Employer cost of hiring in United Arab Emirates

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Mandatory employer contributions in United Arab Emirates

No employer contributions on top of gross pay for this group.

Who these rates cover: expatriate employees.

Employer cost at three salary levels

The examples use 1×, 2× and 4× United Arab Emirates’s 2024 GDP per person in local currency (184,629 AED, World Bank) as reference salaries. GDP per person is not a wage; it is a neutral, cited yardstick for low, middle and senior pay.

Worked example

For a salary of 369,000 AED a year the employer pays no statutory social contributions on top of pay for the employee group shown, so the statutory cost equals the salary. Benefits, leave and any end-of-service obligations still add to the real cost. The rate is roughly flat across salaries (0.0% to 0.0%), so on-costs scale with pay.

What is not included

• No social security for expatriates. Employers accrue end-of-service gratuity instead, or pay 5.83%–8.33% of basic salary into DEWS in the DIFC. For UAE nationals the employer pays 12.5% (15% in Abu Dhabi).

How to budget a hire in United Arab Emirates

1. Start from the gross salary you plan to offer in AED.
2. Add the mandatory contributions above. The calculator applies caps and salary bands automatically.
3. Add benefits customary in United Arab Emirates (health cover, bonuses, extra month salaries) as a percentage in the calculator.
4. If you have no local entity, add an employer-of-record fee. Deel and Remote both list EOR from $599 per employee per month on their public pricing pages (checked 23 October 2026).
5. Convert to your budgeting currency with a current rate. The USD figures here use the World Bank 2025 average.

Compare United Arab Emirates with other countries in the any-country comparison, or see whether an EOR, contractor or own entity is cheaper.

Source: PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries: United Arab Emirates, other taxes, last reviewed 09 September 2026 (checked 23 October 2026). Exchange rate and GDP per capita: World Bank (2025, indicators PA.NUS.FCRF and NY.GDP.PCAP.CN). HireCost transcribes the rates; it does not invent or estimate missing ones.

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