Employer of Record in the UAE: 18 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in the UAE: key facts

UAE employment runs on two separate legal tracks — federal MOHRE rules onshore, and free-zone regimes in DIFC and ADGM — so a few figures below carry both.

Minimum wage

There is no general statutory minimum wage for private-sector employees in the UAE, expatriates included (khaleejtimes.com, checked 2026-09-30). The only mandated pay floor applies solely to UAE nationals, and it isn’t a minimum wage — it’s the minimum basic salary a UAE-national employee must earn for the role to count toward the employer’s Emiratisation quota:

This table, not a chart, because the exact effective dates for the 2024 and 2025 steps aren’t confirmed in official MOHRE sources. It is irrelevant to the expatriate hire an EOR client typically makes.

Employer contributions

• No payroll tax or social-security contribution applies to expatriate employees — the vast majority of an EOR’s UAE headcount (hlbhamt.com, checked 2026-09-30).
• GPSSA (General Pension and Social Security Authority) applies only to UAE and GCC nationals: employer 15%, employee 11% of the “contribution calculation salary,” for members registered from 2023-10-31 (hlbhamt.com, checked 2026-09-30).
• A temporary 2.5% government top-up for lower-earning Emiratis is being phased out around September 2026, raising those employers’ net GPSSA cost from 12.5% to the full 15% (hlbhamt.com, checked 2026-09-30).

Working hours and overtime

Senior managerial and supervisory roles with authority over other staff are typically excluded from overtime entitlement.

Annual leave and public holidays

• 30 calendar days/year after 1 year of continuous service; 2 days/month accrual for 6-12 months of service, none before that (u.ae, checked 2026-09-30).
• 10-15 paid public holidays/year, depending on the Islamic (Hijri) calendar; several dates (Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Islamic New Year, Prophet’s Birthday) are confirmed only shortly beforehand by Cabinet announcement (greythr.com, checked 2026-09-30).
• A public holiday falling inside an annual-leave period doesn’t extend it, unless the contract says otherwise.

Probation

• Maximum 6 months, non-renewable and non-extendable for the same role at the same employer (darwinbox.com, checked 2026-09-30).
• Employer terminating during probation owes 14 days’ written notice (worked or paid in lieu).
• An employee resigning during probation to join another UAE employer must give at least 1 month’s notice, or 14 days if leaving the UAE entirely.

Notice and severance

Gratuity is payable within 14 days of termination and applies from 1 year of service, including on resignation, not only dismissal. DIFC employers instead pay into the DEWS defined-contribution scheme (5.83% of basic salary/month for the first 5 years, 8.33% after); other employers may opt into a similar voluntary Alternative Savings Scheme instead of gratuity (Cabinet Decision 96/2023).

13th salary and bonuses

UAE labour law is silent on any 13th-month or annual bonus; any bonus is purely contractual and becomes a legal entitlement only if written into the employment contract (mondaq.com, checked 2026-09-30).

Mandatory benefits

• End-of-service gratuity (or DEWS/Alternative Savings Scheme contribution) — see Notice and severance.
• Employer-paid health insurance, mandatory in Dubai (DHA) and Abu Dhabi (DOH) for years, extended federally to the five Northern Emirates from 2025-01-01, minimum benefit AED 150,000/year, tied to residence-visa issuance (mohre.gov.ae, checked 2026-09-30).
• ILOE unemployment insurance — mandatory nationwide, but employee-paid: AED 5+VAT/month (basic salary ≤AED 16,000) or AED 10+VAT/month above that, not an employer cost (mohre.gov.ae, checked 2026-09-30).
• GPSSA pension — UAE/GCC nationals only, not expatriates (see Employer contributions).

Work permits

• Every non-UAE/GCC national needs an employer-sponsored work permit plus a residence visa; the entity on the MOHRE labour contract and the immigration file must be the actual employer — sponsorship can’t be split from employment (mohre.gov.ae, checked 2026-09-30).
• An EOR can lawfully be this sponsor only if it holds a valid trade licence with an available work-permit quota, mainland or free-zone, and issues the MOHRE labour contract itself.
• Typical employer-borne cost for a 2-year mainland employment visa: roughly AED 3,000-8,000 all-in (medical test, Emirates ID, visa stamping, health insurance); free-zone visas often run somewhat cheaper, from about AED 2,500 (terratern.com, checked 2026-09-30).

Currency and payroll

• UAE dirham (AED), pegged at 1 USD = 3.6725 AED since 1997 (gulfbusiness.com, checked 2026-09-30).
• Monthly payroll, paid through the mandatory Wage Protection System (WPS). From 2026-06-01 (MOHRE Resolution No. 340 of 2026), the previous 10-15 day grace window is abolished: wages must be paid by the 1st Gregorian day of the month for the prior month’s work, with at least 85% of total wages due counting as compliant (thenationalnews.com, checked 2026-09-30).

Is Employer of Record legal in the UAE?

Allowed, with limits. “Employer of record” isn’t itself a defined licence category in UAE law. A provider can lawfully act as EOR only by holding an actual, properly licensed employing entity that issues the MOHRE labour contract, runs WPS-compliant payroll and sponsors the visa:

• Placing a worker with a third-party beneficiary requires a MOHRE Mediation Agency licence (bank guarantee ≥ AED 300,000) or a Temporary Employment and Outsourcing Agency licence (bank guarantee ≥ AED 1,000,000), under Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 (DLA Piper, checked 2026-09-30).
• Onshore recruitment-agency licences are ownership-restricted to businesses wholly owned by UAE nationals, with a UAE national required as General Manager — one reason globally-owned EOR providers typically incorporate via a free zone instead of a wholly foreign-owned mainland staffing entity (mondaq.com, checked 2026-09-30).
• DIFC and ADGM are separate common-law jurisdictions with their own employment statutes and end-of-service regimes; an entity registered in one can only employ people based in that free zone, not someone actually working onshore in Dubai or Abu Dhabi mainland, without a separate onshore permit (kayrouzandassociates.com, checked 2026-09-30).
• Whichever entity is the visa sponsor on the MOHRE labour contract and immigration file must also be the actual employer; sponsorship can’t be contracted out separately.

Three risks follow for the client: an unlicensed provider’s arrangement is unlicensed labour supply, with MOHRE enforcement (fines, work-permit suspension) falling mainly on the agency but reputational risk on the client; a client with a UAE Permanent Establishment can owe its own 9% corporate tax above AED 375,000 regardless of the EOR’s own position (taxgian.ae, checked 2026-09-30); and a mainland client subject to Emiratisation quotas (50+ skilled employees) doesn’t get EOR-hired expatriate roles to count toward, or shield it from, its own quota, with MOHRE fines reaching AED 108,000/year per unfilled mandated position in 2026 (navero.me, checked 2026-09-30).

Who actually employs your hire in the UAE

Vendors describe their entity model globally far more often than they confirm it for the UAE specifically. Here’s what each vendor’s own UAE page actually says:

Fourteen of these 18 don’t say whether the UAE is served by their own entity or a partner’s. That matters here more than in most countries, because the UAE’s mainland/free-zone split means the answer also decides which visa-sponsorship rules and which end-of-service regime (statutory gratuity versus DIFC’s DEWS scheme) actually apply to the hire. Before signing, ask directly: “Is the UAE entity that will sponsor my hire’s visa your own, and is it mainland or free zone?”

How to choose an EOR in the UAE

Need the clearest evidence of who’s actually employing your hire? Remote states outright that it owns its UAE entity “to ensure all obligations… are met through a single global platform,” and Deel and Atlas HXM each confirm an owned-entity model for the UAE specifically, though none of the three states whether that entity is mainland or free zone.

Hiring in a mainland role versus a free zone like DIFC? Skuad, RemoFirst and RemotePass each run a dedicated section or guide on the mainland/free-zone split and what it means for visa validity and end-of-service rules — useful context even where the vendor’s own entity type isn’t confirmed. Confirm directly with any shortlisted vendor whether its UAE entity covers the specific zone your hire will work in.

Weighing price against fee completeness? Skuad and Remote People both publish $199/month on their own UAE pages, the lowest figures here. Rivermate’s €299/month comes with a stated refundable deposit and no other fees; Borderless AI’s $579/month comes with no setup fee and no deposit at all.

Need the visa sponsored directly? Remote, Boundless and Remote People each state in the first person that they handle visa sponsorship or Emirates ID processing for UAE hires; most other vendors in this set describe visa handling only in general terms.

What it costs to employ someone in the UAE through an EOR

There’s no payroll tax or pension contribution on an expatriate salary in the UAE, so the employer-side cost is almost entirely gratuity accrual plus health insurance — modelled here for a Dubai mainland hire, with basic salary assumed at 60% of gross (a market-practice approximation, not a legal ratio, since UAE law doesn’t fix the split).

Gratuity accrues at 21 days’ basic wage per year of service for years 1-5 (daily wage = basic salary / 30); it’s a liability that builds up, not a cash payment until the employee leaves. Health insurance figures are market ranges for a DHA-compliant plan appropriate to each salary band, not a government fee schedule. Not included: ILOE unemployment insurance (AED 5-10+VAT/month), which is legally employee-paid, and the one-time visa/work-permit cost of roughly AED 3,000-8,000 for a 2-year mainland visa, which isn’t an annual payroll cost.

The EOR’s own fee is on top of the above. Published UAE-specific numbers in our data range from $199/month (Skuad, Remote People) to AED 26,398/year — about AED 2,200/month, $599/month — at Deel; Atlas HXM states a $400-800/month range on its own UAE page, and Borderless AI and Rivermate publish $579/month and €299/month respectively. Most other vendors publish only a global list price ($349-$699/month) or none at all, quote-based.

Hidden costs, where actually published: RemotePass’s DIFC guide cites a AED 2,500 per-employee sponsorship deposit required by the DIFC authority itself, the clearest UAE-specific deposit figure in our data, though it isn’t stated as a RemotePass-to-client fee. Rivermate’s global FAQ states a refundable deposit “equal to one month’s payroll plus the first month’s costs,” with no UAE-specific amount given. Atlas HXM lists additional pass-through items beyond its monthly fee: visa processing AED 3,000-5,000/employee, medical insurance AED 1,500-4,000/year, and a AED 3,000/employee bank guarantee. Borderless AI, by contrast, states no setup fee and no deposit at all. No other vendor in this set discloses a UAE-specific setup fee or deposit — where the table above is blank, treat it as unpublished, not zero.

When you don’t need an EOR

• A genuinely independent contractor. If the person already holds their own UAE freelance permit and works for multiple clients on their own schedule, engaging them as a contractor is simpler than an EOR. See how to pay contractors in the UAE and our hiring guide.
• Your own UAE entity. Needed if you’re hiring at volume, or if the mainland/free-zone split matters for where the hire physically works day to day and no EOR’s own entity covers that specific zone.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-01 — Minimum qualifying salary for UAE nationals under Emiratisation rises to AED 6,000/month; existing Emirati contracts must be amended to comply by 2026-06-30.
• 2026-01-01 — The federal Basic Health Insurance Scheme’s rollout (from 2025-01-01) continues to apply nationwide, including the five Northern Emirates for the first time.
• 2026-06-01 — MOHRE Resolution No. 340 of 2026 abolishes the previous 10-15 day salary-payment grace window: all private-sector wages must be paid via WPS by the 1st Gregorian day of the month for the prior month’s work, with at least 85% of total wages due counting as compliant.
• 2026-06-30 — Deadline for mainland companies with 50+ skilled employees to hit the second 1-percentage-point Emiratisation uplift of 2026, bringing the cumulative skilled-role quota to 10% by year-end; non-compliant employers face MOHRE fines up to AED 108,000/year per unfilled position.
• 2026-08-26 — A new regulation refines the Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (DMTT), applying a 15% minimum effective UAE tax rate to large multinational groups’ UAE entities, on top of the ordinary 9% corporate tax — relevant mainly to large vendor or client groups, not a typical single-employee EOR arrangement.
• 2026-02-28 — MOHRE’s public consultation on the voluntary Alternative End-of-Service Savings Scheme closed; whether it moves toward mandatory adoption for more employers isn’t yet confirmed.

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Deel states on its UAE blog post that the only wage floor is “AED 4,000-5,000/month” for UAE nationals. The current figure, effective 2026-01-01, is AED 6,000/month (mohre.gov.ae, checked 2026-09-30) — and in any case this figure is an Emiratisation threshold for UAE nationals, not a minimum wage for the expatriates an EOR typically hires.

How we built this page

Facts were collected and checked on 2026-09-30 against UAE government and legal sources where they were reachable (uaelegislation.gov.ae, mohre.gov.ae press releases), and otherwise against corroborating secondary reporting and law-firm summaries, since mohre.gov.ae and gpssa.gov.ae blocked direct automated access throughout this research pass. Vendor entity claims were checked against each vendor’s own UAE-facing page; DIFC, ADGM and DMCC public registers are interactive portals we couldn’t query directly, so where a vendor states only a global entity model, we recorded the UAE as not disclosed rather than assuming. The ranking above puts confirmed, UAE-specific own entities first. Nobody pays for placement on this page.