Employer Updates
Rule changes that change what an employer must do: ECR deadlines, wage ceilings, schemes, ESIC and labour-code notifications, each with an action box and the official source.
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The 50% wage rule is now in your payroll: how to restructure CTC without breaking take-home
The Labour Codes are in force and the central rules are notified. If your allowances are more than half of total remuneration, the excess now counts as wages for gratuity and ESI, and in practice for PF. Here is what the proviso says, a worked example, and how to restructure without a surprise drop in take-home.
Read →Update · 28 Oct 2026AMNESTY 2026 for PF trusts and exempted establishments: who it is for and what it lets you regularise
AMNESTY 2026 is a one-time window for establishments that have been running a PF trust on an income-tax recognition without a formal exemption notification. It regularises the exemption retrospectively, on conditions. It is not for ordinary employers who deposit with EPFO. Here is who it is meant for, what it gives, and what it costs.
Read →Update · 3 Nov 2026Employees' Enrolment Campaign 2026 closed on 31 October: what it offered and what to do now
The Employees' Enrolment Campaign 2026 let employers enrol staff who joined between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2026 and were never put on PF, for a flat ₹100 in damages. It closed on 31 October 2026 and no extension has been announced. Here is what it offered, and what an employer who missed it does now.
Read →Update · 28 Oct 2026EPF Scheme 2026 replaced the 1952 Scheme: what actually changed for employers
The Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 2026 replaced the 1952 Scheme on 29 June 2026. Most of the monthly routine is the same. Three things are not: the principal employer's duties for contract labour are spelt out with their own forms and timelines, returns run on a fifteen-day clock, and exempted establishments get a tighter rulebook. Here is what each one changes in practice.
Read →Update · 30 Oct 2026ESIC in 2026: ₹21,000 ceiling unchanged, registration on the day of joining, Aadhaar now required, and the 20 November 2026 cut-off
Four things every ESIC-covered employer should have settled before 20 November 2026: the wage ceiling that did not change, the registration that must now happen on the day of joining, the Aadhaar identification that ESIC now requires, and the cut-off date itself.
Read →Update · 3 Nov 2026October 2026 ECR Is the First Full Month Under the ₹25,000 Ceiling: Due 15 November, No Extension
EPFO's circular dated 13 October 2026 gave September's ECR until 31 October. October's ECR gets no such extension: it is due by 15 November 2026, and it is the first full wage month computed on the ₹25,000 PF wage ceiling. Here is what to check in payroll before you file.
Read →Update · 28 Oct 2026Principal employer PF liability for unregistered contractors under EPF Scheme 2026
Written for security agencies, manpower contractors and the businesses that use them. EPF Scheme 2026 puts the PF of contract workers on the principal employer when the contractor is not registered or does not deposit. Here is the evidence to collect every month, and why a compliance certificate is not it.
Read →Update · 3 Nov 2026VISHWAS 2026: Settling Old PF Damages Disputes at Reduced Rates
VISHWAS 2026 is the one-time settlement window in the EPF Scheme 2026 for damages on old PF defaults. If the default was before 14 June 2024, the interest is paid and no fraud is involved, you pay damages at 0.25% to 1% a month instead of the old 5% to 25% a year, and the dispute closes, appeals included. The window is six months from 29 June 2026.
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