment, closure, permanent disability) can get cash support for up to 24 months, subject to contribution history.
A quick note on timing: medical care is available almost immediately, but cash benefits like sickness and maternity benefit need that 78-day contribution window first. Full detail on each is on the ESIC benefits page.
Included: Basic salary, DA, HRA, Conveyance Allowance, Uniform Allowance, Special Allowance (if it's paid monthly), and any other allowance that's a fixed, regular part of your pay.
Excluded: Overtime, annual or performance bonus, non-recurring incentives, joining bonus, gratuity, leave encashment, and travel, meal, or medical reimbursement, plus employer contributions to PF or ESIC itself.
This distinction actually matters in practice. An employee on ₹20,000 a month in basic and allowances stays eligible even with an extra ₹8,000 quarterly bonus, because that bonus is non-recurring and doesn't count toward the wage ceiling.
If your salary rises mid-period. Cross ₹21,000 partway through a contribution period (April–September or October–March) and your coverage doesn't stop, it runs until the period ends. Eligibility only gets reassessed at the start of the next period, so a pay revision won't suddenly cut you off. If you want to see how a raise plays out on your take-home pay and statutory deductions, our salary increment calculator can walk you through it.
Counts toward the ceiling:
Doesn't count:
You can't opt out. If your establishment is covered and your wage fits the ceiling, ESIC is a legal requirement under the ESI Act, 1948, not a preference. Employers who skip registration or contributions face penalties and prosecution.
State thresholds aren't uniform. Most states use 10 employees as the trigger. Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana need 20. Don't assume your state follows the default.
Coverage survives a pay rise. Cross the ceiling mid-period and you stay covered until that period ends, with reassessment only at the next one.
Cash benefits have waiting periods. Medical care is quick, but maternity, disability, and sickness benefits have waiting windows of roughly 15 to 90 days from registration, and cash benefits specifically need 78 days of contribution in the preceding six months.
Registration is on your employer. They're required to get you your ESIC number and Pehchan card within days of joining. If that hasn't happened, it's worth a nudge to HR.
Multiple jobs need flagging. Working two covered jobs at once? Tell both employers, so contributions don't end up duplicated or tangled at claim time.
Hold onto your paperwork. Registration letter, Pehchan card, payslips showing the deduction, employment letters, medical records, you'll want all of it if you ever need to claim.
Check your payslip. The ESIC line should be exactly 0.75% of your gross wage. If it's being deducted but not showing up as deposited, report it to your nearest ESIC office.
ESIC and EPF aren't the same thing. ESIC is health insurance and social security. EPF, run by the EPFO, is retirement savings. Both can apply to you at once if you clear each scheme's own eligibility bar.
These two are the most commonly confused deductions on an Indian payslip, and while both are mandatory, they do very different jobs.
ESIC covers health insurance, medical treatment, maternity benefit, disability support, and income protection, with benefits available from day one of coverage. The combined contribution is 4.00% of gross wages (0.75% employee + 3.25% employer).
EPF is a long-term retirement fund. You and your employer each put in 12% of basic wage monthly, and you access it at retirement, resignation, or under specific withdrawal rules. It's run by the EPFO, a completely separate body from ESIC.
Both can apply to the same employee simultaneously. EPF's mandatory coverage ceiling is ₹15,000 on basic wages; ESIC's is ₹21,000 on gross wages. So someone earning ₹18,000 gross could well be covered by both at once.
If you'd like to see how your salary components affect your overall tax picture alongside these statutory deductions, our salary tax calculator and old vs new tax regime calculator can help fill in the rest of the picture.
The ESI Act puts most of the compliance burden on the employer, but it helps to know what they're required to do so you can spot when something's missing.
Registration. Within 15 days of crossing the employee threshold, the employer must register with the nearest ESIC Regional Office and get an employer code.
Enrolment. Every eligible employee needs to be enrolled, with an Insurance Number and Pehchan card issued.
Depositing contributions. Both the 0.75% and 3.25% shares must reach ESIC within 21 days of the wage period ending. Late deposits attract 12% annual interest and can lead to prosecution.
Keeping records. Attendance registers, wage records, and ESIC documentation need to be maintained and available for inspection.
Displaying the certificate. The ESIC registration certificate should be visibly displayed at the workplace.
If any of this isn't happening, you can complain to your nearest ESIC Regional Office, which has the power to investigate, penalise, and recover unpaid contributions. For a sense of how compliance requirements shift with company size, our MSME classification calculator is a useful companion read.
ESIC runs two contribution periods a year:
What you can claim in a given stretch depends on what was contributed in the previous one, known as the "corresponding benefit period." Contributions from April to September, for instance, decide your eligibility for cash benefits from January to June the following year.
This trips people up when they change jobs mid-year. Join in August, and your first contribution period is just August and September, two months, which may leave you short of the 78-day minimum for cash benefits in the next benefit period. Medical benefits aren't affected by this minimum, though.
And remember, if you get an overtime payment in any given month, it's excluded from your contribution base regardless. Our overtime salary calculator can show you how overtime moves your gross and net pay separately from what's deducted statutorily.
Medical benefits. Walk into any ESIC dispensary, hospital, or empanelled hospital, show your Pehchan card or Insurance Number, and treatment is cashless at the point of care.
Sickness benefit. Off work for more than two consecutive days? Get a Certificate of Temporary Incapacity from an ESIC medical officer, submit it to your employer and the ESIC office with the prescribed form, and the payment goes to your bank account.
Maternity benefit. File the claim through your employer at least a month before your expected delivery date, with medical certificates from an ESIC-authorised doctor attached.
Disablement benefit. Report any employment injury to your employer right away, who then notifies ESIC. An ESIC medical board assesses the degree of disability and sets the benefit amount.
Keep your payslips, employment letter, medical records, and registration documents on hand for any of these. If you're tracking attendance for eligibility purposes, our attendance percentage calculator can help.
This article draws on the official ESI Act, 1948 and current guidance from ESIC. It's meant for general information, not as a substitute for official guidance. For registration, claims, or disputes, go through your nearest ESIC Regional Office or esic.gov.in. Contribution rates and wage ceilings can change by government notification, so it's worth double-checking the latest figures on the official portal before relying on them.
For the broader policy context, see the Ministry of Labour and Employment's page on social security.
No. It only applies when two things are both true: your gross wage is ₹21,000 or less (₹25,000 for PwD), and your employer's establishment meets the headcount threshold (10 in most states, 20 in Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana). Meet both, and coverage is mandatory, not optional.
₹21,000 a month for regular employees, ₹25,000 for PwD employees under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. This is based on gross monthly wages, basic, DA, HRA, and recurring allowances, with non-recurring payments like overtime and bonus excluded.
Included: basic salary, DA, HRA, conveyance allowance, uniform allowance, and any other fixed recurring monthly component. Excluded: overtime, bonus, gratuity, leave encashment, reimbursements, and employer contributions to PF or ESIC.
ESIC is health insurance and social security (4.00% combined contribution: 0.75% employee + 3.25% employer). EPF is retirement savings, with both sides contributing 12% of basic wages. "PF" is just shorthand for EPF. They're run by different bodies (ESIC and EPFO) and can apply to you simultaneously.
0.75% of gross wage comes out of your pay, 3.25% comes from your employer separately, both deposited within 21 days of month-end. On a ₹15,000 salary: you pay ₹112.50, your employer pays ₹487.50, total ₹600 deposited.
Coverage continues until the current contribution period ends (April–September or October–March). If your salary hits ₹24,000 from 1 July, you stay covered through 30 September, then lose eligibility from 1 October.
If your average daily wage (monthly wage ÷ 26) is ₹176 or under, you're exempt from the 0.75% employee share. On ₹4,576/month, nothing's deducted from you, while your employer still pays ₹148.92, and you stay fully covered.
No. If you meet the wage and establishment criteria, coverage is mandatory under the ESI Act, 1948. The only people genuinely outside its scope are the self-employed, agricultural workers, domestic staff in private homes, and employees at establishments below the threshold.
It applies official ESIC Act rules and state-specific thresholds as currently notified, the ₹21,000/₹25,000 wage ceiling and 0.75%/3.25% contribution rates reflect the latest government notifications. That said, state amendments, SEZ rules, or unusual workplace classifications can occasionally shift things, so if your result seems off, check with HR or your nearest ESIC office. For broader salary planning alongside ESIC, our standard deduction tax impact calculator may also help.
Calculations verified by our team including CA Anita Patil. View our full accuracy policy and meet the team →
For informational purposes only. Results are estimates based on the inputs you provide and the rules in effect for the period shown, and are not tax, legal or financial advice. Verify figures against the relevant official source and consult a qualified professional before acting on them. Accuracy & limitations
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