Loss of pay (LOP) is salary not paid for days absent without paid leave.

LOP means loss of pay: the salary not paid for days a person was absent without paid leave. It is written on the payslip as LOP days, and paid days are the days in the month less those LOP days. Leave without pay (LWP) is worked out the same way.

Divide the monthly pay by the divisor your policy names (calendar days, a fixed 30, working days or a fixed 26) and multiply by the LOP days. Under the Code on Wages, 2019, s.20, in force since 21 Nov 2025, the deduction may not exceed the share of wages that the days absent bear to the days the person was required to work.

It is the rupee amount taken off for the LOP days: the monthly pay ÷ your divisor × LOP days. On Paiteq's sample slip, Rohan Das has 0.5 day of LOP in a 30-day September on a ₹17,600 monthly gross, so the LOP value is ₹293 and his gross falls from ₹17,600 to ₹17,307. Many slips print only the LOP days and prorate each component instead; the total comes to the same figure.

LOP is the days deducted this month. LOPR is LOP reversal: days deducted in an earlier month that turned out to be wrong, now paid back as an arrear at that month's daily rate. No. 06 on this page, “LOP reversal, explained”, works one through on Rohan's half day.

On the calendar-day method, weekly offs and holidays are paid days, so only absent working days are LOP. Many companies add a rule that a weekly off between two LOP days is also LOP, so that someone absent for a whole week is not paid for the weekend. Test any such rule against s.20: the month's deduction may not exceed the monthly wages × days absent ÷ days the person was required to work. For a long absence the weekend rule usually stays inside that limit; for a Friday and a Monday it usually goes over, because 4 days at 1/30 is more than 2 days at 1/21. If you use the rule, cap each month's LOP at the s.20 figure, and have a lawyer read the clause against your state's weekly-holiday rule.

Yes. Both are worked out on the wages actually paid for the month, so when LOP lowers the wages, the employee's and the employer's PF and ESI fall with them. ESI coverage itself is tested on the monthly wages, so a month with LOP does not change whether someone is covered.

There are two defensible policies. In the first, the day is marked LOP and the person may apply leave until the cutoff. In the second, an absence with no leave applied is adjusted against casual leave, then earned leave, before any LOP. The second produces far fewer payslip disputes and is the better default, because casual leave lapses at the year end anyway; the first leaves the choice with the employee, which matters to someone saving earned leave. Whichever you choose, write the order of leave types into the policy and show the reason on the day: “adjusted against casual leave, because no leave was applied by 20 Sep”.

From basic and from every other monthly component, in the same proportion, not from basic alone. Rohan's 0.5 day of LOP in September cuts his basic, HRA, special allowance and conveyance each by 29.5 ÷ 30, which is how his gross falls by ₹293. Taking the whole deduction from basic shrinks the base for PF and pays allowances for a day nobody worked; prorating basic alone and paying the allowances in full is the opposite mistake. Reimbursements against bills, such as a phone bill, are not salary for a day, so they are paid as claimed.

LOP in the last month does not lower gratuity, because gratuity is worked on the rate of wages last drawn, not on the smaller amount paid in a month with LOP. The 15/26 formula works on the full monthly wages: from 21 Nov 2025 that means Code wages, including the 50% add-back, so someone who leaves with 4 LOP days in their final month gets gratuity on their full monthly figure, not on the prorated slip. Whether LOP days cut the service is a separate question. Absence, leave and sickness usually count as continuous service; the risk is a long unauthorised absence that the employer formally treated as a break in service under its standing orders. That matters most near the 5-year qualifying line, or the 1-year line for a fixed-term employee, so check those cases with a lawyer. The gratuity calculator on this site works the amount from the monthly wages and the years.

In the arithmetic, yes: both are days not paid. The difference is discipline. LWP approved in advance, say for a family emergency after leave has run out, is an authorised absence. LOP for days nobody approved is unauthorised absence, and a run of it is where “report back to work” letters start. Keep the two codes apart in attendance even though payroll treats them the same, and follow the notice steps in your standing orders or appointment letter before treating anyone as having left.

Yes. LOP days are not days worked, so for the workers the OSH Code covers they do not count towards the 180 days a worker needs in the calendar year to earn annual leave, or towards the 1 day earned for every 20 worked. In the notice period, some companies extend the last day by the LOP days and others recover the shortfall as notice pay; either needs the appointment letter to say so before anyone resigns, and a lawyer should read that clause.