GCC Payroll Compliance: WPS, GOSI & Gratuity

Every GCC state pays wages through a monitored channel: WPS in the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, Mudad and GOSI in Saudi Arabia, PIFSS in Kuwait, each with its file format, contribution rates and gratuity formula. Flowyana runs payroll and posts it to the ledger today; Dictode builds the statutory files and contributions for your country, typically in 3–6 weeks.

Datos verificados por última vez: 2026-09-23

Plazos y fases

Fase	A quién afecta	Plazo	Requisito
UAE — WPS (MOHRE)	All private-sector establishments licensed by MOHRE	Monthly — due on the 1st of the following Gregorian month (Resolution 340/2026, from 1 June 2026)	SIF uploaded through a WPS agent (bank or exchange house); at least 85% of wages must arrive on time; enforcement escalates from day 2
Saudi Arabia — Mudad WPS + GOSI	All private-sector establishments	Monthly — Mudad wage file within 30 days of the due date; GOSI contributions by the 15th of the following month	Saudi nationals 9% + 9% annuities (10% + 10% for post-July-2024 joiners), 2% occupational hazards, 0.75% + 0.75% SANED; expatriates 2% employer only
Kuwait — PIFSS	Employers of Kuwaiti nationals	Monthly — employer 11.5%, employee 8% plus 2.5% supplementary	Kuwaiti nationals only, ceiling KWD 2,750; expatriates receive end-of-service indemnity instead; wages within 7 days of the due date
Qatar — WPS (Ministry of Labour)	All employers under Labour Law 14/2004	Monthly — within 7 days of the due date; wages due on the 1st (Decision 50/2026, from 9 Sept 2026)	CSV Salary Information File through a local bank into the WPS run with Qatar Central Bank
Bahrain — WPS (LMRA) + SIO	All private-sector employers (Resolution 68/2019)	Monthly — wage file via the LMRA WPS; SIO contributions monthly	Bahrainis 18% employer in 2026 (20% by 2028) + 8% employee; expatriates 3% + 1%, plus 4.2% / 8.4% end-of-service contributions
Oman — WPS + Social Protection Fund	All private-sector employers	Monthly — wages within 3 days of the end of the wage period (Decision 729/2024)	SPF: employer 14.5%, Omani employee 8%; expatriate savings scheme at 9% of basic wage from 19 July 2027

What a Wage Protection System actually checks

A Wage Protection System is a reconciliation, not a payment rail. The regulator already holds every work permit, every registered employee and, in most Gulf states, the contracted wage; each month the employer submits a wage file through a bank, exchange house or licensed payment provider, and the system matches what was transferred against what should have been paid, employee by employee. The UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman call theirs WPS; Saudi Arabia runs the same check through Mudad against the wages registered with GOSI.

So the file carries more than amounts: the employer's regulator ID, each worker's Emirates ID, Iqama, Civil ID, QID or CPR number, the pay period, the split between fixed (contractual) and variable pay, days paid and unpaid leave. Rejections almost always come from reference data — an ID that does not match the permit, an IBAN the agent cannot validate, a joiner not yet registered, a leaver still listed, a negative net — and the regulator logs late uploads, partial payments and repeated rejections against the establishment, which is what the published penalties key on.

UAE: the SIF file, line by line

The Salary Information File (SIF) is a comma-separated text file with no header row. Line one is the SCR, the Salary Control Record; every line after it is an EDR, one Employee Detail Record per worker. An EDR carries the employee's MOHRE person ID, the nine-digit routing code of the WPS agent (the bank or exchange house paying the wage), the IBAN, pay start and end dates inside one month, calendar days paid, fixed income, variable income and days of unpaid leave. The SCR names the employer's MOHRE ID, the bank's routing code, creation date and time, salary month, EDR count, the total of all fixed and variable amounts and the currency. The filename is the employer ID plus the creation timestamp, which is how the agent catches a duplicate upload.

The timing rule changed on 1 June 2026. Ministerial Resolution 340 of 2026 replaced Resolution 598 of 2022: wages are due on the first day of the following Gregorian month, the 15-day grace period is gone, and MOHRE counts an establishment as compliant only when at least 85% of total wages (up from 80%) arrive on time. Enforcement escalates by the day — notifications from day 2, new work permits frozen from day 5, fines from day 11, attachment or referral to the Public Prosecutor from day 21.

Flowyana HR calculates the run and posts it to the ledger; it does not emit a SIF today. Dictode builds the SIF export, pre-upload validation (ID formats, IBAN checks, EDR totals that sum to the SCR) and a submission log into Flowyana HR or your existing payroll — usually the quickest statutory piece, typically two to three weeks on its own.

Saudi Arabia: Mudad, GOSI, Qiwa and Hijri months

Saudi Arabia's Wage Protection Program runs on Mudad, the HRSD platform built with the Saudi Central Bank; HRSD accepts wage files nowhere else. Mudad matches each transfer against the wage registered with GOSI and updates the establishment's compliance percentage in real time, and since 1 March 2025 the upload window is 30 days from the wage due date, down from 60. Contracts are documented on Qiwa; the Qiwa wage, the GOSI wage and the Mudad payment should agree, because Nitaqat's Saudisation bands draw on the same GOSI registrations.

GOSI has two regimes. Saudi nationals first registered before 3 July 2024: 9% employee and 9% employer to the annuities branch, 2% occupational hazards (employer only) and 0.75% + 0.75% SANED unemployment insurance — 11.75% employer, 9.75% employee. Nationals first registered on or after 3 July 2024 fall under the new Social Insurance Law: pension 10% + 10% since 1 July 2026, rising 0.5% a year to 11% + 11% by July 2028. Expatriates: occupational hazards only, 2% paid by the employer. The contributory wage is basic pay plus housing, capped at SAR 45,000 a month; contributions are due within the first fifteen days of the following month, and late payment costs 2% per month of delay.

Then the calendar. Article 10 of the Labor Law computes periods and dates by the Hijri calendar unless the contract or work regulations say otherwise, while WPS due dates and GOSI deadlines run on Gregorian months. A Hijri month has 29 or 30 days, so the payroll must store one calendar and convert with the official Umm al-Qura tables rather than arithmetic, or probation dates, service years and contract anniversaries drift.

Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman: what differs

Kuwait has no wage file, but Labour Law 6 of 2010 requires monthly wages to be deposited with local financial institutions no later than the seventh day after the due date. PIFSS covers Kuwaiti nationals only: employer 11.5% and employee 8% up to KWD 2,750 a month, plus a 2.5% supplementary employee contribution on the first KWD 1,500; expatriates contribute nothing and are owed end-of-service indemnity instead.

Qatar's WPS, mandatory since Law 1 of 2015, runs with the Qatar Central Bank through local banks, which accept a CSV Salary Information File per employer. Minister of Labour Decision 50 of 2026, in force from 9 September 2026, restates the rule: monthly wages are due on the first day of each calendar month and must reach the worker's account within seven days.

Bahrain pays through the LMRA Wage Protection System under Resolution 68 of 2019. The enhanced WPS 2.0, announced in October 2025, moves everything onto the LMRA portal with a Wages Responsible Person and a standard salary file every month even when nothing changes — but LMRA's own FAQ (August 2026) says the mandatory date will be announced through its official channels. SIO contributions for Bahrainis are 18% employer in 2026, rising one point a year to 20% in January 2028, and 8% employee; expatriates are 3% employer and 1% employee, plus the end-of-service contributions below.

Oman's WPS runs through banks regulated by the Central Bank of Oman; Ministerial Decision 729 of 2024, in force since 16 December 2024, cut the transfer window to three days after the end of the wage period, with a fine of OMR 50 per worker, doubled on repeat. The Social Protection Fund collects 14.5% from the employer and 8% from Omani employees across the pension, work-injury, job-security, maternity and sick-leave branches, with the pension ceiling at OMR 3,000.

End-of-service gratuity formulas

Read this as a table in prose; every rate applies to basic wage unless stated. UAE (Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021, Art. 51): after one year of service, 21 days of basic wage for each of the first five years and 30 days for each year after, pro-rated, capped at two years' wage and payable within 14 days of the contract ending; resignation no longer reduces it. Saudi Arabia (Labor Law, Arts. 84–85): half a month's wage for each of the first five years and a full month for each year after, on the last wage; on resignation, one third after two to five years, two thirds after five to ten, the full award from ten.

Kuwait (Law 6 of 2010, Arts. 51 and 53): for monthly-paid workers, 15 days' wage per year for the first five years and one month per year thereafter, capped at eighteen months' wage; on resignation from an unlimited contract, half after three years, two thirds after five, the full indemnity after ten. Qatar (Law 14 of 2004, Art. 54): after one year, at least three weeks' wage per year on the last basic wage, pro-rated.

Bahrain: since 1 March 2024 (Decision 109 of 2023) the employer no longer accrues gratuity for expatriates but pays the SIO 4.2% of wage monthly for the first three years and 8.4% thereafter, and the worker claims from the SIO on leaving; earlier service is still settled by the employer. Oman (Labour Law RD 53/2023, Art. 61): at least one month's basic wage per year on the last basic wage, until the SPF savings scheme takes over for expatriates on 19 July 2027 at 9% of basic wage a month (Royal Decree 60/2025 postponed it from July 2026). Whichever formula applies, accrue it monthly: a gratuity that only appears at exit is an unbooked liability on every balance sheet you have already published.

What Flowyana does today, and what Dictode builds

Flowyana HR ships employee records, contracts, attendance, leave balances, shifts, salary structures with fixed and variable components, payroll runs posted to the ledger, payslips in self-service and multi-branch operation — the data every wage file and contribution return is built from.

It does not ship the statutory layer: WPS/SIF and Mudad files, GOSI, PIFSS, SIO and SPF contribution rules by nationality group, gratuity accrual and provisioning, Hijri display beside Gregorian dates. Dictode builds that layer for your country — file generation, validation against the regulator's format, a submission log, contribution tables with effective dates so the July 2026 GOSI step or the 2028 Bahrain rate lands without a code change — typically in 3–6 weeks per country, on Flowyana or on the payroll you already run. We make no approval claim for Flowyana: in every WPS the party the regulator licenses is your bank, exchange house or payment provider; our job is to make sure the file it receives is accepted first time.

Lista de verificación de cumplimiento

List every employee's regulator IDs (Emirates ID / Iqama / Civil ID / QID / CPR) and bank IBANs — most WPS rejections are ID mismatches, not amounts
Split pay into fixed and variable components the way the wage file expects; allowances written into the contract count as fixed
Set the pay cycle so the transfer lands inside the statutory window (UAE: 1st of the following month; Qatar: 7 days; Oman: 3 days; Saudi Mudad file: 30 days)
Configure contribution rules per nationality group and per GOSI regime (pre- and post-July-2024 registrations) before the first run
Accrue end-of-service gratuity monthly so the liability sits on the balance sheet, not in a surprise at exit
Decide the calendar of record (Gregorian) and where Hijri must be displayed (Saudi contracts, service periods, official correspondence)
Keep every rejection report and acknowledgement file — a repeated rejection is treated as non-payment by the regulator

Preguntas Frecuentes

¿Tiene otra pregunta? Hablar con ventas

What is a SIF file?

The UAE’s WPS wage file: a comma-separated text file with one Salary Control Record (SCR) summarising the run, followed by one Employee Detail Record (EDR) per worker with MOHRE person ID, IBAN, pay period, days paid, fixed and variable income and unpaid-leave days. A WPS agent (bank or exchange house) validates it before the money moves.

Does Flowyana generate WPS files?

Not out of the box. Flowyana runs payroll and posts it to the ledger; Dictode builds the WPS/SIF or Mudad export, validation and submission log for your country — the SIF export alone typically takes 2–3 weeks, a full country package with contribution rules and gratuity accrual typically 3–6 weeks.

How is end-of-service gratuity calculated in the UAE?

Under Article 51 of Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021: after one year of service, 21 days of basic wage per year for the first five years and 30 days per year after that, pro-rated and capped at two years' wage. Resignation does not reduce it, and it is payable within 14 days of the contract ending.

Do Bahrain and Oman still pay gratuity to expatriates?

Bahrain does not, for service from 1 March 2024: under Decision 109 of 2023 the employer pays the SIO 4.2% of wage monthly for the first three years and 8.4% afterwards, and the worker claims from the SIO; earlier service is still paid by the employer. Oman still does — Article 61 of the 2023 Labour Law gives at least one month's basic wage per year — until the Social Protection Fund savings scheme starts on 19 July 2027 at 9% of basic wage per month.

Why do Hijri months matter for payroll?

Article 10 of the Saudi Labor Law computes periods and dates by the Hijri calendar unless the contract says otherwise, but WPS due dates and GOSI deadlines run on Gregorian months. Hijri months have 29 or 30 days, so contract anniversaries, probation and gratuity service years land on different days depending on the calendar. Keep one calendar of record and convert with the official Umm al-Qura tables, not by adding 354 days.

Can Dictode add this to an ERP we already use?

Yes. The statutory files and contribution rules are built as an integration layer on your existing payroll data — Flowyana, Odoo, SAP Business One or a custom system — reading the same employee, contract and pay-component records, with the same 3–6 week window per country.

Hrm Flowyana

Accounting Flowyana

Erp Flowyana

Guías relacionadas

Empiece ahora

Obtenga una demo gratuita de HR & Payroll Software

Cuéntenos sobre su negocio y le mostraremos cómo encaja: precios, migración e implantación incluidos.

Con la confianza de empresas en más de 60 países — desarrollado por Dictode desde 2019.

Nombre Completo *

Correo *

Teléfono *

Mensaje *

¿Prefiere WhatsApp? Chatee con nosotros al instante

Este sitio está protegido por reCAPTCHA. Google Política de Privacidad and Términos de Servicio aplican.

Fuentes oficiales

Esta guía es información general, no asesoramiento fiscal ni legal. Verifique los requisitos en las fuentes oficiales o con su asesor.

GCC Payroll Compliance: WPS, GOSI, PIFSS & Gratuity