There is no contribution to gratuity. It is an amount payable by the employer (employer alone without taking any amount from the employee as a deduction from his salary) when an employee leaves after serving for a long period. Therefore, it is a reward for long service.
In order to avoid confusion regarding what constitutes long service and what should be the amount payable for the long service, it was decided to have legislation, and Kerala state enacted the Kerala Industrial Employees Payment of Gratuity Act in 1970. Later, a central Act was passed in 1972, viz, the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972.
As per the above Act, the service for entitlement of gratuity is fixed at five years. Therefore, any employee who is leaving the establishment to which the Act applies, after completing at least five years of service, will receive gratuity at the rate of 15 days' salary at the time of leaving for every completed year of service. Any fraction of a year of service above six months shall be taken as a year. Therefore, if an employee is leaving after completing, say seven years, six months, and one day, then he will receive gratuity for eight years. It is to be paid by the employer alone, and no amount should be taken from the employee towards it.
Regards,
Madhu.T.K