Hiring in United Arab Emirates through an EOR (2026)

Hiring in the UAE carries a 12.5% employer social security contribution, and that number comes with a significant asterisk: it applies only to UAE nationals. For the vast majority of roles filled by expatriates, which make up most of the private-sector workforce, your employer social security cost is zero. That is a genuinely unusual position compared with almost every other country in the region, and it shapes the total cost of a hire dramatically.

An Employer of Record (EOR) handles payroll, compliance, and sponsorship paperwork on your behalf, which matters here because the UAE's visa and work-permit system ties employees directly to a sponsoring entity. The payroll cycle is monthly, annual leave sits at 30 days, and there are 14 public holidays. There is no 13th-month salary requirement, and no corporate tax headache at the hiring level since the corporate rate of 9% applies to the business entity, not to individual employment costs.

For expatriate hires, the employer cost on top of gross salary is effectively zero in social security terms. For UAE national employees, the employer adds 12.5% of gross salary in social security contributions across most emirates, rising to 15% in Abu Dhabi. The employee side is 5% of gross for nationals. There is no mandatory 13th-month payment, so outside of the national social security obligation, the on-costs here are among the lowest you will find anywhere.

A few things in UAE employment law are easy to overlook if you are used to hiring elsewhere.

• Social security applies only to nationals. The 12.5% employer contribution (15% in Abu Dhabi) is owed for UAE nationals only. If your hire is an expatriate, you owe no social security at all. Confirm the employee's nationality early so your cost modelling is accurate from day one.
• The statutory work week is 48 hours. That is higher than the standard in most Western markets. Overtime rules and Ramadan working-hour reductions layer on top of this, so make sure your employment contract reflects the correct baseline.
• Notice periods run roughly 4.3 weeks. This is set by contract within statutory limits. Factor it into your offboarding timeline, especially if you are replacing a role quickly.
• Maternity leave is 8.6 weeks and paternity leave is 0.7 weeks. Both are relatively short by global standards. If your global policy is more generous, decide upfront whether you will apply the higher standard locally, since the UAE law sets a floor, not a ceiling.