Contributions

What the contributions are

Contributions are the mandatory social payments taken out of every salary; they fund the pension and health systems and the protection against unemployment and work injury. In North Macedonia they are calculated under the gross-salary system: the gross figure from the contract is the starting number, and the contributions come off it first, before the tax. What makes this model distinctive in the region is that the employee pays all of the contributions — there is no second, hidden layer of contributions that the employer would add on top of gross. That is why the total employer cost equals the gross salary, not a denar more.

The combined contribution rate is 28% of the base. It is the sum of four separate lines, each with its own rate and its own purpose. The rates below are those in force for 2026.

The four contributions

Pension & disability insurance (ПИО) is the largest line — 19,9% of the base. It funds the pension pillar and disability benefits, and it is the reason today’s salary builds tomorrow’s entitlement.

Health insurance is 7,5% and covers mandatory health insurance — treatment, sick leave and basic healthcare through the Health Insurance Fund.

Unemployment insurance is 0,1% and provides a cash benefit for a period of unemployment under the conditions set by law.

Supplementary contribution for work injury and occupational disease is 0,5% — the smallest line, meant for protection in the case of a workplace injury or an occupational disease.

Added together, these four lines make 28%. Every one of them is borne by the employee, and every one is charged on the same base — the contribution base.

The contribution base: floor and ceiling

Contributions are not charged directly on gross pay but on the contribution base, and that base is bounded from below and from above. The minimum base is 34.570,00 ден — half of the national average gross wage. If gross pay is below that floor, contributions are still charged on the minimum base, which means that at the very lowest salaries the contributions come to a little more than a bare proportion would give.

At the top end, the maximum base is 1.106.256,00 ден — sixteen times the average gross wage. Above that ceiling contributions stop rising: however high the gross salary is, the base stays anchored at the ceiling. The practical consequence is that at high salaries net pay grows faster than gross, because the contributions are already frozen at their maximum. For context, the average gross wage in the country is 72.818,00 ден and the average net wage 48.433,00 ден — both sit well below the ceiling, so most salaries are charged on the full base.

The mid-2026 change in the split

During 2026 the way the 28% is distributed among the four funds changed — but it is important to stress that the total rate stayed the same and net pay did not change. For pay from July to December the split is 19,9% for pension, 7,5% for health, 0,1% for unemployment and 0,5% for injury. For pay from January to June the split was 18,8% for pension, 7,5% for health, 1,2% for unemployment and 0,5% for injury.

In other words, weight shifted from the unemployment line to the pension line, and the total stayed 28%. Because the net-pay calculation depends only on the total rate, this change does not touch the amount that lands in the account — it affects only how the total contribution is shown per fund. The July–December split is cited to the Public Revenue Office’s own announcement of the change, which reproduces all four rates and names the gazette issue; the gazette text itself sits behind a paid subscription and was not read directly here.