Sri Lanka's Most Comprehensive Salary Guide

Every SalaryLK guide quotes gross monthly pay in Sri Lankan rupees (LKR), which is what employers advertise and what appears on your offer letter. What reaches your bank account is lower, because two deductions come off gross pay each month: the employee EPF contribution and APIT income tax.

EPF and ETF. You contribute 8% of gross salary to the Employees' Provident Fund. Your employer adds a further 12% to EPF and 3% to the Employees' Trust Fund. The employer contributions are paid on top of your salary, so they raise the cost of employing you but do not reduce your take-home pay. Use the EPF and ETF calculator to see your own balance build up.

APIT (PAYE tax). Under the 2025/26 and 2026/27 rates the first LKR 150,000 a month is tax-free. Income above that is taxed in bands starting at 6% and rising to 36%. Most salaried workers in Sri Lanka earn below the threshold and pay no income tax; the tax calculator shows the exact figure for any salary.

Minimum wage. From 1 January 2026 no private sector worker can be paid less than LKR 30,000 a month or LKR 1,200 a day. Government employees are paid on fixed salary scales set by public administration circulars, which our government salary scale guide lists code by code.

Start with the job salary guides for a role's pay from entry level to senior, then narrow it down. Experience guides show how pay changes year by year, location guides compare Colombo with other districts, and company guides cover large employers such as banks, telcos, apparel exporters and IT firms. If you are planning a career change, the career guides set out the qualifications, routes and costs, and the course guides list fees for the main professional programmes.

Salary ranges for government roles follow published scales. Private sector ranges are editorial estimates based on public information, so treat them as a guide to negotiate from rather than a guaranteed offer. Our editorial policy explains how figures are compiled and updated.