United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a country in the Middle East region bordered by Oman and Saudi Arabia. Dubai is the country’s most populous city and is considered a major international hub with many digital nomads choosing to work in Dubai. Ever since oil was discovered in the area in 1958, the country has had rapid growth in infrastructure, healthcare, and technology, and a tourism industry that sees over 20 million tourists visiting Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
There is no mandatory minimum wage in UAE, but the average is around AED 5,000 per month. The standard workweek is 40 hours at 8 hours per day from Sunday to Thursday. Work hours are reduced to 6 hours per day during Ramadan.
Overtime compensation is not mandatory and may be included in the employee’s salary. Otherwise, overtime work is normally paid between 125%-150% of the salary as part of the benefits offered to employees in UAE.
Pregnant employees are entitled to 45 days of paid maternity leave, paid at 100% of the regular salary, and an additional 15 days of half-paid leave. New fathers in the UAE are entitled to five working days of paternity leave with full pay, which they can choose to take consecutively or at any time during the first six months after the birth of the child.
Employees who have completed 3 months of work at their company are entitled to 90 days of paid sick leave per year. The first 15 days are paid at 100% of the salary by the employer, days 16-45 are paid at 50%, and the last 45 days are unpaid.
There are 15 public holidays in UAE, and employees are entitled to at least 30 days of paid time off each year after finishing 1 year of employment. Employees can also take leave for study or bereavement.
Terminations in UAE have to be done with cause and need written notice provided to the employee and relevant governmental authorities.
A minimum of 30 days of notice is required for terminations.
Severance pay is mandatory if applicable, and the amount is determined by the length of service at the company (with a max of 2 years of pay):
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Sit back and relax as we onboard your new team member and take care of all the local compliances and admin work.
It can be prohibitively expensive to establish an entity in every country you want to hire talent in, so Remofirst will hire and pay your employee on your behalf while you manage their daily duties. Remofirst will handle formal HR procedures and employment contracts that adhere to local laws, so that you can simply approve invoices via our platform. When you work with an Employer of Record (EOR) you can compliantly hire the best employees around the world.
Unlike full-time employees, contractors work on projects with multiple companies at a given time and are technically self-employed. Full-time employees are solely focused on their employer and usually receive benefits (such as health insurance, equity or stock options, and time off) as an additional form of compensation. While it can be cheaper to work with international contractors instead of paying benefits to a full-time employee, you run the risk of misclassification. It's recommended to work with an EOR for contractor onboarding and payments, so you can know that your international contractors are paid compliantly and on time.
