Pesa Sahihi
Free, and nothing to sign up for
Kenyan gross pay calculator
Start from the take-home you want to pay and work backwards. There is no clean formula for this once NSSF tiers, the SHIF minimum and the PAYE bands interact — so this page solves it numerically, with the same engine that writes our payslips, and proves the answer by running it forwards again.
Gross pay required
of which PAYE
Total deductions
Fill in a target net and a payroll month and the figures come back.
What this is
The reverse of the net pay calculator: useful when a contract promises a take-home figure and you need the gross to put on the payroll. The same assumptions apply — all cash pay, full month, no benefits or pension.
Check the working
Put the gross this page gives you into the PAYE calculator and you will get your target net back, band by band. Two pages, one engine — that is the point.
How do you work out gross salary from net pay in Kenya?
Backwards, and not with a formula. You need the gross whose NSSF, SHIF, Housing Levy and PAYE leave exactly the net you promised — and because each of those depends on the gross you are solving for, the only reliable method is to compute a candidate gross forwards, check the net it produces and close the gap. That is what this page does, using the same engine that writes the payslips, so the answer round-trips exactly rather than approximately.
What is a gross-up?
A gross-up starts from the net amount you want an employee to receive and works backwards to the gross salary that produces it after NSSF, SHIF, the Housing Levy and PAYE. It is what you need when a contract, an offer letter or a negotiation promises a take-home figure rather than a salary.
Why is there no simple formula for net to gross in Kenya?
Because the deductions interact. NSSF has two tiers with a floor and a ceiling, so it stops rising at a point; SHIF has a minimum, so it stops falling at a point; and PAYE is charged in progressive bands on what is left after both. A single algebraic rearrangement would have to assume which side of every one of those thresholds the answer lands on, and it cannot know that before it has the answer.
Does a gross-up raise what the employer pays as well?
Yes, and by more than the salary line. The employer matches NSSF shilling for shilling and matches the Housing Levy too, so lifting a gross to hit a promised net lifts both employer contributions with it. Budget the gross-up against total employment cost rather than against the salary alone — see statutory deductions in Kenya for which charges the employer shares.
Is the gross-up different for a non-resident employee?
Yes, and it is the difference most tools miss. A non-resident is charged on the same PAYE bands but gets no personal relief, so the tax on any given gross is higher and the gross needed to reach a promised net is higher again. Tick the non-resident box above and the same target net returns a different gross.