The median of monthly-paid employees
Sri Lanka's Labour Force Survey separates employees by how they are paid. Those paid by the month had a median gross wage of Rs 55,000 in 2025 and a mean of Rs 65,325. The median for men was Rs 58,000 and for women Rs 50,000. Employees paid by the day earned a median of Rs 35,000 a month.
The Department of Census and Statistics publishes the median and the mean and nothing between them: no deciles, and wages by district only as a chart. The calculator compares your pay with the monthly-paid median as a multiple and does not turn it into a rank. Own-account workers and employers report income from their business, which the survey keeps apart from wages, so they are not in the comparison.
The official poverty line is set per person
Sri Lanka's official poverty line is the least a person needs to spend in a month to meet basic needs. The Department sets it for each of the 25 districts and moves it every month with the National Consumer Price Index. In August 2026 the national line was Rs 17,719 a person. Colombo had the highest district line, Rs 19,110, and Monaragala the lowest, Rs 16,942, because prices differ between districts.
The line counts every member of the household equally, adult or child. A household's need is the district line times the number of people in it. The scales used in Europe and Japan give a second adult or a child a smaller weight, on the view that a household shares its kitchen and its roof, and the Sri Lankan line makes no such allowance.
| Item | Amount | How it is obtained |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly gross pay | Rs 100,000 | 1,200,000 ÷ 12 |
| Employee EPF contribution | Rs 8,000 | 8% of 100,000 |
| Pay after EPF | Rs 92,000 | 100,000 − 8,000 |
| Per person in a household of four | Rs 23,000 | 92,000 ÷ 4 |
Rs 23,000 a person is above the national line of Rs 17,719 and above Colombo's Rs 19,110. APIT is left out here; the take-home pay calculator works it out.
Why no household median is shown
Placing a household against a median needs a current survey of household income. Sri Lanka's latest Household Income and Expenditure Survey covers 2019, when the national poverty line was Rs 6,966 a person a month, against Rs 17,719 in August 2026. Incomes recorded at 2019 prices say little about a household today, so the calculator shows no household median, and the per-person sum in the example above is the comparison to make.
In 2019, 14.3% of people lived below the line. By district the share ran from 2.3% in Colombo to 44.5% in Mullaitivu. The Department's series by district ends with that survey.