On Vishwakarma Jayanti, GoI announced the long-overdue decision to revise the wage ceiling for Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) from ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 a month. So, how does a ₹10,000 increase in the ceiling change anything? Why this revision? How does it impact workers or employers?
This statutory wage ceiling of ₹25,000 serves as the threshold for mandatory EPF, Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS), and Employees' Deposit-Linked Insurance (EDLI) coverage. These three schemes are at the core of the social security net for salaried workers: a retirement/emergency fund; a pension corpus funded by employer contributions for payouts after retirement; and life insurance, also funded by employer contributions, to support families in the event of death. In all fairness, protection should not be anchored on a number frozen since 2014, even as wages, minimum wages and living costs have continued to rise.
