How to Check Your Payslip Deductions in the Philippines

1. Gather a complete month before comparing

Keep the payslip you are checking, the other cutoff for the same month if you are paid twice monthly, and any explanation of arrears or adjustments. Write down the coverage dates as well as the payment date. A payslip issued this month can contain a correction for an earlier period.

List basic pay, allowances, overtime and other earnings separately. Then list SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, withholding tax and company deductions. Loans or HMO deductions may reduce take-home pay without following the contribution formulas. Do not combine these into one unexplained “government deductions” total.

• Understand gross pay and taxable compensation

2. Use the correct salary base for each contribution

SSS uses the compensation bracket in its employed-member table. Check the bracket before comparing the employee share: multiplying an exact salary by 5% can miss the Monthly Salary Credit step. Above an MSC of PHP 20,000, the employee figure includes a mandatory provident-fund portion. It is already included in the table’s employee total.

PhilHealth uses fixed monthly basic salary, subject to its published floor and ceiling. Its advisory excludes allowances, overtime and bonuses, and says that reductions for undertime, tardiness or unpaid leave are not deducted from that salary base. Pag-IBIG uses fund salary, which includes basic salary and allowances, subject to its Maximum Fund Salary.

Check the employee column. Employer SSS, EC, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG costs are separate amounts. Comparing an employee deduction with the combined employee-and-employer total can make a correct deduction look too low.

• Look up your SSS compensation bracket
• Read the PhilHealth salary-base advisory
• Check Pag-IBIG’s fund salary definition

3. Reconcile a simple PHP 30,000 example

Assume regular monthly basic pay of PHP 30,000, no allowances or overtime, regular employed-member coverage, no special exemptions and no company deductions. The published schedules give employee shares of PHP 1,500 for SSS, PHP 750 for PhilHealth and PHP 200 for Pag-IBIG. These add to PHP 2,450.

Taxable compensation in this simplified example is PHP 30,000 minus PHP 2,450, or PHP 27,550. The monthly BIR table gives (PHP 27,550 − PHP 20,833) × 15% = PHP 1,007.55 withholding. Total modeled deductions are PHP 3,457.55 and estimated take-home pay is PHP 26,542.45.

Treat this as a controlled comparison. A minimum-wage exemption, taxable allowance, benefit exemption, loan, annual tax adjustment or different contribution collection schedule can change the actual payslip. Do not enter a total salary package into a basic-pay-only estimate and expect an exact match.

• Run the basic-pay salary estimate
• Verify the BIR table used in the example

4. Compare cutoffs without assuming an equal split

For PHP 15,000 basic pay per cutoff, an equal-split estimate uses PHP 750 SSS, PHP 375 PhilHealth and PHP 100 Pag-IBIG. That leaves PHP 13,775 taxable compensation. The semi-monthly table gives PHP 503.70 tax and PHP 13,271.30 estimated net pay for that cutoff.

Two such tax estimates total PHP 1,007.40, which differs by PHP 0.15 from the monthly example because the BIR tables have separate thresholds. This is not a new tax exemption or a promise of a saving. Payroll can collect contributions on different cutoffs and make reconciliation adjustments. Ask which method applies before comparing one payslip with half a monthly estimate.

• See monthly versus semi-monthly payroll assumptions

5. Send payroll a question they can reproduce

Identify the line item, the amount, the pay period and the salary base you used. For example: “For the October 1–15 payslip, please confirm the monthly contribution base, whether this cutoff collects the full monthly share, and whether the deduction includes an earlier adjustment.” Attach the relevant payslips through your employer’s approved channel.

Ask for the calculation or schedule rather than sending a screenshot of an unexplained calculator result. Keep salary and account details out of public comments. If the difference concerns a contribution already deducted, ask payroll to explain the deduction and remittance period separately; a payslip entry alone does not establish that an agency record has been updated.