Who this calculation is for
Before any arithmetic there is a prior question that most calculators skip entirely: whether this law is the one that governs your end of service at all. For several groups of people it is not, and being handed a gratuity figure about the wrong system is worse than being handed none.
The two questions, in order
Whether you are owed an end-of-service gratuity is decided by two things, and the second one is the one everybody starts with. First: is this the law that governs your employment at all? Second: have you served long enough under it?
Almost every calculator online answers the second question and never asks the first. For most people that is harmless, because most people are inside the law. For the groups below it is not harmless at all — they get a figure calculated under a system they are not in, and nothing on the page tells them so.
Who this calculation does not cover
| Group | Why they are outside it | What applies instead |
|---|---|---|
| UAE nationals in the private sector | End-of-service is delivered through the pensions and social-security legislation instead. | the legislation regulating pensions and social securities in the UAE (GPSSA) |
| Domestic workers | A separate law covers them, with its own end-of-service formula. | Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2022 on domestic workers, as amended by 21 of 2023 |
| Employees enrolled in the Savings Scheme | Their employer has switched them to the alternative system, and gratuity stops accruing from enrolment. | the alternative end-of-service benefits system (Savings Scheme) under Cabinet Resolution No. 96 of 2023 — an invested fund balance plus its returns, not a formula |
| Federal and local government employees | The private-sector employment law does not apply to them at all. | the civil-service legislation covering federal and local government employment — the instrument itself was not established here |
| Armed forces, police and security personnel | Outside the private-sector employment law. | separate legislation, not established by task 9393 |
The calculator asks about two of these directly — whether you are a UAE national, and whether your employer has enrolled you in the Savings Scheme — because they are the two that a private-sector employee can be in without realising it changes anything. Answer yes to either and the calculator stops rather than producing a number about another system.
If you are inside the law: the qualifying period
The entitlement begins at 1 full year of continuous service. Below that, nothing is due — not a reduced amount, nothing.
Source: u.ae, on the end-of-service provision: a worker who has served for less than one year is not entitled to any gratuity pay; a worker who has completed at least one year of continuous service is entitled to gratuity on termination.
The word doing the work is CONTINUOUS. Days of unpaid absence are not counted in the period of service, so a long unpaid break can move someone who thinks they are just past the threshold back below it — which is why the calculator asks.
And the mirror-image mistake, which costs more: the qualifying period is a GATE, not a deduction. Once you pass it, the whole period counts, including the first year. It is not “years of service minus one”.
Two questions this page cannot settle for you
- Does probation count toward the qualifying year? Secondary sources say it does. We could not confirm it on an official source, so this site does not model probation separately and does not tell you it counts. If you are close to the one-year mark, this is the question to put to your employer in writing.
- Free zones. The Savings Scheme guidance states in as many words that that scheme applies to employers and employees “in the private sector and free zones”. Some financial free zones operate their own employment regimes with their own end-of-service rules, and this site has not read those regimes. If you are employed by an entity in a financial free zone, check whose employment law your contract is written under before relying on any calculator, including this one.
Work models change the amount, not the eligibility
A part-time contract is inside the law and earns a share of the full-time entitlement set by hours. Temporary work is inside the law too, with a duration floor of its own. Both rules are set out here.
If you are covered and past the qualifying period, the calculation itself is four steps, and the calculator shows every one of them.