Is UAE end of service gratuity calculated on basic salary or total salary?

On the basic wage. Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Employment Relations says the gratuity "the end-of-service gratuity shall be calculated according to the last basic wage received by the foreign Worker", and the same law defines Basic Wage as the contractual wage which "does not include any other allowances or benefits in kind". The size is "The wage of twenty-one (21) days for each year of the first five years" and "The wage of thirty (30) days for each year in excess of that", subject to the requirement that "the total end-of-service gratuity for the foreign Worker does not exceed two years' wage". So two offers paying the same monthly total are worth different amounts when you leave, and the one with more of the total in allowances is worth less. Read Article 51, clause 5 yourself at https://uaelegislation.gov.ae/en/legislations/1541, read 29 September 2026.

Is the Saudi end of service award calculated on the same figure as the UAE one?

No, and that is the difference which makes a headline monthly figure uncomparable between the two countries. The Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development states that "The end-of-service award shall be calculated on the basis of the last wage" and defines wage as "the basic wage in addition to all other due increases that are determined for the worker in return for the effort made in the work, or risks he is exposed to in performing his work". The UAE law names the basic wage and excludes allowances; the Saudi definition starts from the basic wage and adds to it. Whether one specific allowance in your contract falls inside that Saudi definition is a question about your contract rather than about the statute, so ask the employer which figure their payroll accrues the award on. The award itself is "a half-month wage for each of the first five years and a one-month wage for each year of the following years". Source: https://www.hrsd.gov.sa/en/knowledge-centre/articles/317, read 29 September 2026.

Are salaries in Saudi Arabia and the UAE really tax free?

There is no personal income tax on employment income in either country, but tax free is not the same as deduction free, and the difference falls mostly on nationals. GOSI's own contributor FAQ states that "The Annuities Branch is compulsorily applied to all Saudi workers, provided that the covered worker is under 60 years of age upon his initial coverage under the Law." and that the Annuities contribution "The percentage of contributions to the Annuities Branch is 18% of the contributory wage, of which 9% is payable by the employer and 9% is payable by the contributor." So a Saudi graduate sees a deduction against the quoted figure. The unemployment subscription, SANED, is stated as "Subscription rate is 1.5%, the employer pays 0.75%, and the contributor pays 0.75%." The Occupational Hazards Branch "The Occupational Hazards Branch compulsorily covers all Saudi and non-Saudi workers" and "The contributions for the Occupational Hazards Branch is fixed at 2% of the contributory wages of the contributor, and is payable by the employer." so it is not deducted from the employee. Which branches apply to a given contributor is GOSI's to state, so check your own case at https://www.gosi.gov.sa/GOSIOnline/FAQ_Contributor&locale=en_US before treating a quoted figure as take-home pay. Read 29 September 2026.

Where do Careery's Gulf salary bands come from, and how far apart are the sources?

The bands are a compiled judgement read across sources that disagree rather than a point where sources converged. The two compilations that break a city out are Indeed, whose figures come from job adverts and skew junior, and Glassdoor, whose figures are self-reported and skew senior; the third source we name, Payscale, does not break out cities at all. Read on 18 September 2026, Indeed and Glassdoor differed by 59% to 72% on the same role in the same city, in the same direction every time. Nothing on this site counts live vacancies, and no figure here should be cited as one. If you quote our bands, quote them as compiled estimates with the review date attached, which is 10 September 2026.

Can Careery review a CV written in Arabic?

No. The CV review was built on English CVs, and an upload that is mostly in a non-Latin script is refused before it is scored rather than given a number we could not stand behind. A CV in Arabic script will not be scored, and a refusal on those grounds does not use one of your free scans. Upload an English version and that will be scored properly.

What should a graduate ask before accepting a Gulf offer?

Ask for the basic figure separately from the total, in writing, because the basic figure is what the UAE law calculates your end of service money on and the total is not. Ask which allowances are fixed and which are reimbursed against receipts. Ask which figure the employer's payroll uses to accrue the end of service award. If the offer comes from a company inside a UAE free zone such as the DIFC or the ADGM, ask which employment regime the contract names, because those run their own rules and Article 51 is not automatically the one that applies. None of those questions will cost you the offer.

Graduate Pay in Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Last updated 29 September 2026

A monthly figure from a Gulf job advert cannot be compared across Saudi Arabia and the UAE until you know how it splits between basic salary and allowances, because the two countries' labour laws calculate your end of service money from different parts of it. The UAE law names the basic wage and defines that as excluding allowances. The Saudi regulation names the last wage and defines that as the basic wage plus other due increases. Two offers quoting the same monthly total, one in each country, are therefore not the same offer, and two offers quoting the same total in the UAE are not either.

This page is the parent of everything Careery publishes on Gulf graduate pay. It carries no salary bands of its own: those are on the 10 salary pages linked below, with their sources and their review date. What it carries instead is the part that decides what a band is worth to you, quoted from the law rather than asserted, and the part of our own numbers we are least sure of.

What the two laws actually say

Both quotations below were read on 29 September 2026 in the official English publication named beside them. Neither is paraphrased. Follow the link and check them.

United Arab Emirates

Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Employment Relations, published by the official legislation portal of the United Arab Emirates, read 29 September 2026.

Article 51: "The wage of twenty-one (21) days for each year of the first five years"
Article 51: "The wage of thirty (30) days for each year in excess of that"
Article 51: "the total end-of-service gratuity for the foreign Worker does not exceed two years' wage"
Article 51, clause 5: "the end-of-service gratuity shall be calculated according to the last basic wage received by the foreign Worker"
Article 1, on Basic Wage: "does not include any other allowances or benefits in kind"

Read together: the gratuity is twenty-one days a year for five years and thirty a year after that, capped at two years, and it is worked out on a figure that by the same law's own definition leaves your housing and transport allowances out. A UAE offer that puts most of the package into allowances pays the same every month and less when you leave.

Saudi Arabia

End-of-Service Award Regulations, published by the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, read 29 September 2026.

on the size of the award: "a half-month wage for each of the first five years and a one-month wage for each year of the following years"
on which wage is used: "The end-of-service award shall be calculated on the basis of the last wage"
on what wage means: "the basic wage in addition to all other due increases that are determined for the worker in return for the effort made in the work, or risks he is exposed to in performing his work"

Read together: the award is half a month's wage a year for five years and a full month a year after that, and the wage it uses starts at the basic wage and adds other due increases. That wording is a test rather than a list, so whether a specific allowance on your contract falls inside it is a question about your contract. It is also why the same nominal split does not have the same consequence in the two countries, and why quoting a UAE all-inclusive figure against a Saudi basic compares two different quantities.

The same money, split two ways, under Article 51

The two offers below are invented. They are round numbers chosen to show what the UAE rule does, not a claim about what anything pays; the sourced bands are on the salary pages. The arithmetic is the statute's 21 days of the last basic wage for each year of the first five, over 3 years. The one convention that is ours rather than the law's is the daily rate, the monthly basic divided by 30, which Article 51 does not itself spell out.

Offer	Monthly total	Of which basic	Of which allowances	Gratuity after 3 years
Offer A	AED 12,000	AED 12,000	none	AED 25,200
Offer B	AED 12,000	AED 5,000	Housing AED 5,000, Transport AED 2,000	AED 10,500

Identical monthly money. A difference of AED 14,700 at the point you leave, on this arithmetic, after three years. That is the whole reason to ask for the basic figure separately before you compare two offers, and what each line on a Gulf offer letter means goes line by line through the rest of the letter.

Tax free is not deduction free

There is no personal income tax on employment income in either country. That is the true part of the claim every Gulf salary guide makes, and it is where most of them stop. Deductions still exist, they depend on your nationality, and the Saudi General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) publishes the rates itself.

GOSI Contributor FAQ, read 29 September 2026.

on the Annuities Branch rate: "The percentage of contributions to the Annuities Branch is 18% of the contributory wage, of which 9% is payable by the employer and 9% is payable by the contributor."
on who the Annuities Branch covers: "The Annuities Branch is compulsorily applied to all Saudi workers, provided that the covered worker is under 60 years of age upon his initial coverage under the Law."
on the Occupational Hazards Branch rate: "The contributions for the Occupational Hazards Branch is fixed at 2% of the contributory wages of the contributor, and is payable by the employer."
on who the Occupational Hazards Branch covers: "The Occupational Hazards Branch compulsorily covers all Saudi and non-Saudi workers"
on the SANED unemployment subscription: "Subscription rate is 1.5%, the employer pays 0.75%, and the contributor pays 0.75%."

So a Saudi graduate reading a quoted monthly figure should expect a GOSI deduction against it, and should not read the quoted figure as take-home pay. The Occupational Hazards contribution covers everyone but is the employer's to pay, so it is not deducted from you. Which branches apply to a given contributor is GOSI's to state and not ours, so check your own case on the page linked above rather than on this one.

Where our own numbers come from, and how far apart they are

The bands on the salary pages are a compiled judgement read across sources that disagree, and the size of that disagreement is worth more to you than the bands. Measured on 18 September 2026, on the same role in the same city, the two compilations that break a city out differed by 59% to 72%, in the same direction every time.

Role and city	Indeed, monthly	Glassdoor, monthly	Difference
Data Analyst, Dubai (one of our own pages)	AED 5,240 from 92 salaries	AED 9,000 from 803 salaries	Glassdoor higher by 72%
Accountant, Abu Dhabi	AED 3,149 from 956 salaries	AED 5,000 from 407 salaries	Glassdoor higher by 59%
Civil Engineer, Abu Dhabi	AED 4,803 from 541 salaries	AED 8,000 from 50 salaries	Glassdoor higher by 67%

They are not two readings of one quantity. Indeed's figures come from job adverts and skew toward junior and clerical postings; Glassdoor's are self-reported and skew senior. The third source we name does not break out cities at all, so on a city page it cannot be one of the sources anything was reconciled against. The full list, with what each publisher reports and the date we read it:

Indeed. Indeed salary pages for the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which report an average, a range and the number of salaries behind it. Read 2026-09-18.
Glassdoor. Glassdoor city salary pages, which report a median total pay and the number of submissions behind it. Read 2026-09-18.
Payscale. Payscale country pages for Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which report a country average and percentiles but do not break out cities. Read 2026-09-18.

Bands last reviewed 10 September 2026. Nothing on this site counts live vacancies, and any figure from here presented as a count of advertised jobs would be wrong. If you cite the bands, cite them as compiled estimates with that review date attached.

The weakest parts of this page

Stated rather than left for you to discover, because a page that tells you what it does not know is worth more than one that reads as complete.

Whether a particular Saudi allowance counts inside the wage the award is calculated on. The Ministry's wording is "the basic wage in addition to all other due increases that are determined for the worker in return for the effort made in the work, or risks he is exposed to in performing his work", which is a test rather than a list, and it turns on how your own contract describes the line. Ask the employer which figure their payroll uses for the end-of-service accrual, in writing.
The daily rate. Neither source we read states how a monthly wage becomes a daily one for the calculation. The arithmetic in the illustration above divides by 30 because that is the common convention, and an employer may compute it differently. Treat the illustration as showing the direction and the rough size of the difference, not the exact figure you would be paid.
Everything about resignation as opposed to dismissal, and about service under one year. Both laws treat those separately and neither of the two pages we read sets out the graduate case clearly enough for us to summarise it. Read the statute, or ask.
Free zones in the UAE. Some, including the DIFC and the ADGM, run their own employment regimes, so Article 51 is not automatically the rule that applies to an offer from a company inside one. Check which regime the contract names.

Pay by role and city

10 pages, for the roles and cities we could source well enough to publish. Each carries pay by experience level, employers that hire for the role, and the same sources and review date as above. Combinations we could not source are deliberately absent rather than filled in. Last reviewed 10 September 2026.

All Careery salary pages, or Job Scout for a role and city we have not published, which returns a model estimate over public salary sources rather than a count of vacancies. Your first search is free.

Everything else on working in Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Gulf Salary Guide, What Decides Graduate Pay. What actually moves pay in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, and where the sourced bands Careery publishes for a role and city are.
How to Write a Graduate CV for Jobs in Saudi Arabia. The photo question, the personal details convention, the Iqama line, and what a Saudization quota changes about what an employer reads for.
What a Fresh Graduate CV Should Look Like in the UAE. Visa status, the summary written for one job, and the section order that works for a graduate applying in Dubai or Abu Dhabi.
Saudization Explained for Graduates and Job Seekers. What Nitaqat means for a person applying for a job, rather than for a company meeting a quota.
Emiratisation Explained for Graduates and Job Seekers. Who the policy covers, who it does not, and what it changes about applying for a job in the UAE.
Basic Salary vs Allowances in a Gulf Job Offer. What each line on a Gulf offer letter means, which ones are real money, and which one decides your end of service benefit.
Graduate Salary in Riyadh vs Dubai, Compared. The same two roles in both cities, built the same way, with the tax and cost differences that change what the numbers mean.
Do You Need Arabic to Get a Job in Saudi Arabia?. Sector by sector, where Arabic is required, where it is an advantage, and what to write on the language line of your CV.
How to Become a Data Analyst in Saudi Arabia. The route in for someone who already has a degree: what gets tested, what is optional, and what Riyadh pays band by band.
How to Become a Software Engineer in Saudi Arabia. Which stacks the Saudi market hires for, what gets asked at interview, and the published Riyadh bands for the role.

What Careery does, and one thing it does not

Careery reads a CV against a job you are targeting and scores it, and Job Scout estimates pay for a role and city. The free tier is one CV score and one Job Scout search. It is not a generic resume checker: the scoring is built around the target role rather than a general template.

It does not read Arabic. The review was built on English CVs, so an upload that is mostly in a non-Latin script is refused before it is scored rather than handed a number we could not stand behind, and that refusal does not spend one of your free scans. If you are weighing up which language to apply in, do you need Arabic to get a job in Saudi Arabia goes through it sector by sector.

Score your CV against a Gulf job advert, in English, and the missing requirements will tell you what to fix before you send it.

Sources on this page

the official legislation portal of the United Arab Emirates, Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Employment Relations. https://uaelegislation.gov.ae/en/legislations/1541. Read 2026-09-29.
the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, End-of-Service Award Regulations. https://www.hrsd.gov.sa/en/knowledge-centre/articles/317. Read 2026-09-29.
the Saudi General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI), Contributor FAQ. https://www.gosi.gov.sa/GOSIOnline/FAQ_Contributor&locale=en_US. Read 2026-09-29.