SSS Contribution Calculator

Understanding the SSS Contribution System in 2026

The Social Security System (SSS) is the state-run social insurance program that covers Filipino workers in the private sector, providing benefits for sickness, maternity, disability, retirement, death, and funeral expenses, along with access to salary and calamity loans. Every month, a portion of an employee's pay — matched by a larger employer contribution — is remitted to SSS to fund these benefits. Because the exact amount can feel like a mystery on a payslip, this guide walks through exactly how the 2026 contribution schedule works, how your salary becomes a "Monthly Salary Credit," and what happens when you cross the ₱20,000 threshold into Mandatory Provident Fund territory.

Whether you're a rank-and-file employee trying to double-check your payslip, an HR or payroll officer verifying deductions, or a self-employed professional or OFW figuring out what to remit on your own, the mechanics below apply the same official 2026 SSS contribution schedule used by the calculator above.

What Is the Monthly Salary Credit (MSC)?

SSS does not simply take a percentage of your exact salary. Instead, it converts your monthly compensation into a standardized figure called the Monthly Salary Credit (MSC). The MSC is the amount SSS actually uses as the base for computing your contribution, and it is assigned according to a table of salary brackets rather than your literal peso-for-peso pay.

For 2026, the MSC schedule starts at a minimum of ₱5,000 and rises in ₱500 increments up to a maximum of ₱35,000. If you earn below ₱5,000 a month, you are still credited with the ₱5,000 minimum MSC. If you earn ₱35,000 or more, your MSC is capped at ₱35,000 — earning ₱60,000 a month does not mean a higher SSS contribution than earning exactly ₱35,000, because both are assigned the same maximum MSC.

Between those two ends, your actual salary is matched to the bracket it falls into. For instance, a salary of ₱13,400 falls within the ₱13,250–₱13,749.99 range, which corresponds to an MSC of ₱13,500. A salary of ₱9,600 falls in the ₱9,250–₱9,749.99 range, corresponding to an MSC of ₱9,500. This bracket system means two employees earning slightly different salaries within the same range end up with an identical SSS contribution, since they share the same MSC.

The purpose of this system is administrative simplicity and predictability — SSS can maintain a fixed, published table of contributions per bracket rather than requiring a unique calculation for every possible salary figure. It also means your contribution moves in ₱500 salary-credit steps rather than smoothly with every peso you earn.

The 15% Total Rate: 5% Employee, 10% Employer

Once your MSC is determined, SSS applies a total contribution rate of 15% of that MSC. This 15% is not paid entirely by you. It is split so that the employee shoulders 5% and the employer shoulders 10% — effectively, your employer pays double what you do into your own SSS record.

This split is one of the more employee-friendly features of the Philippine social insurance system. It mirrors similar treatment in PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG, where employers are legally required to shoulder a meaningful share of the contribution on top of what is deducted from employees' pay. For a worker with an MSC of ₱20,000, this means ₱1,000 is deducted from the payslip (5%) while the employer separately remits ₱2,000 (10%), for a combined ₱3,000 credited to that employee's SSS record every month.

Employers are legally obligated to remit both shares to SSS on time. An employer who deducts the employee share from payroll but fails to remit it — or fails to remit their own employer share — is in violation of the Social Security Act and can face penalties, interest charges, and even criminal liability for non-remittance. Employees have the right to verify that their contributions are actually being posted (see the FAQ section below on checking your contribution record).

The Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF): What It Is and When It Applies

One of the more misunderstood pieces of the modern SSS contribution structure is the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), officially branded by SSS as the MySSS Pension Booster. The MPF was introduced to give higher-earning members a bigger retirement fund without requiring a complete overhaul of the base SSS program. In simple terms: once your MSC exceeds ₱20,000, the amount of MSC above ₱20,000 is contributed separately into the MPF, a defined-contribution, investment-linked provident fund layered on top of the traditional SSS pension.

Here's why it exists. The base SSS pension program has historically been criticized for offering relatively modest replacement income compared to a member's final salary, especially for higher-income earners whose contributions were capped at a low MSC ceiling for decades. To address this without redesigning the entire pension formula, SSS created the MPF as an add-on: contributions on salary above ₱20,000 MSC still follow the same 15% total rate and 5%/10% split, but they flow into MPF accounts rather than the regular SSS fund. MPF savings are invested and can generate returns over time, and members can access this pool of savings under specific conditions (such as retirement, permanent total disability, death, or emigration), somewhat like a hybrid between a pension and a provident/retirement savings account.

Concretely, here is how it works: for any member whose MSC is at or below ₱20,000, the full MSC is subject to the "regular" SS contribution — 15% split 5% employee / 10% employer, going entirely to the base pension fund. For any member whose MSC exceeds ₱20,000, the MSC is split into two portions for contribution purposes: the first ₱20,000 (the "regular SS" portion) is contributed at 15% into the base pension program, and the amount above ₱20,000 (the "MPF" portion) is also contributed at 15%, split 5%/10%, but credited to the member's MPF account instead.

Because MSC tops out at ₱35,000, the maximum MPF portion any member can have is ₱35,000 − ₱20,000 = ₱15,000. This caps the maximum monthly MPF contribution at 15% of ₱15,000 = ₱2,250 total (₱750 employee + ₱1,500 employer), on top of the maximum regular SS contribution of 15% of ₱20,000 = ₱3,000 (₱1,000 employee + ₱2,000 employer). Put together, a member at the absolute maximum MSC of ₱35,000 contributes a combined total of ₱5,250 per month (regular SS + MPF, both shares), with the employee's own share amounting to ₱1,750 and the employer's share amounting to ₱3,500. Note that this combined total reflects only the SSS contribution modeled by this calculator; across every MSC bracket, the employer also owes a small flat Employees' Compensation (EC) contribution — ₱10 per month for MSC up to ₱14,500, or ₱30 per month for MSC ₱15,000 and above — which is a separate line item from the 15% SSS rate itself and applies regardless of whether the MPF portion kicks in.

Worked Examples at Three Salary Levels

To make the math concrete, here are full computations at three different monthly salary levels, following exactly the logic the calculator above uses.

Example 1: Monthly Salary of ₱8,000

A salary of ₱8,000 falls within the ₱7,750–₱8,249.99 bracket, which maps to an MSC of ₱8,000. Since this MSC is well below the ₱20,000 MPF threshold, the entire amount is subject only to the regular SS contribution — there is no MPF portion.

• MSC: ₱8,000
• Regular SS portion: ₱8,000 (all of it, since it's under ₱20,000)
• MPF portion: ₱0
• Total contribution (15% of ₱8,000): ₱1,200
• Employee share (5%): ₱400
• Employer share (10%): ₱800

This employee sees exactly ₱400 deducted from their payslip for SSS each month, while their employer separately remits ₱800, for a combined ₱1,200 credited to their SSS record.

Example 2: Monthly Salary of ₱20,000

A salary of ₱20,000 falls exactly at the ₱19,750–₱20,249.99 bracket, which maps to an MSC of ₱20,000 — precisely at the MPF threshold. Because the MSC does not exceed ₱20,000, there is still no MPF portion; the entire MSC is treated as regular SS.

• MSC: ₱20,000
• Regular SS portion: ₱20,000
• MPF portion: ₱0 (only amounts above ₱20,000 MSC trigger MPF)
• Total contribution (15% of ₱20,000): ₱3,000
• Employee share (5%): ₱1,000
• Employer share (10%): ₱2,000

This is a useful reference point: ₱20,000 MSC is the highest salary credit that still avoids MPFentirely. One peso more in MSC bracket terms is where the MPF portion begins to appear. For comparison, a salary of ₱25,000 already crosses into MPF territory: it maps to an MSC of ₱25,000, of which ₱20,000 is regular SS and ₱5,000 is MPF, though the total contribution is still 15% of ₱25,000 = ₱3,750 (₱1,250 employee / ₱2,500 employer) either way — the threshold only changes how that total is split between the two funds, not the total itself.

Example 3: Monthly Salary of ₱40,000

A salary of ₱40,000 exceeds the maximum MSC bracket ceiling, so it is capped at the maximum MSC of ₱35,000. This is where MPF becomes very visible: ₱20,000 of the MSC is regular SS, and the remaining ₱15,000 (₱35,000 − ₱20,000) is the MPF portion.

• MSC: ₱35,000 (capped, even though actual salary is ₱40,000)
• Regular SS portion: ₱20,000
• MPF portion: ₱15,000
• Regular SS contribution (15% of ₱20,000): ₱3,000 — Employee ₱1,000 / Employer ₱2,000
• MPF contribution (15% of ₱15,000): ₱2,250 — Employee ₱750 / Employer ₱1,500
• Total combined contribution: ₱5,250 — Employee ₱1,750 / Employer ₱3,500

Notice that this employee's total contribution of ₱5,250 is the maximum possible under the 2026 schedule, since ₱35,000 is the ceiling MSC. Anyone earning ₱35,000 or ₱135,000 a month pays exactly the same SSS contribution, because both are capped at the same maximum MSC.

How Self-Employed, Voluntary, and OFW Members Pay Differently

Everything above describes the employer-employee arrangement, where the cost is split 5%/10%. But SSS coverage is not limited to people with a formal employer. Self-employed individuals, voluntary members (including those who left formal employment but want to keep contributing), and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) can also register and contribute to SSS — but since there is no employer in the picture, they shoulder the entire 15% themselves.

In practice, this means a self-employed professional who declares a monthly earning bracket equivalent to an MSC of ₱20,000 pays the full ₱3,000 (15% of ₱20,000) out of pocket every month or quarter, rather than splitting it with anyone. There is no "employer share" waiting to be matched — the member's remittance is both the employee-equivalent and employer-equivalent portions combined. This is reflected in the calculator above: switching to "Self-Employed / Voluntary / OFW" shows the full 15% as a single amount you are responsible for remitting.

Self-employed and voluntary members get to choose their own MSC (within the allowed range, based on declared income) at the point of registration or renewal, and can generally adjust it once a year. OFWs have a mandated minimum MSC that is typically higher than the regular minimum, in recognition of the fact that overseas earnings tend to be higher and Congress wanted overseas workers building a more substantial SSS record. Regardless of category, once an MSC is set, the same 15%/5%/10% math and the same ₱20,000 MPF threshold apply identically — the only real difference is that the "employer share" is simply an extra cost the member absorbs directly rather than an amount deducted from a payslip.

This distinction matters a lot for budgeting: an employed worker earning ₱20,000 only feels a ₱1,000 deduction on their payslip, while a self-employed person declaring the same ₱20,000 MSC needs to set aside the full ₱3,000 themselves, since there's no employer contribution offsetting the rest.

Full 2026 SSS Contribution Table (Selected Brackets)

Below is a representative sample of the 2026 MSC brackets and the resulting contributions, drawn from the same table used in the calculator above. Amounts are rounded to the nearest peso.

For the complete bracket-by-bracket table covering every ₱500 increment from ₱5,000 to ₱35,000, see our dedicated SSS Contribution Table 2026 guide linked below.

Why Getting This Right Matters

SSS contributions are not just a payroll line item — they directly determine the benefits you or your beneficiaries can eventually claim. Your retirement pension amount is calculated based on your accumulated credited years of service and your average monthly salary credit history, so consistently higher MSC contributions over your working life generally translate into a larger pension. Sickness and maternity benefit amounts are likewise based on your average daily salary credit derived from your MSC in the months before the contingency. Underpaid or unposted contributions can quietly shrink these entitlements years down the line, which is why it's worth understanding — and periodically verifying — exactly what should be showing up in your SSS record every month.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I get an SSS number if I don't have one yet?

First-time members can register through the My.SSS online portal or at any SSS branch, providing a valid government ID and basic personal information. Once approved, you receive a permanent SSS number that stays with you for life, regardless of how many employers you have or whether you move between employed, self-employed, or voluntary status. Employers are required to assist new hires with SSS registration if they don't already have a number, since the employer needs it to begin remitting contributions on the employee's behalf.

2. What happens if my employer is late in remitting my contributions?

Employers who remit late are charged a penalty of 2% per month on the unpaid amount, on top of the contribution itself, until fully settled. Late or non-remittance does not erase the employer's obligation, and employees who suspect their contributions aren't being posted on time can report this to SSS directly. Importantly, even if an employer fails to remit, the law generally still protects an employee's right to claim benefits based on contributions that should have been paid, since the failure to remit is the employer's fault, not the employee's — though this can complicate and delay claims processing in practice, so timely remittance matters for everyone involved.

3. How do I check if my SSS contributions are being posted correctly?

The easiest way is to log in to your My.SSS online account and check your Contribution Payment Details or Contributions Inquiry page, which shows a month-by-month history of posted MSC and contribution amounts. It's good practice to check this periodically — ideally every few months — rather than waiting years, since discrepancies are far easier to resolve with your employer or SSS while records and payroll documentation are still fresh.

4. Does the MPF portion earn interest or investment returns?

Yes. Unlike the base SSS pension fund, MPF contributions are placed into the member's MySSS Pension Booster account — SSS's current branding for the Mandatory Provident Fund program (historically also referred to as the Workers' Investment and Savings Program, or WISP, when it first launched in 2021). The account is invested and credited with returns over time, similar in spirit to a provident fund; SSS has reported annual returns in the 6–7% range in recent years and waived its 1% management fee on Pension Booster balances through 2028. This is part of why the MPF was introduced — to let higher-income earners build a larger, growth-oriented retirement fund without altering the base pension formula for everyone else.

5. Can I choose a higher MSC than what my salary would normally map to?

For regularly employed members, your MSC is determined strictly by your reported salary and the bracket table — you cannot voluntarily choose a higher one while employed. However, self-employed and voluntary members generally have more flexibility to select a higher MSC (up to the ₱35,000 ceiling) when registering or renewing, which increases their contribution but can also increase future benefit amounts, since higher credited MSCs generally lead to higher computed benefits.

6. What if I change jobs or have gaps in employment — do I lose my contributions?

No. Your SSS number and contribution history are permanent and portable across employers and even across membership types (employed, self-employed, voluntary, OFW). Contributions accumulate over your entire working life regardless of how many employers you've had or any gaps in between, as long as you keep contributing when you can. During gaps in formal employment, you can continue contributing voluntarily to avoid a lapse that might affect eligibility for certain time-based benefit requirements.

7. Is the SSS contribution the same as PhilHealth or Pag-IBIG?

No, these are three separate mandatory programs with different rates, different salary bases, and different benefits. SSS covers social insurance (pension, sickness, maternity, disability, death); PhilHealth covers health insurance premiums; and Pag-IBIG (HDMF) covers a savings and housing loan fund. All three are deducted from the same payslip but are computed independently and remitted to different agencies. Our PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG calculators, linked below, use the same salary input to show those separate computations.