Why do I have to enter the rates myself instead of picking my industry?

Because a rate this site cannot cite is a rate you cannot rely on. Kerala's minimum wage notifications on the Labour Commissionerate's site are image-only scans whose text layer is Malayalam in a legacy symbolic font — machine extraction returns gibberish. Reading them reliably means rendering each page as an image and reading it visually, sector by sector, grade by grade. Until that has been done and checked for a sector, the honest position is to ask you for the figure from the notification that applies to you. The arithmetic this tool performs — points, revisions, days, cumulative shortfall — is the part it can do better than a spreadsheet.

What is VDA, and when does it change?

This is the question this page has to answer carefully, because the common answer is wrong. Kerala is widely described as revising 'VDA' twice yearly with effect from 1 April and 1 October. Research against the notifications themselves found NO OFFICIAL SOURCE for that cycle, and the phrase 'the Kerala VDA' is misleading for a more basic reason: there is no single statewide dearness figure. Each scheduled employment's own notification carries its own dearness clause, with its own index threshold and its own rupee-per-point rate, and those differ between sectors — Rs 60 a point above an index of 165 in one recent draft, Rs 26 above 240 in the 2016 Shops notification, Rs 26.65 above 321 in the 2018 Private Hospitals notification. So the rate that applies to you is the one in your notification, read against the index that notification names. Do not rely on a cycle, and do not rely on a figure described as 'the Kerala VDA'.

How many days are in a month for this calculation?

The tool defaults to 26 days, which is the convention for a monthly-rated employee in Kerala and the figure most notifications themselves use. It is a convention rather than a statutory rule, so if your establishment works a different number of days, enter it — or use the daily figure directly, which is the figure the notification actually fixes.

Do I enter the basic and the VDA separately, or the total?

Separately, because they move separately. A typical Kerala VDA revision revises only the dearness component and says nothing about the basic. The tool handles that: a revision that carries only a VDA inherits the basic from the last revision that set one, so you do not have to repeat the basic every time.

The total this shows is large. Is that what I legally owe?

No, and the distinction matters. What the tool produces is arithmetic on the figures you entered: the difference between the notified rate and the rate paid, accumulated month by month. Whether a shortfall amounts to an underpayment, what is recoverable, over what period, from whom, and whether any limitation applies, are legal questions. Treat the total as the size of the exposure you should have looked at, not as a demand.

What about PF and ESI on the arrears?

Arrears of wages that are PF-able attract PF contributions, and the same is true of ESI where the employee is covered. This tool does not compute that, and the figure it shows is therefore not the full cost of making good the arrears. It is a real omission and it is deliberate: computing it would require assumptions about the wage structure and coverage of each employee that this tool does not have. Ask GHR if you need the full exposure.

One of my months shows no required rate. Why?

Because the revision schedule you entered does not cover it — most often a month before your earliest revision, or a month after the last one where a further revision has since been notified. That month contributes nothing to the total, which means the total is a floor and not a complete figure. Enter the missing revision and the month will cost.

Can I download the schedule?

Yes. The month-by-month table can be downloaded as CSV for a payroll file or printed with the page. The CSV carries the same caveats as the screen, so a figure cannot circulate without the statement of what it is and is not.

Why do I have to enter the rates myself instead of picking my industry?

Because a rate this site cannot cite is a rate you cannot rely on. Kerala's minimum wage notifications on the Labour Commissionerate's site are image-only scans whose text layer is Malayalam in a legacy symbolic font — machine extraction returns gibberish. Reading them reliably means rendering each page as an image and reading it visually, sector by sector, grade by grade. Until that has been done and checked for a sector, the honest position is to ask you for the figure from the notification that applies to you. The arithmetic this tool performs — points, revisions, days, cumulative shortfall — is the part it can do better than a spreadsheet.

What is VDA, and when does it change?

This is the question this page has to answer carefully, because the common answer is wrong. Kerala is widely described as revising 'VDA' twice yearly with effect from 1 April and 1 October. Research against the notifications themselves found NO OFFICIAL SOURCE for that cycle, and the phrase 'the Kerala VDA' is misleading for a more basic reason: there is no single statewide dearness figure. Each scheduled employment's own notification carries its own dearness clause, with its own index threshold and its own rupee-per-point rate, and those differ between sectors — Rs 60 a point above an index of 165 in one recent draft, Rs 26 above 240 in the 2016 Shops notification, Rs 26.65 above 321 in the 2018 Private Hospitals notification. So the rate that applies to you is the one in your notification, read against the index that notification names. Do not rely on a cycle, and do not rely on a figure described as 'the Kerala VDA'.

How many days are in a month for this calculation?

The tool defaults to 26 days, which is the convention for a monthly-rated employee in Kerala and the figure most notifications themselves use. It is a convention rather than a statutory rule, so if your establishment works a different number of days, enter it — or use the daily figure directly, which is the figure the notification actually fixes.

Do I enter the basic and the VDA separately, or the total?

Separately, because they move separately. A typical Kerala VDA revision revises only the dearness component and says nothing about the basic. The tool handles that: a revision that carries only a VDA inherits the basic from the last revision that set one, so you do not have to repeat the basic every time.

The total this shows is large. Is that what I legally owe?

No, and the distinction matters. What the tool produces is arithmetic on the figures you entered: the difference between the notified rate and the rate paid, accumulated month by month. Whether a shortfall amounts to an underpayment, what is recoverable, over what period, from whom, and whether any limitation applies, are legal questions. Treat the total as the size of the exposure you should have looked at, not as a demand.

What about PF and ESI on the arrears?

Arrears of wages that are PF-able attract PF contributions, and the same is true of ESI where the employee is covered. This tool does not compute that, and the figure it shows is therefore not the full cost of making good the arrears. It is a real omission and it is deliberate: computing it would require assumptions about the wage structure and coverage of each employee that this tool does not have. Ask GHR if you need the full exposure.

One of my months shows no required rate. Why?

Because the revision schedule you entered does not cover it — most often a month before your earliest revision, or a month after the last one where a further revision has since been notified. That month contributes nothing to the total, which means the total is a floor and not a complete figure. Enter the missing revision and the month will cost.

Can I download the schedule?

Yes. The month-by-month table can be downloaded as CSV for a payroll file or printed with the page. The CSV carries the same caveats as the screen, so a figure cannot circulate without the statement of what it is and is not.

Kerala minimum wage and VDA arrears calculator

Kerala revises VDA twice a year and notifies it late, so arrears are structural rather than exceptional. Enter each notified revision and get a month-by-month arrears schedule with a running cumulative total.

Rules last verified 2026-10-01

This is an information tool, not advice. It performs the arithmetic and the screening you see below on the information you give it. It does not decide whether a position is lawful, compliant or correct, it is not a substitute for professional advice, and GHR assumes no duty of care to you in respect of it.

Enter the rates from your own notification. This tool does not look them up, and that is deliberate.

Kerala notifies a basic wage for each scheduled employment in documents that are image-only scans, and adds a dearness component whose rate and index threshold are written into that sector’s own notification — so there is no single statewide figure to look up. Publishing a basic wage without its dearness component would understate what you owe, so no Kerala minimum wage rate is held here until it has been read and checked at source. Use the finder to identify which notification applies, then read the rates off it.

No minimum_wage rules are recorded for IN-KL. Nothing is known here, which is not the same as nothing applying.

What you are costing

Scheduled employment (for the report)Days per month26 is the convention for a monthly-rated employee.

The notified rates, revision by revision

One row per notification that changed the rate. A VDA revision usually carries only the dearness figure — leave the basic blank and the tool will carry forward the last basic it was given, which is how the notifications themselves work.

Takes effect	Basic / day	VDA / day	Notification no.	Notification date	Remove

The months, and what was actually paid

FromToPaid per month (₹)

You need at least one revision and one month.

How the calculation works

You give the tool a list of revisions— each one a date on which the rate changed, with the basic and the VDA in force from that date — and a list of months with what was actually paid. For each month it finds the latest revision that had already taken effect, multiplies the daily rate by the days payable, and compares that with what was paid.

A revision that carries only a VDA inherits the basic from the last revision that set one. That is not a convenience: it is how Kerala’s notifications actually work. A VDA revision revises the dearness component and says nothing about the basic, so requiring you to repeat the basic every time would invite an error rather than prevent one.

Every row records its own basis. Where a rate came from a rule this site holds and has verified, the row says so and names the instrument. Where it came from what you entered, the row says that instead. A downloaded schedule therefore carries its own provenance, and a figure cannot circulate detached from what it is.

Why arrears happen in Kerala, and what this page used to get wrong

Kerala fixes a minimum wage in two parts. The basic wage is notified sector by sector. On top of it sits a dearness component.

A correction to this page.An earlier version said Kerala’s Variable Dearness Allowance is revised twice yearly with effect from 1 April and 1 October. Research against the notifications themselves found no official source for that cycle, and the phrase “the Kerala VDA” is misleading for a more fundamental reason: there is no single statewide dearness figure. The dearness clause sits inside each scheduled employment’s own notification, with its own index threshold and its own rupee-per-point rate, and those differ between sectors — the notifications read for this project carry rates of Rs 60 a point above an index of 165, Rs 26 above 240, and Rs 26.65 above 321, depending on the sector and the year. Both claims have been removed, and the tool no longer assumes a cycle.

What produces arrears is simpler and does not need a cycle. A notification takes effect from a date that is frequently earlierthan the date it is published, and an employer paying the previous rate in the gap is behind for that gap. On top of that, the rate that applies depends on reading the right clause in the right sector’s notification against the right index — which is where most arrears actually come from.

That is why the tool is organised around a revision list rather than a single rate. An arrears calculation is not a multiplication; it is a walk across time in which the required figure changes underneath you, and the arithmetic of that walk is what a spreadsheet gets wrong.

A worked example

An establishment in the shops and commercial establishments sector pays a worker ₹760 a day from 1 April. A VDA revision effective 1 April, notified on 20 May, takes the daily VDA from ₹40 to ₹58. The worker is paid for 26 days a month, throughout.

April and May:the required daily figure is ₹818 (basic plus the revised VDA). At 26 days that is ₹21,268 a month. Paid: ₹19,760, being ₹760 at 26 days. The shortfall is ₹1,508 a month, for two months, whether or not the notification had been published yet — the revision takes effect from 1 April, not from the date of publication.
From June:if the employer applies the revision and pays ₹21,268, the monthly shortfall stops. The running total stays at ₹3,016.
October: a second VDA revision takes effect. Enter it as another revision row and the calculation continues from that date without the earlier months changing.

The schedule the tool produces shows all of that month by month, with the running total and the instrument against each row. It does not call the ₹3,016 a recoverable sum, because whether a shortfall amounts to an underpayment and what follows from it are legal questions, and because PF contributions on the arrears would add to it.

Who this tool is for

An employer or accountant who applied a revision late and needs to know what the gap comes to, month by month, in a form that can be shown to an auditor or an inspector.
A payroll executive reconciling a period in which the rate changed, who needs the per-month figure per employee rather than an annual average.
A worker or a union representative looking at what a difference between a notified rate and a paid rate comes to over a period.

If you do not yet know which notification applies, start with the Kerala minimum wage applicability finder. It identifies the scheduled employment and the grade, and names the notification to read the rates from.

The situations this tool was built for

A VDA revision was notified late and the old rate was paid for the intervening months.
A basic wage was revised and the employer does not know from which month it applies.
Two revisions fall within one financial year and the payroll averaged them.
An inspector has asked for the position month by month and the payroll only holds annual figures.
A worker was paid a flat monthly figure that was above the old minimum and below the new one.
The number of days payable differs from month to month because of the working pattern.

Questions people actually ask

Why do I have to enter the rates myself instead of picking my industry?: Because a rate this site cannot cite is a rate you cannot rely on. Kerala's minimum wage notifications on the Labour Commissionerate's site are image-only scans whose text layer is Malayalam in a legacy symbolic font — machine extraction returns gibberish. Reading them reliably means rendering each page as an image and reading it visually, sector by sector, grade by grade. Until that has been done and checked for a sector, the honest position is to ask you for the figure from the notification that applies to you. The arithmetic this tool performs — points, revisions, days, cumulative shortfall — is the part it can do better than a spreadsheet.
What is VDA, and when does it change?: This is the question this page has to answer carefully, because the common answer is wrong. Kerala is widely described as revising 'VDA' twice yearly with effect from 1 April and 1 October. Research against the notifications themselves found NO OFFICIAL SOURCE for that cycle, and the phrase 'the Kerala VDA' is misleading for a more basic reason: there is no single statewide dearness figure. Each scheduled employment's own notification carries its own dearness clause, with its own index threshold and its own rupee-per-point rate, and those differ between sectors — Rs 60 a point above an index of 165 in one recent draft, Rs 26 above 240 in the 2016 Shops notification, Rs 26.65 above 321 in the 2018 Private Hospitals notification. So the rate that applies to you is the one in your notification, read against the index that notification names. Do not rely on a cycle, and do not rely on a figure described as 'the Kerala VDA'.
How many days are in a month for this calculation?: The tool defaults to 26 days, which is the convention for a monthly-rated employee in Kerala and the figure most notifications themselves use. It is a convention rather than a statutory rule, so if your establishment works a different number of days, enter it — or use the daily figure directly, which is the figure the notification actually fixes.
Do I enter the basic and the VDA separately, or the total?: Separately, because they move separately. A typical Kerala VDA revision revises only the dearness component and says nothing about the basic. The tool handles that: a revision that carries only a VDA inherits the basic from the last revision that set one, so you do not have to repeat the basic every time.
The total this shows is large. Is that what I legally owe?: No, and the distinction matters. What the tool produces is arithmetic on the figures you entered: the difference between the notified rate and the rate paid, accumulated month by month. Whether a shortfall amounts to an underpayment, what is recoverable, over what period, from whom, and whether any limitation applies, are legal questions. Treat the total as the size of the exposure you should have looked at, not as a demand.
What about PF and ESI on the arrears?: Arrears of wages that are PF-able attract PF contributions, and the same is true of ESI where the employee is covered. This tool does not compute that, and the figure it shows is therefore not the full cost of making good the arrears. It is a real omission and it is deliberate: computing it would require assumptions about the wage structure and coverage of each employee that this tool does not have. Ask GHR if you need the full exposure.
One of my months shows no required rate. Why?: Because the revision schedule you entered does not cover it — most often a month before your earliest revision, or a month after the last one where a further revision has since been notified. That month contributes nothing to the total, which means the total is a floor and not a complete figure. Enter the missing revision and the month will cost.
Can I download the schedule?: Yes. The month-by-month table can be downloaded as CSV for a payroll file or printed with the page. The CSV carries the same caveats as the screen, so a figure cannot circulate without the statement of what it is and is not.

Sources

Kerala Labour Commissionerate — Minimum Wage Notifications — the notification index, sector by sector — Kerala Labour Commissionerate, Minimum Wage Notifications index, lc.kerala.gov.in/en/minimum-wage-notifications https://lc.kerala.gov.in/en/minimum-wage-notifications
Kerala Labour Commissionerate — the department's own pages, including the welfare fund boards https://lc.kerala.gov.in/
document.kerala.gov.in — re-publishes Kerala notifications as NATIVE, TEXT-SEARCHABLE PDFs, unlike the image-only scans on the Commissionerate's index. This is the practical route to a readable notification. https://document.kerala.gov.in/
Kerala Directorate of Economics and Statistics — consumer price index — Kerala runs its OWN index series for agricultural labourers and industrial workers, published monthly for 17 centres on both the 2011-12=100 and 1998-99=100 bases side by side, with per-centre linking factors approved by G.O.(MS) No.34/2015/LBR. It is not the central CPI-IW series. https://ecostatportal.kerala.gov.in/
Watch item — the index base is being reset — G.O.(MS) No.34/2024/LBR dated 23 September 2024 commissions a new 2023-24 base Family Budget Survey, which will reset every linking factor. Any arrears calculation spanning the change will need both bases.
Code on Wages, 2019, Chapter II, and s.69(2) — Kerala's power to fix minimum wages survives the repeal of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, and notifications made under that Act are saved so far as not contrary to the Code
Kerala State law — Kerala's power to fix minimum wages survives under Chapter II of the Code on Wages, 2019. Notifications made under the repealed Minimum Wages Act are saved by s.69(2) so far as not contrary to the Code.
No rate is cited on this page, and that is deliberate — the notifications are image-only scans and the VDA is notified separately and late, so a basic wage published without its dearness component would understate what an employer owes. Enter the figures from your own notification; the tool does the arithmetic and dates every row.

Where an official source could not be retrieved or read, this page says so instead of citing a substitute. A figure whose citation cannot be produced is a figure this site will not publish.

Ask GHR about arrears

GHR identifies the scheduled employment and grade for each group of staff, confirms the notified rates, and advises on arrears. That is the part a calculator cannot do.

Ask GHR about arrears All GHR tools

Important — please read before relying on this

This calculator is a self-help information tool. It is not legal, tax, accounting, payroll or other professional advice, and it is not an opinion of any kind. GHR Consultancy is not acting for you, and no adviser, client, fiduciary or other professional relationship is created by using it.

The tool and everything it produces are provided as is and as available, without any representation, warranty or guarantee of any kind, express or implied, including as to accuracy, completeness, correctness, reliability, fitness for a particular purpose or freedom from error. GHR does not represent that the statutory position stated is current, complete, or applicable to your establishment.

The output is not a compliance certificate, clearance, approval, verification, audit or determination of any kind. It must not be relied upon and must not be used as a substitute for advice from a qualified professional. GHR assumes no duty of care to you or to any other person in respect of it. Any reliance you place on it is entirely at your own risk.

In particular, it does not:

determine the notified rate that applies to your establishment, category or area — those come from your own notification;
state that any shortfall is an underpayment, that any amount is recoverable, from whom, over what period, or whether any limitation applies;
compute PF, ESI, or any other contribution or tax on the arrears, which means the figure it produces is not the full cost of making the arrears good;
verify the figures you enter, or the notification you read them from; or
constitute a determination, an assessment, or advice of any kind.

The position stated on this page is stated as at 2026-10-01. Statutory positions change, sometimes with retrospective effect, and GHR does not undertake to update this page. Do not assume it reflects the law at any later date.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, GHR Consultancy and its partners, employees and agents exclude all liability for any loss, damage, cost or expense of any kind — including indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, and any regulatory, statutory or contractual consequence — arising out of or in connection with the use of, or reliance on, this tool or anything it produces, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), statute or otherwise.

If you need a determination for your establishment, that is a separate professional engagement and the only basis on which GHR can advise you. Obtain professional advice before acting on anything shown here.

These terms are governed by the laws of India, and the courts at Kerala have exclusive jurisdiction.

Page last reviewed 2026-10-01. Every statutory figure used on this page is held as a dated, sourced rule with an effective window and a notification reference. See how the rules engine works.