End-of-service gratuity calculator

How is end-of-service gratuity calculated?

Both countries pay a lump sum when a job ends, built up year by year from the last wage. The difference is in the units. The UAE counts days of basic wage for each year of service. Saudi Arabia counts fractions of a monthly wage for each year.

• UAE: gratuity = (monthly basic wage / 30) x (21 x years up to 5 + 30 x years after 5), paid once a full year of service is completed and capped at two years' wage.
• Saudi Arabia: award = monthly wage x (0.5 x years up to 5 + 1 x years after 5), then reduced to one third or two thirds if the worker resigned before 10 years.

Part years count in proportion in both countries, so 7 years and 6 months is 7.5 years. The calculator takes the service either as years and months or as the first and last day of work, and it loads the right rules and currency for the country you choose.

UAE gratuity rules under Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021

For a full-time foreign worker in the private sector, Article 51 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 Regarding the Regulation of Employment Relationships sets the award. The figures below were read on 13 November 2026 in the English translation published on the official UAE government portal, which also restates them on its end-of-service page updated 15 October 2026.

The day rate comes from Article 67, which says a month represents 30 days and a year 365 days for periods under the Decree-Law, so the calculator divides the monthly basic wage by 30. Article 51 contains no reduction for resignation: the same rates apply whether the employer or the employee ends the contract. Article 53 requires the employer to pay wages and other entitlements within 14 days of the end of the contract.

UAE example: a 10,000 dirham basic wage

An employee with a basic wage of AED 10,000 a month leaves after 7 years and 6 months. The day rate is 10,000 / 30 = AED 333.33. The first five years earn 21 x 5 = 105 days, and the remaining 2.5 years earn 30 x 2.5 = 75 days, so 180 days in all. The gratuity is 333.33 x 180 = AED 60,000, which is six months of basic wage.

• Shorter service. After exactly three years the same wage earns 63 days, or AED 21,000. At 11 months nothing is due, because the one-year minimum has not been reached. At exactly one year the award is AED 7,000.
• Unpaid leave. Thirty days of unpaid absence reduce 7.5 years to 7.4178 years, and the gratuity falls to AED 59,178.08.
• Dates instead of years. From 1 May 2019 to 31 October 2026 is 2,741 days counting both ends, or 7.5096 years, which gives AED 60,095.89. The small gap from the round 7.5 years comes from the two leap days inside that period.
• The cap. After 30 years the formula gives AED 285,000. Article 51 caps the total at two years' wage, and Article 1 defines wage as the basic wage plus allowances, while the gratuity itself is worked out on basic wage. This calculator's default applies the cap as 24 months of basic wage, AED 240,000, the lower reading, so AED 240,000 is shown; on that default the cap starts to bind after 25.5 years. Enter the full monthly wage in the cap field to apply 24 months of that instead.

Saudi end-of-service award: Articles 84 and 85

Article 84 of the Saudi Labor Law gives a worker half a month's wage for each of the first five years and a full month's wage for each year after, calculated on the last wage, with part years in proportion. Article 2 of the same law says that where it speaks of the wage it means the actual wage: the basic wage plus allowances and other due increments. That is why the wage field on this page changes its label when you switch country. Article 86 lets the contract leave commissions and similar variable pay out of the base; if yours does, enter the wage without them.

Article 85 cuts the award when the worker resigns:

Article 87 restores the full award when the worker leaves because of force majeure, and for a female worker who ends her contract within six months of marriage or three months of giving birth. The figures were read on 13 November 2026 in the Labor Law translation published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development on its own website.

Article 10 counts the periods in the Labor Law in the Hijri calendar unless the contract or the work regulations say otherwise. This calculator's convention is the Gregorian calendar: service from dates is the day count divided by 365, and the 2, 5 and 10 year steps in Article 85 are checked against calendar anniversaries of the first day of work, so exactly five calendar years still counts as five. A Hijri year is about 354 days, so on a contract that follows the Hijri calendar the same dates count as about 3% more years of service.

Saudi example: a 10,000 riyal monthly wage

A worker whose actual wage is SAR 10,000 a month leaves after 7 years and 6 months. The first five years earn 0.5 x 5 = 2.5 months of wage and the remaining 2.5 years earn 2.5 months, so the full award is 5 months, or SAR 50,000. If the employer ended the contract, or it ran its term, that is the amount due.

If the same worker resigned, Article 85 pays two thirds, which is SAR 33,333.33. The thresholds create sharp steps:

• Resigning after 18 months pays nothing, although the full award would have been SAR 7,500.
• Resigning after exactly 4 years pays one third of SAR 20,000, or SAR 6,666.67.
• At exactly 5 years the share is still one third, SAR 8,333.33. One month later, at 5 years and 1 month, it becomes two thirds of SAR 25,833.33, or SAR 17,222.22.
• At 9 years and 11 months a resignation pays SAR 49,444.44. One month later, at 10 years, the full SAR 75,000 is due.

Article 88 requires the employer to settle within one week of the end of service, or within two weeks when the worker is the one who ends the contract.

Gratuity by years of service, UAE and Saudi Arabia

Each row uses a wage of 10,000 in the local currency: AED 10,000 of basic wage in the UAE and SAR 10,000 of actual wage in Saudi Arabia. The two currencies are not converted, so compare the shape of each column rather than the amounts across columns.

The UAE column rises by AED 7,000 a year for five years, then by AED 10,000 a year, until the two-year cap stops it. The Saudi column rises by SAR 5,000 a year, then SAR 10,000 a year, with no cap in Article 84.

How each input changes the gratuity

• Monthly wage. The award is in direct proportion to it: a wage 20% higher gives an award 20% higher. In the UAE only the basic wage counts, so an employee whose pay is mostly allowances receives a smaller gratuity than the total salary suggests.
• Length of service. Every year after the fifth is worth more than each of the first five: 30 days against 21 in the UAE, a full month against half a month in Saudi Arabia.
• Dates or years and months. Dates give the exact day count, including leap days. Years and months treat each month as one twelfth of a year.
• Unpaid absence (UAE). Each unpaid day comes off the service, and it can pull a service just over a year below the minimum.
• How the job ended (Saudi Arabia). Under 10 years, a resignation can cost one third, two thirds or all of the award.
• Full wage for the cap (UAE). Article 51 caps the total at two years' wage. Entering the full wage applies the cap to it; leaving the field at 0 applies it to the basic wage.

How to calculate gratuity in Excel or Google Sheets

The same rules fit in one spreadsheet formula. Put the monthly wage in cell B1 and the years of service, with months as a decimal, in B2. For service from dates, with the first day in B3 and the last day in B4, use =(B4-B3+1)/365 in B2.

• UAE: =IF(B2<1,0,MIN(B1/30*(21*MIN(B2,5)+30*MAX(0,B2-5)),24*B1))
• Saudi Arabia, full award: =B1*(0.5*MIN(B2,5)+MAX(0,B2-5))
• Saudi Arabia, on resignation: multiply the full award by =IF(B2<2,0,IF(B2<=5,1/3,IF(B2<10,2/3,1)))

IF, MIN and MAX work the same way in Excel and Google Sheets. With 10,000 in B1 and 7.5 in B2, the UAE formula returns 60,000 and the Saudi full award 50,000, matching the examples above.

What this gratuity calculator leaves out

It covers private-sector employees under the two federal or national laws named on this page. It does not cover:

• UAE nationals, whose end-of-service benefits follow the pensions and social security legislation under Article 51(1).
• The financial free zones, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), which have their own employment regulations.
• The UAE Savings Scheme, the alternative system approved under Article 51(8) by Cabinet Resolution No. 96 of 2023, which the government portal describes as a voluntary replacement for the gratuity for employees whose employer enrolls them.
• Part-time, temporary and other work patterns, which Article 52 leaves to the implementing regulation.
• Deductions, such as amounts the employer may take under Article 51(7) or Saudi Article 88, and any notice pay, leave pay or compensation owed alongside the award.
• Disputes about how a contract ended, and Saudi contracts that count service in Hijri years under Article 10.

Treat the result as an estimate to compare with your employer's settlement statement, not as a legal decision.

Common mistakes, and a short glossary

• Using the full salary in the UAE. Article 51 uses the basic wage. Housing and transport allowances stay out.
• Using only the basic wage in Saudi Arabia. Article 2 makes the actual wage, with allowances, the base.
• Applying a resignation cut in the UAE. The current Decree-Law has none.
• Rounding the service to whole years. Part years count in proportion once the minimum is met.
• Forgetting the 5 and 10 year steps in Saudi Arabia. One extra month of service can change the resignation share.

Basic wage: the contract wage before allowances and benefits in kind. Actual wage: the Saudi term for basic pay plus allowances and other due increments. Continuous service: unbroken service with the same employer or its legal successor. Gratuity or end-of-service award: the lump sum due when employment ends. Force majeure: an event beyond the worker's control that ends the work.

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