An unlimited (indefinite-term) contract has no fixed end date and continues until lawfully terminated under Articles 74–77. It is the default contract type for Saudi nationals and becomes the default for expatriates once a fixed-term contract converts automatically (see Term contract). Ending an indefinite contract requires either a valid statutory cause under Article 80, or 60 days' written notice (30 days if the employee is not paid monthly) plus payment of the end-of-service benefit; terminating without cause or adequate notice triggers Article 77 arbitrary-dismissal compensation on top of EOSB.
Fixed-term contracts are the norm for expatriate hires because the contract term is generally aligned with the employee's work-permit (iqama) validity. If a non-Saudi worker's contract does not specify a duration, the law deems it to run for one year from the start date. A fixed-term contract automatically converts to an indefinite-term contract if the parties continue performance after the stated end date, once the contract has been renewed twice consecutively, or once the original term plus renewals reaches three years — whichever occurs first (Article 55).
Standard maximum working hours are 8 hours/day or 48 hours/week (reduced to 6 hours/day or 36 hours/week during Ramadan for Muslim employees). Hours worked beyond these limits must be paid as overtime at 150% of the employee's regular hourly wage. The standard private-sector workweek runs Sunday–Thursday, with Friday–Saturday as the official weekend.
The initial probation period may not exceed 90 days from the start of employment, and may be extended once by mutual written agreement up to a combined maximum of 180 days. Either party may end the relationship during probation without notice or compensation, unless the contract states otherwise. Public holidays and any sick leave taken during probation are excluded from the count, and an employee cannot be placed on probation more than once with the same employer for the same role unless at least six months have elapsed and the new role is a different occupation.
Saudi Labor Law does not mandate a 13th- or 14th-month salary, holiday bonus, or "Eidiya." Any such payment is entirely discretionary, set by company policy or individual contract, and most commonly offered (where it exists) around Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, or year-end.
Saudi Arabia runs the Nitaqat (Saudization) program, which sets minimum Saudi-national employment quotas by sector, activity, and company size rather than banning expatriates from named titles outright. Several professions carry rapidly rising, sector-specific quotas under 2025–2026 rules — e.g., engineering (targeting 30%+ Saudi engineers), accounting (40% rising to 70% over 5 years), and quota requirements in sales, customer service, HR, project management, telecom, and dental-clinic roles. Some individual occupations (e.g., certain retail/sales positions, recruitment-agency roles) are effectively reserved for Saudi nationals. Employers must confirm a role isn't restricted and maintain their Nitaqat compliance band before hiring an expatriate into it — non-compliance restricts a company's ability to issue or renew work visas via Qiwa/Muqeem.
For the expatriate employees RemoFirst typically places via EOR, the only mandatory GOSI contribution is 2% of contributory salary (basic salary + housing allowance, capped at SAR 45,000/month), paid entirely by the employer into the Occupational Hazards (work-injury) branch. Expatriates are not enrolled in GOSI's annuities/pension branch or in SANED unemployment insurance. (Context only, not applicable to non-Saudi hires: Saudi national employees carry a much higher combined employer contribution — 11.75% under the legacy scale for those registered before 3 Jul 2024, or a phased 12.25% → 12.75% under the new GOSI scale through 2026 for those registered after — covering pensions and unemployment insurance in addition to occupational hazards.)
Expatriate/non-Saudi employees have no GOSI salary deduction at all — the full 2% occupational-hazards contribution is employer-funded. (Context only, not applicable to non-Saudi hires: Saudi national employees contribute 9.75% under the legacy scale, or a phased 10.25% → 10.75% under the new GOSI scale through 2026, toward their own pension and unemployment insurance.)
In addition to statutory leave, employees are entitled to the following statutory benefits:
Social insurance in Saudi Arabia is administered by the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) and applies very differently to Saudi nationals versus non-Saudi (expatriate) employees — the population RemoFirst's EOR service typically places.
Work-injury protection for every employee in Saudi Arabia — Saudi national or expatriate — is funded entirely by the employer through GOSI's Occupational Hazards Branch.
The end-of-service benefit (EOSB, commonly called "gratuity") is a mandatory lump sum owed to virtually all employees — Saudi and expatriate — at the end of employment, funded and paid directly by the employer and entirely separate from GOSI.
Saudi Arabia has no statutory requirement for a 13th- or 14th-month salary, holiday bonus, or "Eidiya."
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Your employee's hours, time off, holidays, bonuses, and commissions are automatically calculated into payroll. RemoFirst will invoice you in either US Dollars (USD), Euros (EUR), British Pounds (GBP), Canadian Dollars (CAD), Australian Dollars (AUD), or Singapore Dollars (SGD) around the 15th of each month to make sure your employees are paid on time. To make it even easier, you can summarize your entire global team's salaries to aggregate them into one payment (instead of many individual payments).
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.
Whenever the employee or employer has a question about, or anything else related to international employment, they can speak with our customer support team to get answers from our team of experts.
