The formula
LOP deduction = (monthly salary ÷ base days) × LOP days. Equivalently, the salary paid for the month is the monthly salary × (base days − LOP days) ÷ base days. The monthly salary here is the gross of the earnings that are reduced for absence — usually every fixed monthly earning.
LOP days are the days an employee was expected to work but did not, and were not covered by paid leave: unauthorised absence, approved unpaid leave, and the unpaid half of a half-day. Weekly offs and holidays are not LOP days in themselves.
Choosing the base days
There is no single divisor every company must use for salaried staff. What matters is that the policy is written down, applied to everyone the same way, and matches what employees were told. The common choices are:
| Basis | Divisor | What it means for a day's pay |
|---|---|---|
| Working days in the month | Days in the month less weekly offs and holidays | A day is worth more in a month with more days off |
| Calendar days | 28 to 31, the month's own length | A day is worth less in a 31-day month than in February |
| Fixed 30-day month | Always 30 | The same per-day rate every month |
| Fixed 26-day month | Always 26 | A higher per-day rate, matching a six-day week |
Worked examples
Take an employee earning ₹30,000 a month who has 2 LOP days in October 2026. October has 31 days; with Sundays as the weekly off and no holidays, it has 27 working days.
| Basis | Base days | Per-day salary | LOP deduction | Salary paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Working days | 27 | ₹1,111.11 | ₹2,222.22 | ₹27,777.78 |
| Calendar days | 31 | ₹967.74 | ₹1,935.48 | ₹28,064.52 |
| Fixed 30-day month | 30 | ₹1,000.00 | ₹2,000.00 | ₹28,000.00 |
| Fixed 26-day month | 26 | ₹1,153.85 | ₹2,307.69 | ₹27,692.31 |
Half-days, joiners and leavers
- Half-day: a half-day counts as half a day present, so it adds 0.5 to LOP days. Two half-days cost the same as one full day's absence.
- Joiner mid-month: the days before joining are not paid. On a basis that counts rest days (calendar days or a fixed 30 or 26), take the share of the month before joining, so a joiner on the 20th of a 30-day month is paid for 11 of 30 days.
- Leaver mid-month: the days after the last working day are not paid, as a share of the month in the same way. The final settlement then pays what is due on top.
- No paid day at all: if an employee has no payable day in the month, nothing is paid, whatever the basis.
What LOP does to PF, ESI and PT
LOP reduces the wages actually earned, and statutory deductions follow the earned wages rather than the contracted salary.
| Deduction | What LOP changes |
|---|---|
| PF | Worked out on the PF wages earned after LOP, so it falls with them. A Basic of ₹15,000 with 2 LOP days on a 30-day basis earns ₹14,000, and 12% PF on that is ₹1,680. |
| ESI | Whether an employee is covered depends on their monthly wage rate, not on one month's LOP. The contribution is worked out on the wages actually paid for the month. |
| Professional tax | In states with monthly slabs, the slab is chosen on the salary earned for the month after LOP. The tax itself is not reduced pro rata. |
How attendance feeds LOP in Verdeshell
In Verdeshell HRMS, LOP comes from the attendance register and approved unpaid leave, so there is no separate LOP sheet to keep. Your company sets the base days once in Settings → Payroll Base Days.
- Base days options: the calendar month, a 30-day month or a 26-day month. The calendar month counts working days by default; you can count weekly offs and holidays into it, which turns it into the month's full calendar length.
- What is unpaid: absences, approved unpaid leave, days with a missing check-out, and the unpaid half of a half-day. Days present, paid leave, comp-off and work from home are paid.
- Fix before the run: regularisation requests and late leave approvals change the register, so close attendance before you run payroll.
- One rule for every line: the same proration applies to every earning and deduction on the payslip, so the payslip always adds up.
- What it does not change: leave encashment in a full and final settlement stays at 1/30 of a month, and gratuity at 1/26.