Payroll register India

What goes into a restaurant payroll register

A payroll register is the master document that summarises all employees' salary computation for a given month. In India, restaurant payroll typically includes three layers: earnings, statutory deductions, and employer contributions. Unlike a salary slip (which is employee-facing), the payroll register is an internal reconciliation document that your accountant uses to prepare the EPF, ESI, and PT challans.

Earnings columns: Basic, DA (Dearness Allowance or Variable DA), HRA (House Rent Allowance), Food/Meal Allowance, Conveyance Allowance, and any special allowances. The split matters because EPF is computed on Basic + DA only, while ESI is computed on gross pay. HRA and food allowances are typically not part of the EPF-eligible wage.

LOP (Loss of Pay): For each absent day beyond the paid-leave entitlement, the LOP deduction reduces the Basic + DA component. The standard formula is (Basic + DA) ÷ days-in-month × absent-days. Some restaurants use 26 working days as the denominator; others use calendar days. The denominator must be consistent across the register and documented in your HR policy to avoid disputes.

EPF: who must register and who is covered

Every establishment with 20 or more employees must register under the Employees' Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. Once registered, EPF applies to all employees — not just those with salary below a threshold. However, EPF contributions are computed on wages up to ₹15,000 per month: employee contributes 12% of wages, employer contributes 12% split as 3.67% to EPF and 8.33% to EPS (Employee Pension Scheme). Additional employer contributions: 0.5% EDLI (employee deposit linked insurance) and 0.5% admin charges — total employer burden is approximately 13.36% of the EPF-eligible wage.

Employees earning more than ₹15,000/month at the time of joining are “excluded employees” and can opt out of EPF — but only if they have never been EPF members before. Once enrolled, an employee cannot opt out even if wages rise above ₹15,000. The contribution is computed on actual wages (not capped at ₹15,000) unless both employer and employee agree to cap it at ₹15,000 — a cost-saving measure many restaurants use for higher-paid staff.

ESI: coverage threshold and contribution rates

Every establishment with 10 or more employees in a notified area must register under the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948. ESI applies to employees earning gross wages up to ₹21,000 per month (₹25,000 for differently-abled employees). Contribution rates as of April 2020: employee 0.75%, employer 3.25%. ESI is computed on total gross wages including all allowances (unlike EPF, which is limited to Basic + DA for computation purposes).

When a covered employee's gross exceeds ₹21,000 mid-year, ESI contributions continue for the remainder of that contribution period (April–September or October–March). ESI registration is mandatory even if only a few employees fall below the threshold — the obligation is establishment-level, not employee-level.

Where this fits

• Salary slip generator — generate individual salary slips for each employee; the payroll register is the aggregate view and the salary slip is the employee-facing document
• EPF & ESI calculator — deep-dive into EPF/ESI liability, challan computation, and payment schedules; the payroll register summarises these per employee
• Attendance register — days present from the attendance register feeds directly into the payroll register's LOP computation
• Full & final settlement — for exiting employees, run FnF settlement separately to compute notice pay, gratuity, and leave encashment outside the regular payroll cycle
• P&L statement — total payroll cost (net pay + employer EPF + employer ESI) flows into your labour cost line in the P&L; compare against prime cost targets
• P3 — Payroll pillar — complete guide to restaurant payroll in India: wages, statutory compliance, scheduling, and labour cost management