Questions people actually ask

Who is entitled to end-of-service gratuity in the UAE?

Private-sector employees under the federal labour law, once they have completed the qualifying period of continuous service. It is a statutory entitlement, not a bonus and not something an employer grants at their discretion. Government employment and some financial free zones — DIFC and ADGM among them — run under separate regimes.

Is it calculated on my basic salary or my total package?

Basic salary. The law excludes allowances by name — housing, transport, utilities, furniture. Two people on the same total package can be owed materially different amounts purely because of how their contracts split it, which is why the split is worth reading before you sign rather than after you leave.

Does resigning reduce it?

No. The reduction that applied to resignations under the 1980 law was repealed by Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021. The full entitlement is due whether you resigned or were terminated. What can still be taken off is money you genuinely owe the employer, and compensation for notice you did not serve.

My contract is unlimited. How does that affect my gratuity?

It is not — the unlimited contract was abolished, and every private-sector contract in the UAE has been fixed-term since February 2022. If your paperwork still describes an unlimited contract, it predates the transition. Any guidance that asks you to choose between limited and unlimited is describing a regime that no longer exists.

Does unpaid leave count toward my service?

No. Unpaid leave does not count toward the period of service the entitlement is measured against. The employment relationship continues, but the clock does not run for those days. Most calculators never ask, so most calculators overstate the entitlement of anyone who took a long unpaid break.

I served a part-year on top of my completed years. Do I get anything for it?

It is pro-rated: a part-year earns the matching fraction of the rate for the band it falls in, and the calculator asks for it in months for exactly that reason. What the official guidance does not state is the granularity — whether it is measured to the day, the month, or something else. This site pro-rates by whole months and tells you so, rather than implying a precision it cannot source.

Is untaken annual leave part of my gratuity?

No — it is a separate entitlement, arising under different provisions and paid on a different basis. Both are usually paid at the same time, which is why they get conflated. Ask for them as separate lines on your final settlement; if you cannot see them separately, you cannot check either.

I work in a free zone. Does the federal law apply to me?

Usually yes, but not always. The federal labour law governs mainland employment and most free zones. The DIFC and the ADGM have their own employment regimes — and a DIFC employer contributes monthly to a workplace savings scheme instead of accruing a lump sum, so an end-of-service benefit there is a fund balance rather than this calculation. Your contract names the regime that governs it.

When does my employer have to pay it?

The end-of-service entitlements are due on the ending of the relationship, as part of the final settlement. If payment is not made, MOHRE is the authority for the dispute — a calculator is the wrong tool at that point, but a calculation you can show step by step is a useful thing to bring to it.

Why does the result say which of its own numbers is weakest?

Because you should know. Every figure in the calculation is taken from the UAE Government portal, u.ae, except one: the convention that turns a monthly salary into a daily one by dividing by 30. That is universally applied and it is what every UAE calculator uses, but we could not find it stated on an official source — and it multiplies the whole result. Saying so costs us nothing you would not rather know.

A question that is not here? Send it, or start with what the law actually says.