Sri Lanka Minimum Wage Calculator

Sri Lanka's legal minimum wage has two overlapping layers and the calculator applies both, then picks the higher one as required by the Act. The layers are the National Minimum (a single rupee figure that covers every private-sector worker in the country) and the Wages Board rate for your trade (a higher figure gazetted under the Wages Boards Ordinance for specific trades such as garments, plantations, hotels, and building work).

Step 1 — Look up the applicable minimum

The National Minimum Monthly Wage is Rs 21,000 and the National Minimum Daily Wage is Rs 840, set by the Minimum Wages of Workers Act No. 3 of 2016 and raised by subsequent amendments (most recently in 2025). These figures apply to every private-sector worker regardless of trade. Your Wages Board, if your trade has one with an active higher rate, gazettes its own monthly and daily minima — for example the Tea Growing and Manufacturing Trade Wages Board fixed the plantation daily minimum at Rs 1,700 by gazette on 25 May 2024. The applicable minimum is max(National Minimum, Wages Board for trade) — Minimum Wages of Workers Act § 4 is explicit that the national floor does not derogate from a higher rate set by a Wages Board or contract.

Step 2 — Convert everything to a common basis

Monthly hours are derived from your working pattern using hoursPerWeek × 52 ÷ 12. The Shop and Office Employees Act § 3 sets the standard normal week at 45 hours; with a 6-day week this gives 7.5 hours per day and 195 paid hours per month on average. The hourly minimum is then monthly minimum ÷ monthly hours — about Rs 107.69 at the national rate. Daily minima are taken directly from the Act / gazette rather than derived, because they are set explicitly.

Step 3 — Normalise your pay

Your current pay is converted to a monthly equivalent so it can be compared like-for-like to the legal floor: a daily wage scales by × daysPerWeek × 52 ÷ 12; a weekly wage scales by × 52 ÷ 12; an hourly wage scales by × hoursPerWeek × 52 ÷ 12. The 52/12 factor (≈ 4.333) is the standard weeks-per-month conversion used by the Labour Department in OT and wages calculations.

Step 4 — Compare and report

Your normalised monthly pay is subtracted from the applicable monthly minimum. A positive difference is a surplus (compliant, sapphire badge); a difference within Rs 0.50 is at-floor (also compliant); a negative difference is a shortfall (saffron badge). The result panel reports the difference as a rupee figure and as a percentage of the floor, plus which gazette the applicable rate came from so you can verify the number yourself.

Two-method verification

For credibility, the calculator runs a second method in the background. The gazetted daily rate is multiplied by the user's annual working days and divided by 12 to derive a second monthly figure. If this derived monthly is within ±10% of the gazetted monthly, the result is labelled “two-method verified”. The two values usually agree to within a few percent — the spread comes from the gazette rounding the daily and monthly figures independently rather than deriving one from the other.

What the calculator does not include

The base minimum wage is reported; statutory allowances on top of it are not modelled. The Budgetary Relief Allowance of Workers Act No. 36 of 2005, attendance bonuses, festival advances, and trade-specific allowances each apply in addition to the gazetted minimum — check your Wages Board's gazette for the full list. Overtime is also out of scope: for OT entitlement on hours above the 45-hour normal week use the Sri Lanka Overtime Pay Calculator. EPF / ETF deductions are paid out of gross under the EPF Act § 9 and ETF Act and are not part of the minimum wage check — see the Sri Lanka EPF Calculator. Piece-rate schedules (common in garments and plantations) are not modelled in v1 — the figures here are the time-rate minima only. Public-sector salaries are scaled under PAC 03/2016 and have their own public-sector salary calculator.

Three scenarios that map to common Sri Lankan pay points, worked end-to-end. Plug each set of inputs into the calculator above — the verdict and difference should match the numbers below.

The calculator covers the National Minimum plus the trade Wages Boards below. If your trade is not listed, pick “General private sector” — the national floor still applies. Trade-board figures are pinned to 2026-05-16; each carries its source in the result panel.

• Garments, Tailoring and Allied Trades Wages BoardMonthly: Rs 28,600 · Daily: Rs 1,100

  Wages Boards Ordinance — Garments, Tailoring and Allied Trades Wages Board gazette (rate pinned to LAST_VERIFIED)

• Tea Growing and Manufacturing Trade Wages BoardDaily: Rs 1,700

  Wages Boards Ordinance — Tea Growing and Manufacturing Trade Wages Board gazette of 25 May 2024 (raised plantation daily minimum to Rs 1,700)

• Rubber Growing and Manufacturing Trade Wages BoardDaily: Rs 1,700

  Wages Boards Ordinance — Rubber Growing and Manufacturing Trade Wages Board gazette of 25 May 2024

• Hotels and Catering Trade Wages BoardMonthly: Rs 26,500 · Daily: Rs 1,020

  Wages Boards Ordinance — Hotels and Catering Trade Wages Board gazette (rate pinned to LAST_VERIFIED)

• Bakery and Flour Confectionery Trade Wages BoardMonthly: Rs 22,500 · Daily: Rs 870

  Wages Boards Ordinance — Bakery and Flour Confectionery Trade Wages Board gazette (rate pinned to LAST_VERIFIED)

• Building Trade Wages BoardDaily: Rs 1,200

  Wages Boards Ordinance — Building Trade Wages Board gazette (skilled worker rate; piece-rate schedules out of scope)

• Department of Labour, Sri Lanka — official site
• Wages Boards Ordinance No. 27 of 1941 — Department of Labour
• Shop and Office Employees (Regulation of Employment and Remuneration) Act No. 19 of 1954
• Wages Boards — trade-specific gazetted rates index

Rates were last cross-checked against the Department of Labour's gazette notices on 2026-05-16. The page is reviewed after every Minimum Wages of Workers Act amendment and after each material Wages Board gazette.