Colombia social security contributions and aportes parafiscales: what employers pay in addition to salary
Colombia social security contributions and aportes parafiscales cost an employer roughly 16% to 38% on top of each employee's salary, depending on the occupational-risk class and whether the employer qualifies for the exoneration, and a further 8% to 10% is withheld from the employee. Health, pension and occupational-risk contributions share one base, the IBC (ingreso base de cotización), and every contribution is paid in one monthly filing, the PILA. The rates rarely change; most errors come from the base, which is what the UGPP, the contribution audit authority, checks.
Colombia social security contributions and aportes parafiscales at 2026 rates
Social security covers health (paid to a health insurer, the EPS), pension (paid to the public fund Colpensiones or a private fund manager, an AFP) and occupational risk (paid to an insurer, the ARL). The aportes parafiscales fund the family compensation funds (cajas de compensación familiar), the national training service (SENA) and the family welfare institute (ICBF).
Thresholds are set in multiples of the SMMLV (salario mínimo mensual legal vigente, the monthly minimum wage), fixed by decree each December: COP 1,750,905 for 2026. The 2026 decree remains in force while a nullity case continues at the Consejo de Estado (the highest administrative court).
| Contribution | Employer | Employee | Calculated on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health (EPS) | 8.5% | 4% | IBC |
| Pension (Colpensiones or AFP) | 12% | 4% | IBC |
| Fondo de Solidaridad Pensional | none | 1% to 2%, from 4 SMMLV | IBC |
| Occupational risk (ARL) | 0.522% to 6.960% (initial rate by class) | none | IBC |
| Caja de compensación familiar | 4% | none | Salary payroll |
| SENA | 2% | none | Salary payroll |
| ICBF | 3% | none | Salary payroll |
The employer withholds the employee's share and is liable for both shares (Ley 100 de 1993, Art. 22).
The Fondo de Solidaridad Pensional (FSP) is a solidarity contribution paid only by higher earners: 1% of the IBC from 4 SMMLV (COP 7,003,620 a month), rising in steps from 16 SMMLV to 2% above 20 SMMLV.
ARL rates by risk class I to V
ARL insurance covers work accidents and occupational disease. The rate depends on the risk class of the employer's activity. A company joining the system pays the initial rate for its class: 0.522% for class I (office work), 1.044% for class II, 2.436% for class III, 4.350% for class IV and 6.960% for class V (such as mining). Once the company has a claims history, the ARL can adjust the rate within the band set for its class, never below 0.348% or above 8.7% (Decreto 1072 de 2015, Arts. 2.2.4.3.4 and 2.2.4.3.5).
The contribution base (IBC): floor, cap, salario integral and the 40% rule
The IBC is the monthly pay on which health, pension and ARL are calculated, and the law requires the same IBC for all three (Ley 1393 de 2010, Art. 33). The IBC includes everything that counts as salary, such as overtime, commissions and habitual bonuses, and excludes the transport allowance (auxilio de transporte), the prima de servicios (a statutory bonus paid twice a year) and cesantías (the severance fund deposit). The parafiscales use the monthly salary payroll instead (Ley 21 de 1982, Art. 17). Four rules apply to the IBC:
- Floor. The IBC for a full month cannot be lower than 1 SMMLV.
- Cap. The IBC is capped at 25 SMMLV (COP 43,772,625). Pay above the cap is not subject to health, pension or ARL contributions.
- Salario integral. An integral salary includes the statutory benefits (prestaciones sociales) in a single amount of at least 13 SMMLV. Contributions are calculated on 70% of its value.
- The 40% rule. Payments agreed as non-salary are excluded from the IBC only up to 40% of total remuneration (Ley 1393 de 2010, Art. 30). Any excess is added to the IBC.
For example, an employee earns COP 3,000,000 of salary plus a COP 2,500,000 non-salary bonus. Total remuneration is COP 5,500,000, and 40% of that is COP 2,200,000. The bonus exceeds the limit by COP 300,000, so the IBC is COP 3,300,000.
The exoneración de aportes under Art. 114-1: health, SENA and ICBF
Article 114-1 of the Estatuto Tributario (the tax code) removes three employer charges for each employee who earns less than 10 SMMLV (COP 17,509,050 a month): the 8.5% health share, SENA (2%) and ICBF (3%), together 13.5 percentage points. The exoneration covers companies that declare income tax and individual employers with two or more employees, but not most non-profits in the special tax regime.
The employee's 4% health share is still withheld, and pension, ARL and the caja are never exonerated. The 10 SMMLV threshold applies employee by employee, so an exonerated employer pays full contributions for anyone earning 10 SMMLV or more, including every salario integral.
Worked example: total contributions on a COP 3,000,000 salary
An office employee (ARL class I) of an exonerated company earns COP 3,000,000 a month. The salary is below 2 SMMLV (COP 3,501,810), so the employee also receives the COP 249,095 transport allowance, which is not part of the IBC. The IBC is COP 3,000,000.
- Employee: health 4% (COP 120,000) + pension 4% (COP 120,000) = COP 240,000 withheld. No FSP, because the IBC is below 4 SMMLV.
- Employer: pension 12% (COP 360,000) + ARL 0.522% (COP 15,660, paid as COP 15,700 because PILA rounds each contribution up to the next 100 pesos) + caja 4% (COP 120,000) = COP 495,700, or 16.5% of the IBC.
The PILA for this employee totals COP 495,700 + COP 240,000 = COP 735,700.
An employer without the exoneration, such as an individual employing one person, adds health 8.5% (COP 255,000), SENA 2% (COP 60,000) and ICBF 3% (COP 90,000). The employer's total becomes COP 900,700, or 30.0% of the IBC.
PILA: operators, deadlines by NIT digits and late-payment interest
The PILA (Planilla Integrada de Liquidación de Aportes) is the monthly return in which the employer reports each employee's IBC, days and changes (novedades), such as hires, terminations and leave, and pays all contributions. Filing goes through an authorized information operator, such as Aportes en Línea or Mi Planilla, which distributes the money to each entity.
The due date depends on the last two digits of the employer's NIT (tax ID), excluding the verification digit (Decreto 780 de 2016, Art. 3.2.2.1). Digits 00 to 07 pay by the 2nd business day of the following month, 08 to 14 by the 3rd, and so on in bands of six or seven digits up to 94 to 99 on the 16th.
Late contributions accrue interest at the income-tax moratory rate (Ley 100 de 1993, Art. 23): the usury rate the Superintendencia Financiera certifies for consumer credit, minus two points, calculated daily (Estatuto Tributario, Art. 635). For October 2026 (usury rate 28.59%) that is 26.59% a year, close to 2% for a month's delay.
UGPP audits: what triggers them and what they cost
The UGPP (Unidad de Gestión Pensional y Parafiscales) audits whether contributions were paid on the correct base. Reviews usually start from mismatches: an IBC below the pay reported to DIAN (the tax authority) in electronic payroll, different IBCs across health, pension and ARL, non-salary pay above 40%, or contractors working like employees with no PILA record.
A UGPP case has three stages, all within five years of the due date: an information request, a formal request to declare or correct (three months to answer), and an official assessment. Sanctions under Art. 179 of Ley 1607 de 2012 are charged in addition to the unpaid contributions and interest:
- Corrected before the information request: no sanction
- Underpaid base (inexactitud): 35% of the difference if corrected within the response period, 60% in the official assessment
- Unpaid contributions (omisión): 5% per month of delay up to 100%, or 10% per month up to 200% in the official assessment
In the 40% example above, at an exonerated class I company, the missing COP 300,000 a month means COP 61,600 of unpaid health, pension and ARL contributions. Over twelve months that is COP 739,200 for one employee, plus a sanction of COP 258,720 (35%) or COP 443,520 (60%).
The pension reform takes effect on 1 April 2027
In Sentencia C-264 de 2026 (25 August 2026), the Constitutional Court upheld most of Ley 2381 de 2024, the pension reform, against a challenge to its legislative procedure and set 1 April 2027 as its start date. The 16% pension rate and its 12% and 4% split do not change. For workers outside the transition regime (those who keep the current rules), contributions on the IBC up to 2.3 SMMLV go to Colpensiones, and those on the part above go to an individual-savings administrator chosen by the worker, such as a pension fund manager (AFP). The FSP rises to 1.5% from 4 SMMLV, 1.8% from 7, 2.5% from 11, 2.8% from 19 and 3% above 20.
Summary
Colombian employers pay pension, ARL and the caja for every employee, and health, SENA and ICBF only without the Art. 114-1 exoneration. Employees pay 8% to 10%. One IBC, from 1 to 25 SMMLV, applies to health, pension and ARL, and the UGPP sanctions an under-reported base at 35% to 60% of the difference. The PILA due date depends on the employer's NIT, and new FSP rates start on 1 April 2027.
For partners who run Colombian payroll for their clients, Flux applies these rules, from the IBC limits to the April 2027 FSP scale, on every pay run.
Mehmood Deshmukh
CTO & Co-Founder