United Arab Emirates · updated aug 2026
What is my end-of-service gratuity?
Enter your last basic salary and how long you worked. You will get the amount and, beside it, the whole calculation written out — which band applied, how your daily wage was worked out, and exactly what was multiplied by what. Every figure names the source it came from.
Your BASIC wage on your last day — not your total package, and not including housing, transport or other allowances.
The part-year beyond your completed years.
Are you a UAE national?
Has your employer enrolled you in the Savings Scheme?
Work model
Every private-sector contract in the UAE has been fixed-term since February 2022 — there is no “unlimited contract” option here because there is no unlimited contract in law.
Why the job ended
Across your whole service. Unpaid leave does not count toward your period of service. Leave it at zero if you took none.
Your end-of-service gratuity
35,000.00 AED
How that was worked out
Your period of service, in years
5 + 0 ÷ 12 equals 5 years
Your daily wage, from your last monthly basic salary
10,000 ÷ 30 equals 333.33 AED
Days earned for your first 5 years, at 21 days a year
21 × 5 equals 105 days
The days, priced at your daily wage
105 × 333.33 equals 35,000.00 AED
The statutory ceiling on the total
24 × 10,000 equals 240,000.00 AED
Your end-of-service gratuity
35,000.00 AED
What this calculation did not do
- One figure above is weaker than the rest, and you should know which. Converting your monthly salary to a daily one by dividing by 30 is universally applied and is the basis every UAE calculator uses — but unlike every other number here, we could not find it stated on an official government source. If the correct divisor were a working-day count instead, this result would be higher.
- The reason your employment ended did not change this amount, and that is not an oversight. The 2021 labour law contains no reduction for resigning — the rule that used to do that was repealed, so there is no stage in this calculation for it to apply at.
ESTIMATEThis is an estimate of a statutory entitlement from the figures you entered. It is not your settlement: your contract, your final payslip and any amounts you owe your employer all affect what is actually paid. For the official amount, ask your employer or the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE).
Why this shows its working
Every end-of-service calculator on the internet gives you a number. Almost none of them tells you how it got there — which band it applied, what it took your daily wage to be, or whether a ceiling changed the answer. So when your employer’s figure disagrees with the one you found online, you have two numbers and no way to tell which is wrong.
That is the gap this site is built for. The panel above the fold is not a result with an explanation bolted underneath it — the working is the result, and the total is its last line. If your settlement disagrees with it, you can point at the exact step where the two of you diverge, which is a conversation you can actually have with a payroll department.
The rules, at a glance
Six figures decide almost every UAE gratuity, and all six are on this page rather than behind a click. Each is read from the same data the calculator above runs on, so this table cannot disagree with your result.
| Rule | Figure | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Qualifying period | 1 year | Below it nothing is due. Above it the whole period counts, first year included. |
| What it is calculated on | Basic wage | Your last basic wage, excluding housing, transport, utilities and furniture allowances. |
| First 5 years | 21 days a year | Days of wage earned for each year served in the lower band. |
| Each year after 5 | 30 days a year | The higher rate applies to the later years only — it does not re-rate the first 5. |
| Monthly wage to daily | ÷ 30 | The one figure here not stated on an official source. It multiplies the whole result, so every answer says so. |
| Ceiling | 24 months’ wage | The last operation. It binds only at long tenure, and then it stops the total. |
How it grows with service
The same salary, at seven lengths of service, so the shape of the entitlement is visible: steady in the lower band, steeper after the step-up, then flat once the ceiling binds. Every row is computed by the calculator above, not typed in.
| Service | Days of wage earned | Gratuity |
|---|---|---|
| 0 years | — | Nothing is due yet |
| 1 year | 21 | 7,000.00 AED |
| 3 years | 63 | 21,000.00 AED |
| 5 years | 105 | 35,000.00 AED |
| 7 years | 165 | 55,000.00 AED |
| 10 years | 255 | 85,000.00 AED |
| 20 years | 555 | 185,000.00 AED |
| 30 years | 855 | 240,000.00 AED |
The three things people get wrong
Across the questions people bring to this subject, the same three mistakes account for most of the disagreements about what is owed.
- Using total salary instead of basic. The entitlement is calculated on the basic wage. A package that is heavily weighted toward allowances builds a smaller entitlement than the same money paid mostly as basic — the same total, a different result. This is the expensive one. What counts as basic salary.
- Applying a resignation reduction that no longer exists. Under the old 1980 law, resigning could cost you a large share of your gratuity. Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 repealed that. Any calculator that trims your figure for resigning is applying a rule that was abolished. Resigning versus being terminated.
- Counting unpaid leave as service. Unpaid leave does not count toward the period of service. Most calculators never ask, so most calculators quietly overstate the entitlement of anyone who took an extended unpaid break. Unpaid leave and the service clock.
What changed in February 2022
Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 replaced the 1980 labour law, and it did not just amend it — it changed the shape of UAE employment. The unlimited contract was abolished, every private-sector contract became fixed-term, and the gratuity reduction for resignation went with it.
A great deal of what is written online about UAE gratuity predates that and has never been revised. Pages still ask whether your contract is limited or unlimited. Calculators still apply a haircut for resigning. Being the page that is correct about this is not a detail — it is the difference between an answer and a misleading one. Read what the law actually says.
What changes your gratuity, and what does not
Readers arrive with a list of things they believe affect the amount. About half of them do.
| Circumstance | Effect on the amount | Where it is explained |
|---|---|---|
| Resigning rather than being terminated | None. The reduction that used to apply was repealed in 2022. | Resigning vs terminated |
| Your contract being “limited” or “unlimited” | None. The unlimited contract no longer exists in UAE law. | Contract types |
| Allowances in your package | Large. They are excluded, so the basic/allowance split moves the whole result. | What counts as basic |
| Unpaid leave you took | Reduces it. Those days do not count toward your period of service. | Unpaid leave |
| Working reduced hours | Scales it. A part-time contract earns the full-time figure times its hours share. | Part-time work |
| Being enrolled in the Savings Scheme | Replaces it. Your entitlement becomes a fund balance, not a formula. | The Savings Scheme |
| Money you owe your employer | Reduces what is paid. Deductions come off the settlement, not off the entitlement. | Final settlement |
Two of those rows are why this calculator asks questions the others do not — and one of them, the Savings Scheme, is the reason it sometimes refuses to answer at all. Who this calculation is for.
The questions behind the number
Every question that decides what you are actually owed. One page each, each with a real answer — including the ones where the answer is that this site cannot tell you.
How the gratuity is worked out
The formula in four operations, each with the arithmetic written out — so you can do it on paper and compare.
Ten examples, worked end to end
Ten complete calculations, computed by this site’s own calculator, including the two cases where the answer is not a number.
Who this calculation is for
Whether this law is the one that governs your end of service at all. Several groups are outside it entirely.
What counts as “basic salary”
Gratuity is worked out on basic pay, not total pay. What counts as which, and why the split decides the size of your payout.
Resigning versus being terminated
The old resignation reduction is gone. What replaced it, and what can still legitimately come off what you are paid.
Notice periods, and whether they count
Whether the notice period counts toward your service, and what changes when it is paid in lieu instead of worked.
Annual leave you never took
Leave you never took is a separate entitlement, paid on a different basis. Keeping the two apart on your final settlement.
Unpaid leave and the service clock
Unpaid leave does not count toward your period of service. What that does to the arithmetic, and how to work out your own.
When the contract simply ends
Since 2022 every contract is fixed-term, so expiry is an ordinary ending. What it means for notice and for what you are owed.
Part-time, and other work models
Reduced hours earn a share of the full-time entitlement, set by an hours ratio most tools never apply.
The contract type that no longer exists
Limited or unlimited? Neither — the distinction was abolished in February 2022, and a calculator that asks is out of date.
What is in a final settlement
Gratuity is one line of the cheque. What the others are, when the whole thing is due, and what can be deducted.
The Savings Scheme — the other system
The alternative system. If your employer enrolled you, your entitlement is a fund balance and this calculator is the wrong tool.
Questions people actually ask
- Does resigning reduce my end-of-service gratuity?
- No. Under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 the reduction that used to apply when an employee resigned rather than being terminated no longer exists. The reason your employment ended does not cut the entitlement — although money you genuinely owe your employer can still be deducted from what is paid.
- Is gratuity calculated on my basic salary or my total package?
- On your basic salary. Allowances — housing, transport, utilities, furniture and the like — are excluded. This is the single most common and most expensive misunderstanding about the entitlement, because two people on identical total pay can be owed very different amounts depending on how their contracts split it.
- I am on an unlimited contract. How does that change things?
- You are not. Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 abolished the unlimited contract, and every private-sector contract in the UAE has been fixed-term since the transition deadline in February 2022. Guidance that still asks whether your contract is limited or unlimited is describing a regime that no longer exists.
- Does unpaid leave count toward my period of service?
- No — unpaid leave does not count toward the period of service the entitlement is measured against. For most people this changes nothing. For anyone who took a long unpaid break it changes the answer, which is why this calculator asks about it and most do not.
- I am part-time. How is my gratuity worked out?
- As a share of what the same service would earn full-time, and the share comes from hours: your contracted hours for the year divided by a full-time contract’s hours for the year, applied to the full-time entitlement. The rule is in the Implementing Regulation to the labour law, and this calculator applies it — put both hours figures in and it shows you the division it performed.
- My employer put me in the Savings Scheme. Does this calculator apply?
- No, and that is important. Once an employer enrols you in the alternative end-of-service system, the traditional gratuity stops accruing and what you are owed is the balance of an invested fund plus its returns — which no formula can produce. Whatever had accrued before enrolment is still settled under the ordinary rules, so that part can still be calculated here using your service up to the enrolment date.
- I work in a free zone. Does this apply to me?
- Usually, but check. The federal labour law governs mainland employment and most free zones, and the official guidance on the Savings Scheme states that it applies in the private sector and free zones. Some financial free zones operate their own employment regimes with their own end-of-service rules — this site has not read those regimes and does not model them, so if your contract names one, that regime governs rather than anything here.