Social security in Colombia: pension, health, ARL and payroll levies

Social security in Colombia for employees has three contributory branches, health, pensions and occupational risks, plus a set of payroll levies called aportes parafiscales that fund the family compensation funds, the national training service and the family welfare institute. Every one of them is self-assessed by the employer and paid on a single monthly form, the PILA (Planilla Integrada de Liquidación de Aportes).

Most contributions are a percentage of the IBC (ingreso base de cotización), the base on which they are worked out. For an ordinary salary the IBC is the monthly salary, never less than one minimum wage (SMMLV, COP 1,750,905 in 2026) and, for pension and occupational risk, never more than 25 SMMLV (COP 43,772,625 a month). The service bonus (prima) is not salary, so it stays out of the base.

• Health, through a health insurer (EPS): 12.5% in total.
• Pension, through Colpensiones or a private pension fund (AFP): 16% in total, plus a solidarity top-up for higher earners.
• Occupational risks, through an ARL: 0.348% to 8.7%, all paid by the employer.
• Payroll levies: caja de compensación 4%, SENA 2% and ICBF 3%, all paid by the employer.

From the employee’s side, each branch buys something specific. The EPS provides health care and pays sick pay from the third day of a common illness, as well as maternity and paternity leave. The pension contribution builds the worker’s pension rights with Colpensiones or a private fund. The ARL handles work accidents and occupational disease. The caja pays the family allowance (subsidio familiar) and runs services for affiliated workers and their families, so the caja is a benefit employees notice even though they pay nothing towards it.

The sections below take each branch in turn, then show how two very different salaries come out.

The health contribution is 12.5% of the IBC, of which the employer carries 8.5 points and the worker 4, under art. 204 of Ley 100 de 1993. It funds the EPS that provides the worker’s care and pays sick pay from the third day of a common illness.

The employer share often drops to zero. Art. 114-1 of the Estatuto Tributario exonerates the employer’s 8.5% for each worker earning less than 10 SMMLV, a line that sits at COP 17,509,050 monthly for 2026. It is available to income-tax-filing companies and other legal persons, and to natural-person employers once they have two or more workers. The exception does not reach organisations in the special tax regime for non-profit bodies.

Two limits apply. The employee’s 4% is never exonerated, so it is deducted at every salary. And the test is per worker: one person on 10 SMMLV or more brings the full 8.5% back for that person, while their colleagues below the line stay exonerated.

In money terms the exoneration is large. For a salary of COP 8,000,000 a month, the employer health share would be COP 680,000 a month; under art. 114-1 it is nil. Add SENA and ICBF, which follow the same rule, and the saving reaches COP 1,080,000 a month, COP 12,960,000 in a full year, for that one employee.

Pension takes 16% of the IBC: three quarters (12 points) from the employer, one quarter (4 points) from the employee’s pay. The money goes either to Colpensiones, the public scheme, or to a private pension fund, and the rate is the same in both.

Higher earners also feed the Fondo de Solidaridad Pensional, a solidarity fund within the pension system. Once pay reaches 4 SMMLV, COP 7,003,620 monthly this year, the employee adds 1%. Above 16 SMMLV the extra rises in steps of 0.2 points for each further SMMLV band, reaching 2% above 20 SMMLV. The solidarity contributions come entirely from the employee; the employer’s 12% does not change.

• Below 4 SMMLV: employee pays 4% pension, no solidarity contribution.
• 4 to 16 SMMLV: 4% plus 1%.
• 16 to 20 SMMLV: 4% plus 1.2% rising to 1.8%.
• Above 20 SMMLV: 4% plus 2%.

The base is capped at 25 SMMLV, so above COP 43,772,625 a month pension contributions stop growing. A salario integral, the all-inclusive pay available to senior staff, is only 70% contributable: pension and the other branches are charged on 70% of it.

Occupational risk insurance is paid entirely by the employer, on the same base as pension. The rate depends on the risk class the ARL gives the job, from I (lowest) to V (highest), and each class has a minimum, an initial and a maximum rate.

• Class I: 0.348% minimum, 0.522% initial, 0.696% maximum.
• Class II: 0.435%, 1.044%, 1.653%.
• Class III: 0.783%, 2.436%, 4.089%.
• Class IV: 1.740%, 4.350%, 6.060%.
• Class V: 3.219%, 6.960%, 8.700%.

An employer joining the system for the first time pays the initial rate of its class. The overall rate must stay between 0.348% and 8.7%.

The ARL decides the class, based on the activity the job involves, so the description you give matters. A role described loosely as “operations” may be classified differently from one described as desk-based scheduling and reporting. ARL contributions are due within the first ten calendar days of the following month and are now paid through the PILA alongside everything else.

Timing is strict. Because cover only switches on the day after registration, the latest safe moment to affiliate a new hire is the day before they start; a worker who starts on the day of affiliation has a first day with no ARL cover at all. The ARL pays work-accident and occupational-disease sick pay from the day after the event. Our offer-to-payroll timeline shows where this step sits among the other affiliations.

The payroll levies are paid by every employer with one or more permanent workers, and the employee contributes nothing to them. At 4%, the levy for the caja de compensación familiar (family compensation fund) pays for the family allowance and the services the cajas run. The national training service, SENA, takes 2%, and the family welfare institute, ICBF, 3%.

The exoneration under art. 114-1 removes SENA and ICBF for workers below 10 SMMLV, on the same conditions as the employer health share. It never removes the caja. That is why the minimum employer rate for a typical salaried hire is 16.522% rather than 12.522%: pension 12%, ARL class I at 0.522% and caja 4%.

For an integral salary, all three levies are paid on 70% of the amount. Employers with 15 or more workers also face a SENA apprentice quota, with a monthly payment of 1.5 SMMLV for each apprentice not hired, though that is unlikely to arise for a small team.

Each employer’s PILA date is set by the final two digits of its tax ID (NIT). Digits 00 to 07 file on the second business day of the month and 94 to 99 on the sixteenth; every other range falls somewhere between. Each contribution is rounded up to the next COP 100, and the IBC to the next peso.

Contributions continue through sick leave and maternity leave, on the value of the benefit. The employer must give the worker a copy of the PILA showing payment on request, and keep the files.

The UGPP (Unidad de Gestión Pensional y Parafiscales) audits whether contributions were paid, and on the right base. Its sanctions are steep: an employer that failed to pay can face 10% of the shortfall for every month, to a cap of 200%, at the official assessment stage; a wrong base costs 35% of the gap when self-corrected or 60% when the UGPP corrects it; ignoring an information request can cost as much as 15,000 UVT. Interest comes on top.

Independent contractors are outside this employer system. They settle their own contributions as independientes, filing a PILA each month for the month just ended, which is part of why the line between a contractor and an employee draws so much UGPP attention. Our piece on contractors and employees in Colombia looks at that line.

Unpaid contributions also block an exit. Before ending a contract, an employer must show that the last three months were paid. Otherwise the exit is suspended until the arrears are cleared.

The rates make more sense with numbers attached. Here are the monthly contributions for an analyst on COP 4,000,000 and a senior engineer on COP 20,000,000, both in risk class I, with an employer that files income tax.

The analyst sits below every threshold, so the combined employer rate is 16.522% and the deduction from pay 8%, because 4,000,000 is under the 4 SMMLV solidarity line. The engineer is above 10 SMMLV, so health, SENA and ICBF return in full and the employer rate climbs to 30.022%; the employee pays 9%, the extra 1% going to the solidarity fund.

Rounding shows up in real payslips too. ARL at 0.522% on COP 8,000,000 is COP 41,760, which the PILA rounds up to COP 41,800. Across a year that is a few hundred pesos per employee, harmless on its own, but it explains why a payroll total rarely matches a spreadsheet to the peso.

Contributions are only part of the cost of employment. The prima, cesantías and interest add a further 17.67% of salary at every level, and the full picture for a mid-level hire is in our breakdown of employer cost in Colombia. If you are comparing providers, ask each to show its treatment of the 10 SMMLV exoneration and the solidarity fund; more questions of that kind are collected in how to shortlist a Colombian EOR. When we employ your staff through Employer of Record Colombia, every affiliation and every PILA is ours to file.