Basic salary vs gross salary in Kenya: what the allowances add

Basic salary: the fixed core of your pay

Basic salary is the rate agreed for the job itself, before any allowance is added. It is usually the number that stays the same from month to month and the one a pay rise is applied to.

Kenya's minimum wage law is written in basic pay. The Regulation of Wages (General) Order says no one it covers may be employed at a basic minimum wage below the rate for their job, age and area (paragraph 3). The 2026 amendment order labels its monthly rates as basic minimum monthly wages, exclusive of housing allowance, while its daily and hourly rates include housing allowance.

• Minimum wage in Kenya: the 2026 rates by job and area

Gross salary: basic pay plus cash allowances and other earnings

Gross salary adds everything payroll counts as earnings for the period: house allowance, transport or commuter allowance, an acting allowance, overtime, commission or a bonus. Nothing has been deducted yet.

The Employment Act uses an even wider word. Remuneration means the total value of all payments in money or in kind arising from your employment (section 2). A benefit in kind, such as housing provided by the employer, can have a value without ever reaching your bank account.

• House allowance: a cash sum for rent where the employer does not house you.
• Transport or commuter allowance: a fixed monthly amount for getting to work.
• Acting allowance: under paragraph 10 of the General Order, at least the difference between your basic wage and the higher grade's basic minimum wage when you act in that grade for a month or more.
• Overtime, commission and bonuses: they change from month to month, so they make gross pay go up and down.

Which rules use basic pay and which use gross pay

This is where the split starts to cost or save you money.

• Overtime: where you are not paid by the hour, the hourly rate for overtime is taken as at least one two hundred and twenty fifth of your basic minimum monthly wage (General Order, paragraph 6(2)).
• House allowance under the General Order: 15 per cent of the basic minimum wage for a monthly employee who is not given free housing (paragraph 4).
• SHIF: 2.75 per cent of gross monthly salary, according to the Social Health Authority.
• Affordable housing levy: 1.5 per cent of gross salary (Affordable Housing Act, section 4).
• NSSF: 6 per cent of pensionable earnings, which the NSSF Act defines as the lower of your monthly wages and the upper earnings limit. Wages there exclude fluctuating emoluments, so overtime or commission that changes each month is not part of the base.

Offer: basic salary KSh 30,000, house allowance KSh 6,000, transport allowance KSh 4,000.
Gross salary: KSh 40,000.
SHIF at 2.75% of gross: KSh 1,100.
Housing levy at 1.5% of gross: KSh 600.
A rise of 10% on basic pay only adds KSh 3,000, not KSh 4,000.

House allowance shown separately or built into basic pay

Section 31 of the Employment Act requires an employer to provide reasonable housing or pay enough, on top of wages, to rent it. The duty does not apply where your contract consolidates a rent element into basic pay, or where a collective agreement does the same (section 31(2)).

So a consolidated salary is lawful, but the contract should say so. If your offer shows one figure, ask whether it is consolidated pay that already includes housing, or basic pay with housing still to be added.

• House allowance in Kenya: what the law requires

What to ask before you accept

• The basic salary as a separate figure, in writing.
• Each allowance by name and amount, and whether it is paid every month.
• Whether house allowance is separate or consolidated into basic pay.
• Whether overtime, leave pay or a bonus is worked out on basic or on gross pay under your contract or collective agreement.
• The expected gross pay for a normal month, so you can estimate take-home pay before you sign.

Your contract, a collective agreement or a wages order for your sector can give you better terms than the minimums described here. This guide is general information, not legal advice for your situation.

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