Employer social security ceilings, country by country
Twelve of the fifteen countries on this site cap at least one employer contribution. In eleven of those twelve the employer percentage falls as the salary rises.
Portugal, Ireland and Brazil cap nothing, so their percentage is the same at any salary.
An employer contribution ceiling is the maximum amount of annual pay on which a statutory employer charge is calculated. Above that ceiling the employer pays nothing further on that line, so the employer cost stops growing while the salary keeps growing, and the percentage quoted for the country falls.
Almost every published figure for employer costs in a country is a single percentage with no salary attached to it. A percentage with no salary attached can only be correct for salaries below every ceiling in that country, which in most cases means a junior hire.
Does every country cap employer social security contributions?
No. Twelve of the fifteen countries on this site cap at least one employer contribution line, and three of them, Portugal, Ireland and Brazil, cap none of theirs (checked 2026-08-21).
The table below covers every country held on this site, ordered by how far the employer percentage falls when the salary doubles. Uplift is the total employer cost divided by the gross salary, minus one, computed at the two salary levels used on the country pages.
| Country | Employer lines with a ceiling | Lowest ceiling, a year | Uplift at the mid salary | Uplift at double that salary | Fall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spain | 5 of 5 | EUR 61,214 | 47.3% | 32.3% | 15.0 points |
| Netherlands | 4 of 4 | EUR 79,409 | 24.6% | 19.0% | 5.6 points |
| Germany | 5 of 5 | EUR 77,400 | 21.3% | 15.9% | 5.4 points |
| Mexico | 9 of 9 | MXN 1,069,866 | 20.5% | 16.3% | 4.2 points |
| Poland | 2 of 5 | PLN 282,600 | 20.5% | 17.0% | 3.5 points |
| France | 3 of 11 | EUR 48,060 | 35.6% | 32.2% | 3.4 points |
| Canada | 3 of 3 | CAD 68,900 | 6.8% | 3.4% | 3.4 points |
| Philippines | 4 of 4 | PHP 120,000 | 14.6% | 11.4% | 3.1 points |
| United Kingdom | 1 of 3 | GBP 50,270 | 17.9% | 16.7% | 1.2 points |
| India | 5 of 5 | INR 180,000 | 6.1% | 5.5% | 0.6 points |
| United States | 2 of 3 | USD 7,000 | 7.7% | 7.7% | Under 0.1 point |
| Portugal | 0 of 1 | None | 40.4% | 40.4% | None |
| Ireland | 0 of 1 | None | 11.4% | 11.4% | None |
| Australia | 1 of 1 | AUD 270,830 | 12.0% | 12.0% | None |
| Brazil | 0 of 3 | None | 44.1% | 44.1% | None |
^ Employer contribution ceilings and the resulting uplift in each country's own currency, checked 2026-08-21. Uplift includes statutory contributions, mandatory extra months of pay and any mandatory severance accrual; the next section sets out what it leaves out. Each contribution is charged on the part of the salary that falls inside its own band, so a contribution that starts above a floor is charged only above that floor, and a contribution that applies only below a wage the salary exceeds is not charged at all. The mid salary is the level shown first on each country page; the second column doubles it.
What does the uplift column leave out?
Only employer costs that carry a single national rate are in it, and several real costs carry no such rate (checked 2026-08-21). German statutory accident insurance is set per trade association and risk class, and the German U1 and U2 wage-continuation levies are set by each sickness fund. Spanish work-accident contributions run from 0.90% to 7.15% by activity risk tariff. United States state unemployment tax runs from roughly 1.0% to 3.4%. Australian state payroll tax runs from roughly 4.85% to 5.45%. Canadian provincial payroll and health levies come on top of the federal lines. Portuguese work-accident cover has to be bought from a private insurer, and a Dutch sector or collective-agreement pension applies wherever one is in force.
Four of the rates that are included are averages or defaults rather than the rate a particular employer pays. The French work-accident rate is a national average. The Polish accident rate of 1.67% is the statutory default, and a larger Polish employer can be assigned anything from about 0.67% to 3.33% on its claims history. The Mexican occupational risk premium is shown at its legal minimum, near 0.54%. The Brazilian Sistema S rate of 5.8% is representative rather than universal (checked 2026-08-21).
The United Kingdom figures include the 0.5% Apprenticeship Levy, which is charged only on employers with an annual pay bill above GBP 3m. Below that threshold the United Kingdom uplift is 17.4% at the mid salary and 16.2% at double it (checked 2026-08-21).
Which countries' percentage falls most when the salary doubles?
15.0 percentage points is the largest fall here. Spain drops from 47.3% to 32.3% because all five Spanish employer lines stop at EUR 61,214 a year, which sits just above the EUR 60,000 mid salary used on the Spanish country page (checked 2026-08-21).
Canada falls furthest in relative terms. Canada charges 6.8% on CAD 95,000 and 3.4% on CAD 190,000, exactly half, because every Canadian employer line has stopped before either salary is reached (checked 2026-08-21).
Canada is also the clearest case of a contribution that starts partway up. The Canadian employer burden runs in bands: about 8.23% up to CAD 68,900, 5.95% from there to CAD 74,600, 4.00% from CAD 74,600 to CAD 85,000, and zero above CAD 85,000 (checked 2026-08-21). The 4.00% second-tier CPP rate is charged only inside its own band, not from the first dollar, which is why the Canadian figures are lower than a naive rate-times-ceiling reading would suggest. We have not yet confirmed the CAD 85,000 second-tier ceiling on a Canada Revenue Agency page.
Nine of the fifteen countries fall by more than one percentage point. The United States falls by less than a tenth of a point, because the only United States ceiling that binds at these salaries is the FUTA wage base of USD 7,000, and FUTA net of the standard 5.4% state credit is charged at 0.6% (checked 2026-08-21).
Can a ceiling change which country is cheaper?
Yes. Spain costs more than Brazil at the mid salary, 47.3% against 44.1%, and less than Brazil at double that salary, 32.3% against 44.1%, because every Spanish line stops at EUR 61,214 and no Brazilian employer line stops anywhere (checked 2026-08-21).
Only part of either total is ceiling-sensitive. Of Spain's 47.3%, 16.7 points are two mandatory extra months of pay, and of Brazil's 44.1%, 16.3 points are one extra month plus an 8% severance accrual; neither part falls at any salary. Mandatory extra pay and severance accrual come to 16.7 points in Spain and Portugal, 16.3 in Brazil, 8.3 in the Philippines, 8.0 in the Netherlands, 4.8 in India, 4.2 in Mexico and zero in the other eight (checked 2026-08-21).
Germany and the United Kingdom swap places the same way. Germany adds 21.3% and the United Kingdom adds 17.9% at the mid salary; at double the salary Germany adds 15.9% and the United Kingdom adds 16.7% (checked 2026-08-21). A ranking of countries by employer cost is therefore a ranking at one salary, and carries no information about any other salary.
Where do the ceilings actually sit?
Not at any consistent level, and a single country can run several ceilings at once.
Germany runs two. German health insurance and long-term care insurance stop at EUR 77,400 a year, while German pension insurance, unemployment insurance and the insolvency levy run to EUR 101,400 (checked 2026-08-21). A German salary climbing from EUR 60,000 to EUR 120,000 therefore crosses two separate cliffs rather than one.
Canada runs three. Canadian Employment Insurance stops at CAD 68,900, base CPP at CAD 74,600, and the second additional CPP tier exists only between CAD 74,600 and CAD 85,000 (checked 2026-08-21).
Poland caps two lines out of five. Polish pension and disability insurance stop at PLN 282,600, while the Labor Fund, accident insurance and the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund carry no ceiling, so the marginal employer rate above PLN 282,600 falls to 4.22% rather than to zero (checked 2026-08-21).
Mexico is the hardest of the fifteen to state as a percentage. All nine Mexican employer lines share one ceiling of MXN 1,069,866 a year, which is a multiple of the UMA rather than a round salary figure (checked 2026-08-21). Part of the IMSS charge is tied to the UMA rather than to the salary at all. The Mexican share of an actual salary therefore drifts down continuously instead of stepping at a threshold.
India inverts the usual assumption about developing markets. The Indian provident fund wage ceiling is INR 180,000 a year, which is INR 15,000 a month, and contributions above that ceiling are optional for the employer rather than prohibited (checked 2026-08-21). An employer that stops at the ceiling pays 0.65% of a senior Indian salary in statutory contributions. An employer that contributes on actual wages instead pays the same rates with no ceiling, which is 8.33 + 3.67 + 0.5 + 0.5 = 13.0% of the salary. Ask which of the two an Indian quote assumes before you use it.
The Indian uplift of 5.5% at double the mid salary is almost entirely the statutory gratuity accrual of 4.81%, which has no ceiling. It excludes the 3.25% ESI employer share, because our ledger records ESI as applying only where gross wages are INR 21,000 a month or less, and both salaries shown here are far above that (checked 2026-08-21). Indian statutory contributions come to 1.3% of the mid salary and 0.65% of double it.
The Philippines caps all four employer lines, and it runs three different ceilings across them. Pag-IBIG stops first at PHP 120,000 a year, which is PHP 10,000 a month, so the 2% Pag-IBIG rate yields at most PHP 200 a month at any salary. SSS stops next at PHP 420,000 a year, which is a monthly salary credit of PHP 35,000, and PhilHealth stops last at PHP 1,200,000 a year (checked 2026-08-21). Above PHP 1,200,000 no Philippine contribution line grows any further, but the employer's statutory cost still does, because 13th month pay is a flat 8.33% of salary at any level. Of the 11.4% shown for the Philippines at double the mid salary, 8.33 points are that 13th month and 3.1 points are contributions.
Which countries can be quoted as a single percentage?
Only three. Portugal charges a single social security contribution of 23.75% with no ceiling, Brazil charges employer INSS at 20% plus uncapped levies, and Ireland charges employer PRSI at 11.4% with no annual ceiling on weekly earnings above EUR 552, with a reduced 9.15% rate below that and the 11.4% rate taking effect on 1 October 2026 (checked 2026-08-21). In those three countries a percentage quoted without a salary is usable as it stands, provided an Irish salary clears EUR 552 a week, which is EUR 28,704 a year.
Two more are close, and neither can be quoted as one number without a condition attached. Australia caps the Superannuation Guarantee at AUD 270,830 a year, so below that salary the Australian figure is a flat 12.0% and only above it does the percentage start to fall (checked 2026-08-21). The United Kingdom charges employer National Insurance at 15% with no upper earnings limit and charges the auto-enrolment pension only on the qualifying earnings band, which runs from GBP 6,240 to GBP 50,270, so above GBP 50,270 the United Kingdom marginal rate is a flat 15.5%, or 15.0% for an employer whose annual pay bill is under GBP 3m (checked 2026-08-21). For a senior United Kingdom hire that marginal rate is the number to use, not the 17.9% in the table, which is an average up to GBP 55,000 rather than the cost of the next pound.
How much of this is confirmed on a statutory source?
Not all of it, and the softness is in the rates as much as in the ceilings. Six of the fifteen binding ceilings in the table above carry medium confidence in our own dataset, which on this site means the figure was read from a compilation rather than from the agency that sets it. Every French, Polish and Mexican rate carries medium confidence for the same reason, as do three of the four Dutch rates, three of the five Spanish, three of the four Philippine and three of the five Indian.
The six medium-confidence ceilings are France, the Netherlands, Poland, Mexico, the Philippines and the United States. For the United States the reason is different: both the FUTA wage base and the 0.6% rate net of the standard state credit are the 2025 values, because the IRS had not published the 2026 Form 940 instructions on the check date. The Spanish, German, Australian, Indian, Irish, Portuguese, Brazilian and United Kingdom ceilings come from the statutory body itself, as do the Canadian Employment Insurance and base CPP ceilings; the CAD 85,000 second-tier CPP ceiling does not, and a direct Canada Revenue Agency page confirming it is still outstanding.
Which column a soft ceiling damages depends on where it sits. In France, the Philippines and the United States the ceiling is already below the mid salary, so both columns move with it. In the Netherlands, Poland and Mexico the mid salary has not reached the ceiling, so only the senior column moves, and for those three the senior column is the softer of the two.
If you need a statutory-grade ceiling for one of those six countries, this table cannot give it to you, and neither can the country page, because the country page cites the same compilation. What the country page does give you is the URL the figure was read from and the date it was read, so the work left is one step: open the agency's own page for that country and compare the ceiling. Until that is done, treat the senior-salary column for those countries as indicative rather than quotable.
How do you work out the employer cost at your own salary?
It depends on the salary, so each line has to be computed on its own base instead of blended into one rate:
The calculator applies each ceiling separately, because in Germany, Canada and Mexico the ceilings sit at different levels and a single blended rate cannot represent them. Every rate and ceiling used above is on the country pages with the statutory source next to it, and the same figures are in data.json if you would rather check the arithmetic yourself.
What a blended rate does to a budget
A blended national rate applied to several hires at different levels overstates the senior hires and understates the junior ones. The error runs in both directions and does not cancel, because employer cost against salary is a curve with steps in it rather than a straight line.
The size of the error is the Fall column in the table above. In Spain a blended rate taken from a mid salary overstates a senior hire by 15.0 percentage points of that salary; in Portugal the same method is exact at any salary. Before accepting a country cost figure from a provider or a report, ask which salary it was computed on, and treat any answer of the form "it is the general percentage for that country" as a figure for a junior hire.
Who this is not for
If you are hiring one person, in one country, at one salary, this page is not the fastest route to your answer. Put the salary into the calculator and read the result. Ceilings matter when you are budgeting a team, comparing countries at more than one level of seniority, or checking a figure somebody else produced.
Ceilings also say nothing about the costs that sit outside statute, such as private benefits, equipment, local employment counsel or the fee an employer of record charges. Those are listed separately.
Questions people ask
Does an employer stop paying anything above the ceiling?
No. Only the capped lines stop. In Poland the marginal employer rate above PLN 282,600 falls to 4.22% rather than to zero, because the Labor Fund, accident insurance and the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund carry no ceiling (checked 2026-08-21).
Do all the ceilings inside one country sit at the same level?
Not always. Germany runs health insurance and long-term care insurance to EUR 77,400 a year and pension insurance, unemployment insurance and the insolvency levy to EUR 101,400, and the Philippines runs three ceilings across four lines, at PHP 120,000, PHP 420,000 and PHP 1,200,000 a year (checked 2026-08-21). Spain, the Netherlands and Mexico are the opposite case, where every employer line shares one ceiling.
Does a low employer percentage mean a cheap country?
Not in the way the percentage suggests. India charges 1.3% in statutory employer contributions on a mid Indian salary and 0.65% at double that salary, yet the total Indian uplift is 6.1% and 5.5%, because the statutory gratuity accrual of 4.81% has no ceiling (checked 2026-08-21). India is the cheapest of the fifteen at the mid salary but not at double it, where Canada sits at 3.4% against India's 5.5%, because every Canadian line has stopped by CAD 190,000 while the Indian gratuity accrual keeps pace with the salary.
What to do next
Run the country you are hiring in through the calculator at the salary you actually intend to pay, and ignore any country percentage that arrives without a salary attached to it. That single step removes the error this page is about, and it is the only step that has to happen before you budget.
Sources
- Spain, ceiling and common contingencies rate: Boletín Oficial del Estado, BOE-A-2026-7296. Checked 2026-08-21.
- Germany, contribution ceilings for 2026: Deutsche Rentenversicherung, Sozialversicherungsrechengrößen 2026. Checked 2026-08-21.
- Canada, CPP contribution rates, maximums and exemptions: Canada Revenue Agency. Checked 2026-08-21.
- Canada, Employment Insurance premium rates for 2026: Employment and Social Development Canada. Checked 2026-08-21.
- United Kingdom, employer National Insurance rates and thresholds: gov.uk, rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027. Checked 2026-08-21.
- United Kingdom, auto-enrolment qualifying earnings band: gov.uk, workplace pensions. Checked 2026-08-21.
- Australia, Superannuation Guarantee maximum contribution base: Australian Taxation Office. Checked 2026-08-21.
- India, EPF and EPS contribution rates and wage ceiling: EPFO, contribution rate. Checked 2026-08-21.
- Ireland, employer PRSI Class A rates: Department of Social Protection. Checked 2026-08-21.
- Portugal, employer TSU rate: Segurança Social. Checked 2026-08-21.
- Brazil, employer social security contributions: Receita Federal. Checked 2026-08-21.
- Netherlands, Zvw employer levy: Belastingdienst. Checked 2026-08-21.
- Netherlands, Aof, AWF and Whk premiums and the maximum premium wage, medium confidence: Randstad werkpocket. Checked 2026-08-21.
- France, social security ceiling for 2026, medium confidence: LégiSocial. Checked 2026-08-21.
- Poland, employer ZUS rates and the annual base limit, medium confidence: Poradnik Przedsiębiorcy. Checked 2026-08-21.
- Mexico, IMSS and INFONAVIT employer rates and the UMA-linked base, medium confidence: El Contribuyente. Checked 2026-08-21.
- Philippines, Pag-IBIG employer contribution and the monthly ceiling, medium confidence: Batas Natin. Checked 2026-08-21.
- Philippines, SSS contribution table: Social Security System. Checked 2026-08-21.
- United States, FUTA wage base and rate: IRS, Instructions for Form 940. Checked 2026-08-21.
- United States, Social Security contribution and benefit base: Social Security Administration. Checked 2026-08-21.
Written by Kaz, independent publisher. No commercial relationship with the providers named unless it is listed on the disclosure page.
Page last updated 2026-08-30. Sources: statutory bodies only, listed per figure. Rates last verified 2026-08-21. This is not legal, tax or payroll advice and we do not file anyone's payroll.
Every formula on this site is written out in full on Method. Ordering is by computed cost, never by what a provider pays us.
Corrections: contact form.