GCC Payroll Compliance Checklist: What HR Teams Need to Verify Every Quarter

Running payroll across even two GCC countries means operating under two separate legal frameworks — each with its own contribution structures, wage protection requirements, overtime rules, and local hiring obligations. This checklist covers what HR and payroll teams should be verifying every quarter.

Kuwait

• Confirm that end of service indemnity is calculated on the employee's full remuneration — basic salary plus the allowances that form part of it — not basic salary alone (Labour Law No. 6 of 2010, Articles 55 and 62)
• Verify that annual leave balances are updated and that any carry-forward has been approved in line with your company policy
• Check that your Kuwaitization quota position is current and that PAM registrations are matched correctly to PACI records
• Ensure overtime is being calculated at the statutory rate — 125% for regular overtime hours, 150% for Friday work, and 200% for public holidays

Saudi Arabia

• GOSI contributions must be filed and paid monthly — for a Saudi national the all-in rate is 9.75% employee and 11.75% employer (annuities/pension 9% each side, SANED unemployment 0.75% each side, plus 2% employer-only occupational hazards). Nationals first registered on or after 3 July 2024 step up 0.5% per side each 1 July under the 2024 reform
• Expatriate employees are covered under a separate occupational hazard insurance at 2% employer contribution
• Verify Saudization (Nitaqat) tier monthly, as your permit and visa eligibility depends on maintaining a compliant ratio
• Saudi Arabia sets no statutory day of the month for wages: monthly pay is due once a month, on the date agreed in the contract (Labour Law article 90). The deadline that bites is the file — the wage file goes to Mudad within 30 days of the due date, cut from 60 days on 1 March 2025. Paid amounts also have to match the contract registered on Qiwa and the employee's GOSI registration

UAE

• WPS compliance is mandatory for most private sector employers
• Since Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026 (in force 1 June 2026, replacing Resolution 598 of 2022), wages for a month must reach employees on the 1st of the following Gregorian month, whatever cycle the contract sets — and the 15-day grace period is gone, so payment after the 1st is late immediately. The compliance threshold also rose from 80% to 85% of total wages transferred through the system
• DEWS (Daman workplace savings plan) has replaced the traditional EOSI structure for most mainland companies — verify which scheme applies to each employee
• Free zone employees may be subject to their respective free zone authority rules, which can differ from mainland requirements

Bahrain

• Social Insurance contributions under the Social Insurance Organisation (SIO) apply to both Bahraini and expatriate employees — verify monthly submission
• Bahrainization quotas vary by sector and are monitored by the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA)
• The LMRA's enhanced Wage Protection System has been in full rollout since Q1 2026 and reverses the order of operations: the wage file is validated through the LMRA portal before the bank transfer, a Wages Responsible Person is appointed for the employer, and maker/checker roles are separated
• Overtime and leave entitlements sit under Labour Law No. 36 of 2012 — check your rates against the law rather than against a neighbouring market's

Qatar

• The Wage Protection System applies to every private-sector employer: wages go through a WPS-registered bank or exchange house, and a Salary Information File (SIF) is submitted to the Ministry of Labour each pay cycle. Under Law No. 9 of 2026 the Minister may suspend Ministry services for an establishment that is not paying wages as required
• End of service gratuity is at least three weeks' (21 days') basic wage for every year of service, after at least one year of continuous service (Law No. 14 of 2004, Article 54). A contract may grant more, but 21 days per year is the statutory floor — a different structure from Kuwait's
• Kafala reform changes over recent years have affected employment contract portability; contracts should be reviewed to confirm compliance

Oman

• Social insurance contributions under the Social Protection Fund (SPF), which replaced PASI (Royal Decree 52/2023), apply at 13.5% employer contribution on Omani nationals (rising to 14.5% from 19 July 2026), plus an 8% employee share
• Omanization ratios apply by sector and are monitored quarterly
• Annual leave entitlement is a minimum of 30 days after completion of one year, consistent with the GCC norm

Cross-Country Considerations

If you have employees working across multiple GCC countries — even periodically — their tax residency and contribution status requires careful review. Dual registration, missed contributions, and incorrect entitlement calculations are the most common audit findings for multi-country teams.

Running this checklist manually once a quarter is manageable for a small team. For companies operating across three or more GCC countries with more than 50 employees, the volume of moving parts — different contribution rates, different leave structures, different quota obligations — is where a purpose-built system stops being a nice-to-have.