Payroll and WPS
Payroll in Dubai, run through WPS every month before the wages fall due.
Salaries worked out from the contracts, the salary file sent through your bank or exchange house, a payslip for every employee, and the gratuity and leave kept on the books. Run by a firm that also audits.
The rule
Since 1 June 2026, wages are due on the 1st of the following month.
Every establishment registered with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, MOHRE, must pay wages through the Wage Protection System, WPS. Ministerial Resolution 340 of 2026, which replaced Resolution 598 of 2022, sets the date: each month's wages are due on the 1st of the month after. Paying after that date counts as late.
An employer counts as compliant when at least 85% of the wages due are transferred by the due date. The difference has to be lawful deductions.
If wages are late, MOHRE takes set steps, counted from the due date.
Free zones set their own payroll rules, and several of them also require WPS. We confirm the rule for your zone before the first run.
- 1stWages dueEach month's wages, on the 1st of the following month
- Day 2NoticesMOHRE sends notices from the 2nd day after the due date
- Day 5New work permits suspendedOn the 5th day after the due date
- Day 11A fine and a lower categoryOn the 11th day, where the delay is a repeat within six months
Each month
Three things, done the same way every month.
A salary paid wrong is hard to take back once it has left the bank. So every run follows the same steps, and the figures that go to the bank are the figures that go into your books.
The salaries
Each salary worked out from the labor contract and the variable pay you send us for the month. Deductions and additions applied, and a payslip for every employee.
The WPS file
The WPS salary information file, the SIF, prepared and submitted through your bank or exchange house in time for the due date.
The books
The payroll journal posted to the books. Annual leave and end-of-service gratuity accrued every month, so the audit shows the true liability.
Also covered
Around the monthly run: pension, insurance, leavers and inspections.
- Pension. Contributions to the General Pension and Social Security Authority, GPSSA, for UAE national employees, and for GCC nationals under the GCC rules.
- ILOE insurance. A check that every employee is covered by the Involuntary Loss of Employment insurance scheme.
- Final settlements. The gratuity, unused leave and notice pay, worked out when someone leaves.
- Inspections. Support during a MOHRE or free zone inspection.
- The payroll register. A register a bank or an auditor can read.
End-of-service gratuity
21 days' basic wage a year for the first five years, then 30.
Article 51 of Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021 sets the gratuity for a full-time foreign employee who has completed at least one year of continuous service: 21 days' basic wage for each of the first five years, and 30 days' basic wage for each year after that. The total is capped at two years' wage.
That amount grows with every month someone works for you. We accrue it monthly, together with annual leave, so the balance sheet carries the real figure all year, not only on the day someone resigns.
If someone in your company already runs payroll and you want it checked rather than taken over, see Accounting supervision.
Kept by an auditor
Payroll kept the way an auditor will read it.
The liabilities behind a payroll are the easiest ones to miss: leave not yet taken, gratuity never accrued, a final settlement still owed. Each one belongs on the balance sheet, and an audit that finds them late finds them all at once.
The people running your payroll know what an auditor asks for, because the firm signs audit reports. So each payslip ties to a contract, each transfer ties to the salary file, and each accrual ties to a schedule. The register reads the same to a bank as it does to an auditor.
Fees
A fixed monthly fee, priced per employee.
Payroll is priced per employee per month. A fixed fee, quoted within one business day, before any work starts.
Questions
What owners ask us about payroll and WPS.
- 01
We only have two employees. Do we still pay through WPS?
Yes. Every establishment registered with MOHRE pays through WPS, whatever its size. Two employees have the same due date as two hundred: the 1st of the following month.
- 02
Can you take over payroll in the middle of the year?
Yes. We start from the last payslips, the contracts and the leave balances, and run the first month alongside the handover.
- 03
Our company is in a free zone. Does WPS apply?
It depends on the zone. Free zones set their own rules, and several of them require WPS. We confirm your zone's rule before the first run.
- 04
How is end-of-service gratuity worked out?
Under Article 51 of Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021, a full-time foreign employee with at least one year of continuous service is owed 21 days' basic wage for each of the first five years and 30 days' basic wage for each year after that, capped at two years' wage.
Contact us