Employer of Record in Saudi Arabia: 16 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Saudi Arabia: key facts

Saudi labor law runs through HRSD and GOSI. Most rules below apply to Saudi nationals and expatriates alike, but contributions and the Nitaqat/Saudization threshold don’t.

Minimum wage

• No general statutory minimum wage for the private sector, Saudi nationals or expatriates (argaam.com, checked 2026-10-01).
• A SAR 4,000/month floor exists, but it’s a Nitaqat/Saudization headcount-credit threshold, not a wage floor: a Saudi employee at or above it counts as a full headcount (half at SAR 3,000-3,999, zero below), it sets no required wage, and it doesn’t apply to expatriates at all. Unchanged since 2021-04-18 (argaam.com, checked 2026-10-01).

Employer contributions

Contributory wage is basic salary plus housing allowance (cash or in-kind, up to 2 months’ basic salary/year); transport, phone, commission and bonuses are excluded, and contributions are capped at a monthly contributory wage of SAR 45,000. The expatriate rate, 2% Occupational Hazards, hasn’t changed since at least 2021 — only the Saudi-national annuities schedule moves year to year (mercans.com, checked 2026-10-01).

Working hours and overtime

• Standard hours: 8 hours/day or 48 hours/week; 6 hours/day or 36 hours/week for Muslim workers during Ramadan. At least 30 minutes’ rest after every 5 consecutive hours; total time at the workplace can’t exceed 12 hours/day (hrsd.gov.sa Labor Law PDF, checked 2026-10-01).
• Overtime: hours beyond the standard, and all public-holiday hours, are paid at 150% of the base hourly rate (basic monthly wage ÷ 30 ÷ 8), capped at 720 hours/year unless the worker consents in writing to more. Since February 2025, overtime can also be paid as time off in lieu, with consent (hrsd.gov.sa Labor Law PDF, checked 2026-10-01).

Annual leave and public holidays

• Annual leave: minimum 21 calendar days/year, rising to at least 30 days after 5 continuous years with the same employer (hrsd.gov.sa Labor Law PDF, checked 2026-10-01).
• Public holidays: four paid occasions a year for all sectors — Eid al-Fitr (~4 days), Eid al-Adha including Arafat Day (~4 days), National Day (23 September, 1 day) and Founding Day (22 February, 1 day), roughly 10 paid calendar days/year in total. Friday is the standard weekly paid rest day, not counted as a holiday (ksaexpats.com, checked 2026-10-01).

Probation

• Since the amendment effective February 2025, the parties may agree upfront to a single probationary period of up to 180 days (previously: 90 days, extendable only by separate written agreement to a maximum of 180 days) (morganlewis.com, checked 2026-10-01).
• Either party may end the contract during probation without notice or end-of-service compensation, other than the worker’s return-travel cost. Eid holidays and sick leave taken during probation don’t count toward the probation clock (morganlewis.com, checked 2026-10-01).

Notice and severance

• Employer-initiated termination of an indefinite contract requires 60 days’ notice, unchanged by the 2025 amendment; employee notice was cut from 60 to 30 days by that same amendment (morganlewis.com, checked 2026-10-01).
• No separate statutory “severance pay” distinct from the end-of-service award (EOSB, Labor Law Art. 84-87): half a month’s wage per year for the first 5 years, then a full month’s wage per subsequent year, prorated. On resignation rather than termination, the payout scales down — none under 2 years, one-third for 2-5 years, two-thirds for 5-10, full after 10+ (etqanlawfirm-sa.com, checked 2026-10-01).

13th salary and bonuses

• Not mandatory; any such payment is purely contractual (hrsd.gov.sa Labor Law PDF, checked 2026-10-01).

Mandatory benefits

• GOSI: full package for Saudi nationals; Occupational-Hazards-only for non-Saudis (see Employer contributions above).
• CCHI-regulated health insurance: the employer must buy a CCHI-licensed plan covering every non-Saudi employee plus eligible dependents, in place before probation starts; premiums can’t be deducted from pay, and a valid policy is a precondition for Iqama issuance or renewal (chi.gov.sa, checked 2026-10-01).
• End-of-service award (EOSB) accrual — see Notice and severance above.
• Since February 2025: the employer must provide suitable housing and transportation, or a cash allowance in lieu of each (chi.gov.sa, checked 2026-10-01).

Work permits

• Non-Saudi employees need a work visa plus an Iqama (residence permit) tied to a specific sponsoring employer (kafeel) and job. In an EOR arrangement, the provider’s own Saudi-registered entity is the sponsor of record — Iqama, GOSI registration and WPS payroll all sit under the EOR, not the client, which has no local entity (gloroots.com, checked 2026-10-01).
• Since the March 2021 Labor Reform Initiative, qualifying workers can transfer sponsorship without the original sponsor’s consent, and can exit or re-enter the Kingdom without sponsor sign-off in qualifying cases (gloroots.com, checked 2026-10-01).
• From 2026-01-26, every such placement must additionally be documented as an Ajeer Permit — see “Is Employer of Record legal in Saudi Arabia?” below.

Currency and payroll

• Saudi riyal (SAR), fixed peg 1 USD = 3.75 SAR, unchanged since 1986 (corroborated via Arab News and Argaam, checked 2026-10-01).
• Wages must be paid at least monthly (weekly for weekly-paid workers), through the Wage Protection System (WPS/Mudad) via a local Saudi bank account in the employee’s own name (hrsd.gov.sa Labor Law PDF, checked 2026-10-01).

Is Employer of Record legal in Saudi Arabia?

Allowed, but only through a licensed route. Hiring through an EOR without the client opening its own entity is legal — but since Ministerial Resolution No. 60339 (signed 2025-10-25, effective 2026-01-26), manpower leasing, workforce supply and staff outsourcing may only be carried out by MHRSD-licensed establishments; no unlicensed establishment may supply labor for a third party under any name (incorpmena.com, checked 2026-10-01).

The Resolution separates “service outsourcing” (project-based, provider manages its own resources) from “labour outsourcing” (worker placed at, supervised and tooled by the client’s site), and requires an electronic service contract plus an Ajeer Permit for every labour-outsourcing placement, each capped at a maximum of 3 years or the contract’s earlier expiry (mondaq.com, checked 2026-10-01). Both parties must hold at least a “medium green” Nitaqat rating, valid commercial registration and WPS compliance to use Ajeer at all (bsalaw.com, checked 2026-10-01).

The worker’s sponsorship (kafala) stays with the licensed provider, not the client, which keeps legal-employer liability for GOSI, Iqama issuance and WPS payroll regardless of who directs the worker’s daily tasks (bsalaw.com, checked 2026-10-01).

Client risks:

• If work continues after an Ajeer Permit expires, a violation is deemed to occur automatically the next business day, exposing both the client and the provider to MHRSD penalties (incorpmena.com, checked 2026-10-01).
• Industry sources — not a law firm or government page, so treat this directionally — report that because the worker is counted on the provider’s Nitaqat roll rather than the client’s, a drop in the provider’s own band can block visa issuance, Iqama renewals and new hiring across all of its clients, including this one (masdareor.com, checked 2026-10-01).
• An unlicensed arrangement — informal secondment outside Ajeer, or a “service outsourcing” label on what’s actually beneficiary-supervised labour — is a direct MHRSD violation for every party involved, each carrying statutory liability (incorpmena.com, checked 2026-10-01).

Separately, from a reported effective date of 2026-04-15, only Saudi employees whose contracts are electronically accepted on Qiwa count toward an establishment’s Nitaqat ratio — GOSI registration alone is no longer enough (zawya.com, checked 2026-10-01).

Who actually employs your hire in Saudi Arabia

Only three of the 16 providers below make a first-person, Saudi-specific statement that they employ through their own entity; the rest describe their entity model only in global terms or don’t address it for this country at all.

Thirteen of these 16 don’t say whether a hire is employed through the provider’s own entity or a local partner — a bigger question here than in most countries, since the sponsoring entity also carries the GOSI, WPS and Ajeer-licensing liability. Before signing, ask directly: “Is the Saudi establishment that will hold my hire’s Iqama and GOSI registration your own licensed entity, and can you name it?” An answer naming a licence type or establishment is a different risk profile from a global “owned + partner network” line.

How to choose an EOR in Saudi Arabia

Need the clearest evidence of who actually employs your hire? Remote People names the specific HRSD manpower-supply licence category its Saudi establishment holds, the strongest entity evidence in this set; Atlas HXM and Remote both state ownership in the first person, naming Saudi Arabia directly rather than citing a global entity count.

Weighing price against data completeness? Remote People’s $199/month applies to Saudi nationals specifically, with expatriate pricing quoted separately — check which one applies to your hire before comparing it to a global list price like Skuad’s or RemoFirst’s $199/month. Deel’s $999/month is the highest disclosed Saudi-specific figure, but comes with the most detailed published breakdown of Saudization, Ajeer and health-insurance line items.

Hiring an expatriate who may stay past three years? No vendor here discloses how it handles an Ajeer Permit’s 3-year cap for a long-running placement — ask directly whether renewal, a new permit or a switch to the client’s own entity is the plan once that limit approaches.

What it costs to employ someone in Saudi Arabia through an EOR

For a non-Saudi (expatriate) hire, the employer’s own statutory cost has two parts: GOSI’s 2% Occupational Hazards contribution, and an end-of-service award (EOSB) accrual at the first-5-years rate of half a month’s wage per completed year (Labor Law Art. 84) — shown below as an annual accrual of a future liability, not a monthly remittance. Figures assume a large EOR payroll (no small-employer relief) and that the EOSB wage base equals the full monthly gross wage; sources disagree on whether only basic salary, or basic plus housing, is the correct legal base, so treat the EOSB figure as an estimate (mercans.com, etqanlawfirm-sa.com, checked 2026-10-01).

Not included above: CCHI mandatory health insurance, which is market-priced per insurer and coverage tier rather than a fixed statutory rate — reported ranges run roughly SAR 600-1,200/year for basic Category A coverage to SAR 4,000-8,000/year for comprehensive Category C coverage, per covered individual (truescho.com, checked 2026-10-01).

The EOR’s own fee is on top of the above. Published Saudi-specific figures in our data range from $199/month (Remote People, for Saudi nationals) to $999/month at Deel, which is also the only vendor with a detailed Saudi cost table covering a Nationalization fee (~SAR 3,000), an Ajeer fee for expats (SAR 46) and health insurance (SAR 3,795-20,700). Atlas HXM and G-P both state $599/month specifically for Saudi Arabia. Most other vendors publish only a global list price ($199-$699/month) or none at all.

Hidden costs, where actually published: Oyster states directly on its Saudi Arabia page that there are no termination fees. RemoFirst, Boundless, Pebl and Playroll each state no setup fee globally, and RemoFirst, Boundless and Playroll also state no minimum term — but none of these four claims is repeated Saudi-specifically. No vendor in our data discloses a deposit figure for Saudi Arabia.

When you don’t need an EOR

• A genuinely independent contractor. Saudi Arabia’s 2026 Ajeer rules specifically target a worker supervised and tooled at the client’s own site, which is treated as labour outsourcing regardless of what the contract calls it — a real risk if an EOR-style arrangement is relabelled as a contractor agreement instead (bsalaw.com, checked 2026-10-01).
• Your own Saudi entity. The route for a placement expected to run past an Ajeer Permit’s 3-year cap, or where the client wants direct control of the worker’s sponsorship and Nitaqat standing rather than depending on a provider’s.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-26 — Ministerial Resolution No. 60339 takes effect: a single MHRSD framework for outsourcing non-Saudi labour, with mandatory electronic service contracts, a formal service-outsourcing/labour-outsourcing distinction, and a 3-year cap per Ajeer Permit.
• 2026-04-15 (reported) — Only Saudi employees whose contracts are electronically documented and accepted on the Qiwa platform count toward an establishment’s Nitaqat ratio; GOSI registration alone no longer suffices.
• 2026-07-03 — GOSI “new system” annuities rate steps up from 9.5%/9.5% to 10%/10% (employer/employee), taking the new-system combined total to 23.5% (employer 12.75%, employee 10.75%), up from 22.5% in the first half of the year. The “existing system” (registered before 2024-07-03) stays fixed at 21.5% combined.

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Playroll describes the SAR 4,000/month Nitaqat threshold as a “statutory minimum wage” for Saudi workers; it isn’t one — it’s a Saudization headcount-credit floor that sets no wage any employer has to pay (argaam.com, checked 2026-10-01).
• Oyster and Skuad both describe probation as “up to 90 days, extendable to a maximum of 180 days” — the rule before the February 2025 amendment. Since then, the parties may agree upfront to a single probationary period of up to 180 days directly (morganlewis.com, checked 2026-10-01).

How we built this page

Facts were collected and checked on 2026-10-01, mostly against law-firm reporting (Morgan Lewis, BSA Law, Mondaq) and payroll-compliance sources (Mercans), because the relevant .gov.sa pages (HRSD, GOSI, CHI, SAMA) could not be reached directly from our research environment; where that applies, the specific source used is named in the text. Vendor entity claims were checked against each vendor’s own Saudi Arabia page — no public Saudi commercial registry search was available for independent verification — and recorded as “not disclosed” wherever a vendor stated only a global entity model. The ranking above puts confirmed, Saudi-specific owned entities first. Nobody pays for placement on this page.