Burkina Faso salary calculator

Pay starts from the employee's category. The interprofessional collective agreement of 9 July 1974 grades each worker by the job held, and each category has its minimum wage, set by a joint committee of employers and workers (art. 41). None falls below the minimum wage (SMIG): 45,000 F a month, 259.62 F an hour (Council of Ministers of 29 June 2023). The calculator asks for this base salary; our guide to the agreement and categories, in French, explains how to find yours.

On top of the base salary come:

• the sursalaire, the agreed part above the category minimum;
• the seniority bonus: 3% of the category minimum wage after three years of service, then 1% more per year (1974 agreement, art. 47). The sursalaire does not count;
• the month's bonuses, overtime and benefits in kind, which the calculator leaves out: it works out a full month with no variable item;
• the transport allowance, if the company pays one. No amount is required across sectors: the agreement leaves the transport bonus to branch and company agreements (art. 47). It bears social contributions (order no. 2023-017, art. 2); for the IUTS, it is exempt up to 5% of the gross salary and 30,000 F a month (General Tax Code, art. 106). The calculator does not add it.

Base salary, sursalaire, seniority, bonuses and allowances make up the gross salary: the base for the CNSS, health insurance and the employer tax.

Four lines stand between gross and net:

• CNSS pension: 5.5% of the gross salary, up to 800,000 F a month (Decree no. 2023-0129, art. 3; order no. 2022-067, art. 2).
• Universal health insurance: 2.5% of the whole gross salary (Decree no. 2024-0345).
• IUTS, the single tax on wages and salaries, withheld by the employer each month (General Tax Code, art. 112), detailed below.
• Patriotic Support Fund: 1% of the net salary, that is the gross less the CNSS pension and the IUTS (Council of Ministers of 5 January 2024, renewed for 2026).

Executive status does not change these contributions. It changes the IUTS: the professional-expenses allowance goes from 25 to 20% of the base salary for the upper categories (General Tax Code, art. 111).

On top of the salary, the employer pays:

• CNSS, 16% of the gross salary, within the same 800,000 F limit: 8.5% for pensions, 6% for family benefits and maternity, 1.5% for occupational risks (Decree no. 2023-0129, art. 2);
• universal health insurance: 2.5%, like the employee;
• employer and apprenticeship tax: 3% of all pay, allowances included (General Tax Code, art. 228 and 229).

The occupational-risk rate is the same in every sector; the CNSS can raise it up to double for an employer that ignores prevention rules (Law no. 004-2021). A member of an approved management centre pays the employer tax on 80% of salaries. The employer cost the calculator shows is the gross salary plus all these contributions.

The IUTS is a monthly tax, worked out and withheld by the employer (General Tax Code, art. 112). It takes four steps:

1. start from taxable pay and take off the employee's CNSS pension, at most 8% of the base salary, then the professional-expenses allowance, 25% of the base salary or 20% for the upper categories (art. 111);
2. take off the exempt part of allowances: housing, 20% of the gross salary and 75,000 F at most; function, 5% and 50,000 F at most; transport, 5% and 30,000 F at most. This gross salary is pay less the employee's contributions (art. 106);
3. round the base down to the hundred francs and apply the monthly scale, band by band (art. 112);
4. reduce the tax by the number of family dependants (art. 113).

Family dependants. There are no tax shares in Burkina Faso: the tax from the scale goes down by 8% for one dependant, 10% for two, 12% for three, 14% for four, the maximum. Counted, if they have no income of their own, are minor or disabled children, those under 25 still studying, orphans taken into the household and one spouse (art. 113). Our IUTS guide, in French, details the base, the scale and the year-end adjustment.

A gap of a few francs between two calculations usually comes from rounding:

• the IUTS base is rounded down to the hundred francs: 218,097 F becomes 218,000 F;
• the IUTS and each contribution are then rounded to the franc: 5.5% of 280,500 F is 15,427.5 F, withheld as 15,428 F;
• when you start from a target net, the calculator searches the sursalaire to the franc: the net it reaches is within one franc of the target.

Issa is an accountant in a trading company in Ouagadougou. His category's base salary is 150,000 F, and his sursalaire 100,000 F. He has seven years of service. He is married, his wife has no income, and they have two dependent children. His company pays him a 20,000 F transport allowance.

• Seniority. Seven years: 3% after three years, plus 1% for each of the next four, so 7% of 150,000 F: 10,500 F.
• What comes off the IUTS base. The pension withheld is 15,428 F, but only 8% of 150,000 F, so 12,000 F, can be deducted. The allowance is 25% of 150,000 F, so 37,500 F. Transport is exempt up to 5% of the gross salary less the employee's contributions: 5% of 258,060 F, so 12,903 F.
• IUTS. 280,500 − 12,000 − 37,500 − 12,903 = 218,097 F, rounded to 218,000 F. The scale gives 22,070 F up to 170,000 F, then 21.7% of 48,000 F, so 10,416 F: 32,486 F. His wife and two children make 3 dependants, so a 12% reduction, 3,898.32 F. That leaves 28,588 F.
• Patriotic Support Fund. 280,500 − 15,428 − 28,588 = 236,484 F of net salary, 1% of which is 2,365 F.
• Net and cost. 280,500 − 15,428 − 7,012 − 28,588 − 2,365 = 227,107 F. With 60,307 F of contributions, Issa costs his employer 340,807 F a month.
• The other way round. For Issa to take home 300,000 F, transport included, the payroll engine finds a sursalaire of 202,437 F, for a net of 300,001 F.

Our payslip guide details three more payslips, and the one on CNSS and health insurance contributions the rates, ceilings and what goes into the base, both in French.