Social Security (Antigua and Barbuda), in plain English.

Nine point five percent. That is what an employer in Antigua and Barbuda contributes to Social Security on every insurable dollar of wages, effective January 1, 2025. The employee contributes another 6.5 percent. Add both sides and the total Social Security charge on insurable earnings reaches 16 percent. For finance teams that have only run payroll in a jurisdiction with lower combined rates, the first Antigua run tends to surface that number in a way a benefits summary never did.

What the Antigua and Barbuda Social Security Board administers.

The Antigua and Barbuda Social Security Board governs the scheme. Contributions fund five statutory benefit categories: age pensions, invalidity benefits, survivors' payments, sickness benefits, and maternity benefits. Coverage is mandatory. Every employer operating in the country is bound by the scheme.

The employer deducts the employee's 6.5 percent from insurable earnings at source, then contributes the employer's 9.5 percent on top of the same base. Both amounts go to the Social Security Board under one remittance. The employee never touches the employer portion, but the employer is accountable for accuracy on both sides.

How the numbers work.

Take an employee earning EC$5,000 in insurable earnings for the month. The employee deduction is 6.5 percent: EC$325, which comes off the employee's pay. The employer contribution is 9.5 percent of the same base: EC$475, which the employer pays directly. The total remittance to the Antigua and Barbuda Social Security Board for that one employee, that month, is EC$800.

Both calculations hinge on the definition of insurable earnings. If a compensation package includes allowances or payments that fall outside the statutory insurable earnings definition, those amounts sit outside the contribution base. Misclassify a transport allowance as insurable and the calculation overstates. Exclude a regular wage component by mistake and the employer underpays. The Social Security Board holds the employer responsible for both errors regardless of how they arose.

The remittance cycle.

Contributions are due monthly. The employer accumulates deductions across the pay period, adds the employer contribution, and remits the combined total to the Antigua and Barbuda Social Security Board. Each month is its own obligation. There is no annual reconciliation that absorbs a missed cycle.

Twelve deadlines a year. Every year. The obligation does not batch or defer. Monthly is monthly.

Where payroll reviews find the errors.

• Running pre-2025 rates. The Antigua and Barbuda Social Security Board updated rates effective January 1, 2025, to 9.5 percent employer and 6.5 percent employee. Payroll systems that were not updated are short on every cycle since that date.
• Applying contributions to total gross rather than insurable earnings. The contribution base is insurable earnings. Allowances that fall outside the statutory definition change that base, and therefore the amounts owed to the Social Security Board.
• Treating both contributions as a single line item. The employee deduction and the employer contribution are separate obligations. Merging them in the accounts obscures the real payroll cost and complicates reconciliation when the Social Security Board queries a remittance.
• Batching or delaying monthly remittances. Monthly is mandatory. Employers who remit quarterly or hold contributions until cash flow allows it are not meeting the statutory obligation.

How Workzoom handles this.

Workzoom Payroll for Antigua and Barbuda is built to calculate Social Security in the correct statutory order: the 6.5 percent employee deduction comes off insurable earnings first, then the employer's 9.5 percent is computed on the same base.

Workzoom is not a US payroll platform with a Caribbean rate table bolted on as an afterthought. The statutory logic for each jurisdiction is native to the same database that holds every other employee record. One system. One source of truth.

Contact us about Antigua and Barbuda payroll and your timelines. Workzoom produces the contribution figures and records for the Antigua and Barbuda Social Security Board. Submitting to the Social Security Board is the employer's act.