ESI eligibility checker
Check if your business must register for ESI (Employees' State Insurance). You can also check if an employee must be in ESI. Use one check or both.
Check your business or an employee
Does your business need ESI?
Need to register now, or soon? We can register you and then file every month.
- 25+ years in practice
- Founder worked 35 years at EPFO
- 100+ clients
- 3,500+ employees covered
Does this employee need ESI?
How the ESI rules work
For your business
Your business must register for ESI when it has 10 or more employees. This rule is the same in every state. Seasonal factories are not covered.
Count all your staff, as for PF. Don't count apprentices, the owner or partners. Is your business a company? Call us to check how to count directors.
Once ESI applies, it stays, even if your staff later drop below 10. For some risky kinds of work, ESI can apply even with 1 employee. Call us to check.
For each employee
An employee must be in ESI when their ESI wages are ₹21,000 a month or less (₹25,000 for a person with a disability).
ESI wages are the month's pay minus HRA (house rent allowance), overtime, commission, conveyance (travel) allowance and statutory bonus (bonus paid under the bonus law). A bonus that is part of the agreed pay stays in ESI wages. But ESI wages must be at least half the total pay. If they come to less, the difference is added to ESI wages.
ESI works in two six-month periods: April to September, and October to March. If an employee's pay goes above the limit during a period, they stay in ESI until it ends.
Staff on very low pay
Staff on very low daily pay don't pay their own 0.75% share. You still pay your 3.25%. Call us to check if this applies.
Note: This checker is a guide based on the general ESI rules. It is not a final answer for your business. Some cases need a closer look, like staff in more than one state or contract workers. Call us and we'll check. Checked against the rules as of 27 September 2026.
More help with PF and ESI
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Common questions
Yes. Since the Code on Social Security, 2020, ESI applies to businesses with 10 or more employees in every state. Seasonal factories are not covered.
Not straight away. ESI works in two six-month periods: April to September, and October to March. They stay in ESI until the period ends, and you keep paying ESI for them.
Yes. Once ESI applies, it stays, even if your staff later drop below 10.
Not sure if ESI applies to your business? Call us and we'll check.
We never miss a PF or ESI due date.