What is EPF and EPS?
The Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) is a retirement benefit scheme backed by the Government of India. Both the employee and the employer contribute a portion of the basic salary every month toward the employee's retirement corpus.
While the employee's entire 12% goes directly into the EPF account, the employer's 12% is legally split into two components:
- EPS (Employees' Pension Scheme): 8.33% of the employer's contribution goes here, up to a strict maximum wage ceiling of ₹15,000. This means the maximum EPS contribution is capped at ₹1,250 per month.
- EPF (Provident Fund): The remaining amount (3.67% or more) goes into your regular EPF account, which earns compounding interest every year.