The offer letter said \u20b912 LPA. I assumed I knew what my CTC to in hand salary would look like every month.<\/p>\n
Then I noticed something strange.<\/p>\n
A colleague of mine \u2014 same role, same company, same CTC \u2014 was taking home \u20b96,000 more than me every month. Same package, different bank credit. No one had explained why this happens.<\/p>\n
Turns out, it wasn’t a mistake.<\/p>\n
Turns out, it wasn’t a mistake. The CTC to in hand salary
\ngap is real \u2014 and it comes down entirely to how that CTC is
\nstructured inside the offer letter.<\/p>\n
So here’s how a \u20b912 LPA actually translates into in-hand salary \u2014 and why it might be completely different from someone else’s, even with the same package (FY 2026\u201327).<\/p>\n
Before the calculation, you need to know what you’re actually looking at. Most payslips show three different salary figures, and most people only focus on the wrong one.<\/\n \n\n
CTC<\/strong> is what your company spends on you. It includes money that goes to your EPF account, a gratuity provision that sits with the company until you leave, and sometimes insurance premiums. None of this reaches your bank account monthly.<\/p>\n Gross Salary<\/strong> is what you earn on paper before deductions. It’s your CTC minus the employer’s contributions. This is the number used to calculate your tax.<\/p>\n In-Hand (Net) Salary<\/strong> is the actual bank credit. Gross minus your own EPF contribution, minus professional tax, minus income tax TDS.<\/p>\n The gap between CTC and in-hand is typically 25\u201335% for most salary brackets in India. For a \u20b912 LPA package, that gap is around \u20b925,000\u201330,000 per year \u2014 money that exists in your name but isn’t in your account.<\/p>\nWhat’s actually hiding inside your CTC<\/h2>\n