UAE
Employ in the UAE without an entity.
A contract registered with the labour ministry, the residence visa and Emirates ID arranged, and pay in dirhams through the wage protection system. One contact and one invoice.
The facts of employing in the UAE.
Paid in dirhams, every month.
Through the Wage Protection System.
A 48-hour week.
Two hours a day shorter in Ramadan, for every employee.
30 days of annual leave.
After a year's service, and two days a month from six months.
Health insurance in every emirate.
Paid by the employer.
What employing in the UAE involves, in plain words.
Each is handled for everyone you employ through Global Kinect EOR.
- Contracts
Every contract is fixed-term, on the labour ministry's standard form, and registered with MOHRE before the work permit is issued.
- It can be renewed by agreement.
- Trial period: up to 6 months, once per employer. The employer ends it with 14 days' notice in writing.
- Visas and residence
A MOHRE work permit, then an entry permit, a medical fitness test, Emirates ID biometrics and the residence visa.
- The work permit and the residence visa each run for two years, and are renewed.
- Emiratisation
A programme employers plan for, with targets for the Emirati share of skilled jobs.
- Companies with 50 or more employees: rising 2% a year, to 10% by the end of 2026.
- Companies with 20 to 49 employees in named sectors: at least two Emirati nationals, required since the end of 2025.
- GPSSAPension for Emirati nationals
Emirati nationals pay into the federal pension, or Abu Dhabi's. Expatriates are outside it, and have the end-of-service gratuity instead. A national of another Gulf country is covered by their own country's scheme, under the Gulf extension of insurance protection.
- ILOEUnemployment insurance
Compulsory for employees, Emirati and expatriate alike, paid as the employee's own premium.
- Health insurance
Compulsory in every emirate, and paid by the employer.
- Dubai and Abu Dhabi run their own schemes.
- In the other five emirates, cover is bought before a residence visa is issued or renewed.
- Leave
30 days a year, after the first year.
- Sick leave, after the trial period: up to 90 days a year, 15 on full pay, 30 on half pay and 45 unpaid.
- Maternity leave: 60 days, 45 on full pay and 15 on half pay.
- Parental leave: 5 working days, for either parent.
- Bereavement: 5 days for a spouse, and 3 for a parent, child, sibling or grandparent.
- Ending employment
Notice is set in the contract: at least 30 days and at most 90, on full pay.
- End-of-service gratuity, after a year's service: 21 days' basic pay for each of the first five years, then 30 days for each year after.
- Capped at two years' pay, and paid within 14 days of leaving.
- Paid in full when an employee resigns.
Hiring in the UAE, step by step.
You choose the person
And agree the role and the salary in dirhams.
The contract is put in place
Under the UAE's labour law, with a work permit where one is needed.
They are paid monthly
In dirhams, through the Wage Protection System.
You get one invoice
With every other country you hire in.
Questions about employing in the UAE
What does it take to employ an expatriate in the UAE?
An expatriate in the UAE needs a contract registered with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, then a work permit, an entry permit, a medical fitness test, Emirates ID biometrics and a residence visa. The contract is fixed-term and can be renewed. The employer must provide health insurance. The employee holds unemployment insurance. After a year's service, an end-of-service gratuity builds up.
Can you employ in a free zone?
Do Ramadan hours apply to everyone?
Employing in the UAE, worked through in full.
Each guide goes further than this page.
- Hiring in the UAE: permits, Emiratisation and the contract, step by step
How you hire on the UAE mainland without an entity of your own: the steps for a foreign national, moving someone already in the UAE, Emiratisation, the contract, the employee test, leave, and what changed this year.
8 min read
- The cost of employing in the UAE: pensions, the gratuity and an expatriate hire
What an employer on the UAE mainland pays on top of salary, a year worked through at two salaries for an Emirati national and an expatriate, the costs that come with an expatriate hire, and what changes the cost.
6 min read
- Ending employment in the UAE: notice, the gratuity and a final settlement worked through
How employment ends on the UAE mainland: the ways a contract ends, notice, what an unlawful dismissal costs, a final settlement worked through, resignation, and closing the work permit and the residence visa.
8 min read