EIS Contribution Malaysia 2026: Rates, Table & Calculation

A new joiner's first payslip has an EIS line that doesn't match what the payroll spreadsheet from last quarter said. It's a small discrepancy, but it's the kind that makes an HR manager stop and double-check everything else on the run.

Here's the short answer: EIS contribution in Malaysia is set at 0.4% of monthly wages, split 0.2% employer and 0.2% employee, capped once a salary crosses the RM6,000 wage ceiling. The rest of this guide covers the full table, who's actually covered, and how to calculate it correctly, so that discrepancy never happens again.

What Is EIS Contribution?

The Employment Insurance System (EIS) is a mandatory contribution scheme administered by PERKESO (the Social Security Organisation) under the Employment Insurance System Act 2017, which came into force on 1 January 2018. It exists to give workers temporary financial support and re-employment help if they lose their job through no fault of their own, funded by monthly contributions from both employer and employee.

It's easy to confuse EIS with EPF and SOCSO since all three show up on the same payslip.

EIS Contribution Rate and Table for 2026

The EIS contribution rate is 0.4% of an employee's monthly wages in total: 0.2% paid by the employer and 0.2% deducted from the employee's salary. The contribution wage ceiling is RM6,000 per month, meaning wages above that amount are still subject to EIS, but the deduction stops growing once it hits the ceiling rate.

PERKESO raised the contribution wage ceiling from RM5,000 to RM6,000 effective 1 October 2024, and it has stayed at RM6,000 through 2026. Before that, the ceiling moved from RM4,000 to RM5,000 in September 2022. Check the PERKESO website periodically rather than assuming the figure is permanent.

Here is the official PERKESO Act 800 contribution schedule, covering the full wage range from the lowest band to the RM6,000 ceiling.

Source: PERKESO Act 800 contribution schedule. Table reflects the RM6,000 wage ceiling effective 1 October 2024. Cross-check against PERKESO's official contributions page before finalizing payroll.

At the ceiling, the maximum employee contribution is RM11.90 per month, the maximum employer contribution is RM11.90 per month, and the maximum combined contribution is RM23.80 per month.

Who Must Contribute to EIS

Coverage looks broad on paper but has real edge cases that trip up payroll teams, especially around foreign hires and older employees.

Generally required to contribute:

• Malaysian citizens and permanent residents aged 18 to 60, employed under a contract of service or apprenticeship
• Full-time, part-time, temporary, and contract employees, as long as they meet the standard eligibility requirements
• Employees in the private sector, from the very first hire a company makes

Generally excluded:

• Foreign workers who are not Malaysian citizens or permanent residents (standard EIS coverage under Act 800 requires the employee to be a Malaysian citizen or permanent resident)
• Government employees and the self-employed
• Domestic workers, with a narrow exception: eligible local domestic workers who are Malaysian citizens or permanent residents can be covered, but foreign domestic workers are not
• Employees aged 57 and above who had no prior EIS contributions before turning 57

Part-timers and contract staff are a common source of confusion, but the rule is simple: the classification that matters isn't the job title or hours worked. It's whether a contract of service exists. Registration isn't optional or delayed until a probation period ends. The moment a company hires its first eligible employee, it must register with PERKESO.

How to Calculate EIS Contribution

The cleanest way to think about EIS is as a lookup, not a formula. Pull the employee's monthly wage, find their band on the PERKESO table, and read off both the employer and employee shares directly rather than running a percentage calculation by hand.

Step 1: Identify EIS-liable wages. EIS applies to an employee's monthly wages, which includes basic salary, fixed allowances, and overtime. Overtime is included within the definition of wages under the Employment Insurance System Act 2017, so it needs to be added to the base figure before looking up the band.

Step 2: Find the correct wage band. Match the total EIS-liable wage to its row in the PERKESO table. If the wage exceeds RM6,000, use the ceiling row rather than extrapolating further.

Step 3: Read both shares and record them on the payslip. Each band gives a fixed employer amount and employee amount in ringgit. Deduct the employee share from gross pay and add the employer share as a separate statutory cost, then record both on the payslip for audit purposes.

Example 1 (below the ceiling): An employee earns RM2,550 a month. That falls in the RM2,500.01 to RM2,600 band, so the employer pays RM5.10 and the employee pays RM5.10, for a combined RM10.20.

Example 2 (above the ceiling): An employee earns RM8,000 a month. Since this exceeds the RM6,000 ceiling, both employer and employee pay the maximum rate: RM11.90 each, RM23.80 combined, regardless of how much higher the actual salary is.

Payment Deadlines, Submission, and Penalties

EIS contributions are due alongside SOCSO, not as a separate payment. Employers do not need to make a separate transaction; both payments follow the same schedule and deadlines.

Deadline: Contributions must be paid no later than the 15th day of the immediately following month. Wages paid for January must have their EIS contribution settled by 15 February.

Submission channels:

• PERKESO ASSIST Portal
• Online banking
• Cheque, money order, or postal order
• Bank agents
• SOCSO counters

Penalties for late or missed payment:

Missing the deadline isn't a minor administrative slip. Late or missed contributions trigger interest, late-payment penalties, and potential prosecution under Section 75 of the Act, with directors personally liable. Reported interest on outstanding contributions is commonly cited around 6% per annum for each day of delay. Confirm the exact figure directly with PERKESO since penalty structures can be revised.

Beyond the monthly cycle, a few lifecycle events create their own obligations: registering every new eligible hire with PERKESO before their first payroll run, and reporting a loss of employment so the affected employee can file a claim within the 60-day window.

Getting EIS Right in Your Monthly Payroll

Most EIS errors aren't dramatic. They're small, repeated mistakes that compound over a year of payroll runs.

The most common is a stale contribution table. PERKESO has revised the wage ceiling twice in under three years: from RM4,000 to RM5,000 in 2022 and from RM5,000 to RM6,000 in October 2024. A spreadsheet or payroll tool that wasn't updated after either change has been quietly under-deducting or over-deducting EIS for every employee near the old ceiling.

The second is miscounting wage components. Teams that exclude overtime or fixed allowances from the EIS-liable wage figure end up in the wrong band, sometimes for months, before anyone notices the discrepancy on an audit or a payslip query.

The third is missed new joiners. When onboarding and payroll run in separate systems, it's easy for a new hire's first pay cycle to go out without EIS registered at all, creating backdated contributions and interest charges that land weeks later.

Payroll software that keeps statutory tables current and calculates EIS automatically from the correct wage band removes all three failure points at once. brioHR's native Malaysian payroll engine handles EPF, SOCSO, EIS, and PCB compliance with automatic statutory updates, so when PERKESO revises the wage ceiling again, the change applies without anyone needing to edit a spreadsheet formula.

brioHR connects payroll directly to attendance and leave records, so the wages used for EIS calculations reflect what an employee actually worked, not a manually updated estimate.