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EOBI Explained — 1% of the Minimum Wage, Never 1% of Your Salary

Of all the lines on a Pakistani payslip, EOBI causes a disproportionate share of confusion — because there are two defensible figures and one indefensible one, and all three circulate. Here is how to tell them apart.

Why two bases exist

Minimum wages in Pakistan are notified federally and provincially, and the notifications do not move in lockstep. Employers anchor EOBI to the wage notification that applies to their establishment — and different establishments, in different provinces, updated at different times. The result is two contribution figures in genuine live use: Rs 407 and Rs 370. A calculator that prints only one of them is not wrong exactly — it is incomplete, and its incompleteness looks like an error the first time you compare it against a payslip built on the other base. That is why every tool on this site prints both, labels them, and asks the only question that resolves it: which notification does your employer follow?

The third figure — the one that is simply wrong

1% of your own gross salary. On Rs 100,000 it prints Rs 1,000; on Rs 200,000, Rs 2,000; on Rs 500,000, Rs 5,000 — up to twelve times the correct contribution. This formula appears in at least one widely used online salary calculator, and because employees check their payslips against calculators, the error validates itself in both directions: the payslip that uses it looks "confirmed", and the correct payslip looks short. If your EOBI equals 1% of your gross to the rupee, you have found the error, and the Payslip Checker will document it with the correct figures side by side.

What to ask payroll

Three questions, in order. (1) "Which minimum-wage notification — federal or provincial, and of what date — does the company apply for EOBI?" A specific answer ends the matter: your contribution should be 1% of that wage. (2) If the figure is 1% of your salary: "Please show me the EOBI rule that sets the employee contribution as a percentage of my own pay." There isn't one. (3) If an excess has accumulated: "From which month will the corrected base apply, and how will the past excess be adjusted?" Keep the exchange in writing; EOBI records follow your insured employment history, and a corrected base going forward is worth more than an argument about the past.