HRMS for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar 2026 — Minimum Wage, PF/ESI and Attendance for Small Firms
Small firms in UP and Bihar face the same HR problems: proxy attendance, cash wages, missing PF/ESI records and staff who do not read English. Here is what the current rules say and how a phone-first HR system helps.
HRMS for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar — Built for How Work Actually Happens Here
From Lucknow, Kanpur and Gorakhpur to Patna, Muzaffarpur and Purnia, most employers are small: 10 to 200 staff, a shop floor or field team, wages paid on the 7th, and HR done by the owner or one accountant. Big-city HR software rarely fits. This post covers the rules that matter and the problems we hear most often.
> Wage figures are from the state notifications as summarised by payroll compliance sites. States revise them every April and October — check the latest notification before paying.
Minimum wage (October 2025 revision)
| State | Unskilled, monthly | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Uttar Pradesh | about Rs 11,021 | 1 Oct 2025 – 31 Mar 2026 |
| Bihar | about Rs 11,128 (Rs 428 a day) | from 1 Oct 2025 |
Semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled rates are higher. Since the Code on Wages came into force on 21 November 2025, minimum wage applies to every kind of employment, not only the old "scheduled employments" list — a shop assistant or office boy is covered too.
Professional tax and other deductions
- Uttar Pradesh does not levy professional tax. Do not deduct it.
- Bihar levies it on annual income slabs: nil up to Rs 3 lakh a year, then Rs 1,000, Rs 2,000 and Rs 2,500 in higher slabs.
Payroll software that deducts "Rs 200 PT" for every state is a common source of wrong salary slips.
The problems we hear most
1. Proxy attendance. One person punches for three. A biometric machine at the gate fails when staff work at sites, shops or in the field. A phone punch with GPS at an allowed location, tied to the employee's own registered phone, stops this.
2. "Staff forgot to punch." Lunch breaks and site visits end with no punch back in, and salary disputes start at month end. HRPM rings repeating reminders on the phone before the shift, during the late window and after a break — the firm decides the timings per work schedule.
3. Cash and partial records. PF and ESI are calculated by hand, so new joiners are missed. Under the new Code on Social Security, PF, ESI and gratuity sit on a wage that must be at least 50% of total pay — old structures with a tiny basic and large allowances need a review.
4. Language. Most staff are comfortable in Hindi. An employee app in English only means HR fills everything for them. HRPM runs in Hindi and English, and every field carries a short help line with an example.
5. Family details for ESIC. ESIC needs the dependants of each insured person. Real families are not always simple — remarriage after a death, more than one spouse in a few communities, children from both. HRPM keeps each spouse and child separately with their own documents; only one spouse goes on the ESIC family list, while every child stays on it.
Checklist for a UP / Bihar employer
- Wage register with the current state rate for each skill level
- Attendance per employee, with work schedule, late and overtime
- PF and ESI on the right wage base after the labour codes
- Bihar: PT on the annual slab; UP: no PT
- Leave register and holidays per branch (Chhath, Holi and regional holidays differ)
- Salary slip the employee can open on their phone
Sources
- UP minimum wage Oct 2025: AscentHR
- Bihar minimum wage Oct 2025: SGCMS, Keka
- Professional tax slabs: TaxGuru
- Labour codes effective 21 Nov 2025: Bird & Bird, AZB & Partners
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