NSSF Contribution Calculator

Background.

Since February 2026, the most NSSF can deduct from an employee's monthly pay in Kenya is KSh 6,480, and the employer adds the same again. Below that ceiling the rule is simpler than the payslip makes it look: 6% of pensionable pay from you, 6% from your employer. On a salary of KSh 50,000 that is KSh 3,000 each, KSh 6,000 in all, credited to your NSSF account every month.

The complication is the two tiers. Under the NSSF Act of 2013, pay is sliced at two limits. The first KSh 9,000 a month, the lower earnings limit, is Tier I. Pay above that, up to the upper earnings limit of KSh 108,000, is Tier II. Anything beyond KSh 108,000 is not pensionable for NSSF at all, which is why the deduction stops growing once you pass it. Many payslips show the two tiers as separate lines, so a worker on KSh 50,000 may see KSh 540 and KSh 2,460 rather than a single KSh 3,000.

The tiers also decide where the money goes. Tier I contributions always go to NSSF. Tier II contributions can be paid instead into an approved occupational or personal pension scheme if the employer has contracted out, so two workers on the same pay can see the same Tier II amount routed to different places.

The limits are not fixed. The 2013 Act brought them in gradually, raising them each February, and the notice to employers for Year 4 set today's KSh 9,000 and KSh 108,000 from February 2026. The calculator starts from those values, but both limits are open fields: to check a payslip from an earlier month, type in the limits from the NSSF notice that applied then.

What you get is the monthly contribution and its split, employee and employer, Tier I and Tier II. Benefits, arrears, penalties for late remittance and whether a particular job is covered are separate questions for NSSF and your employer.

What is nssf contribution calculator?

The National Social Security Fund is Kenya's mandatory retirement scheme for people in employment, run under the National Social Security Fund Act of 2013. An NSSF contribution is the monthly amount paid into a member's account on the strength of their pensionable earnings: the employee's share is deducted from pay, and the employer pays a matching share on top. Pensionable earnings are monthly pay up to the upper earnings limit, currently KSh 108,000. The part up to the lower earnings limit, KSh 9,000, generates Tier I contributions; the part between the two limits generates Tier II contributions. The employer deducts the employee share, adds its own and remits both, with the remittance due by the 9th of the following month. Membership does not end when a job does: a member who changes employer or loses work keeps the same NSSF number, so contributions from successive jobs build up in one account.

How to use this calculator.

1. 01Enter monthly pensionable pay in Kenya shillings. For most employees that is the gross monthly pay on the payslip; if you are checking a particular payslip, use the gross figure your employer's payroll used that month.
2. 02Leave both rates at 6% for a standard payslip. They are the statutory employee and employer rates; change them only to test a different scenario.
3. 03Keep the lower and upper earnings limits at KSh 9,000 and KSh 108,000 for any pay month from February 2026. For an earlier month, replace them with the limits from the NSSF notice for that period; the lower limit must stay below the upper.
4. 04Compare the Tier I and Tier II employee contributions with the NSSF lines on the payslip. Some payslips show one combined figure, which should equal the total employee contribution.
5. 05Read the employer total as the cost to the employer on top of your salary, and the combined figure as the amount remitted to NSSF (or partly to a contracted-out scheme) for you that month.

The formula.

Start by capping pay at the upper earnings limit: P* = min(P, UEL), where P is monthly pensionable pay. Tier I earnings are T₁ = min(P*, LEL), the slice up to the lower earnings limit. Tier II earnings are T₂ = max(0, P* − LEL), whatever is left of the capped pay above the lower limit, or nothing if pay is below it. Each party's contribution is C = (T₁ + T₂) × r, with r = 6% for the employee and 6% for the employer, and each tier's share is that tier's earnings times the same rate. The combined monthly contribution is the employee total plus the employer total.

Because T₁ + T₂ always adds back to P*, the total is simply 6% of pay or of KSh 108,000, whichever is smaller. For anyone earning between KSh 9,000 and KSh 108,000 the tiers do not change the amount at all; they change how it is labelled and where Tier II is sent. On KSh 15,000, for instance, Tier I is KSh 540 and Tier II is 6% of the remaining KSh 6,000, or KSh 360, a total of KSh 900. Below KSh 9,000 everything falls in Tier I and Tier II is zero.

The cap is what makes the deduction regressive at the top. Every shilling up to KSh 108,000 attracts 6%; every shilling above it attracts nothing. A worker on KSh 150,000 pays KSh 6,480, which is 4.32% of pay, and one on KSh 200,000 pays the same KSh 6,480, or 3.24%. The maximum per party is KSh 540 of Tier I plus KSh 5,940 of Tier II, and the most that can be remitted for one employee in a month is KSh 12,960.

The employee and employer rates are separate inputs and the tiers are worked out for each, so the split stays correct even if you model unequal rates. Results are in shillings and cents.

A worked example.

Frequently asked questions.

References& sources.

1. [1]National Social Security Fund (2026). "Notice to Employers - Year 4 (2026) NSSF Contribution Rates." MyGov Kenya.
2. [2]Kenya Law (2014). "National Social Security Fund Act, Cap. 258." National Council for Law Reporting.
3. [3]National Social Security Fund (n.d.). "Frequently Asked Questions." NSSF Kenya.
4. [4]National Institute of Standards and Technology (2026). "NIST Handbook 133, Appendix E: General Tables of Units of Measurement." U.S. Department of Commerce.
5. [5]Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (2019). "The International System of Units (SI Brochure), 9th edition." BIPM.