Optimize Your Hiring With A UAE PEO

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the most strategically located countries in the world. Owing to its ample natural resources, robust financial position, economic policies, cosmopolitan culture, and global appeal, the Gulf nation is considered to be one of the hubs for trade and commerce across not just Asia but the entire global map.

However, owning a business in one of the seven world renowned emirates of the UAE is not without its fair share of challenges. Employers would require an understanding of licenses,  work permits, employment contracts, renting spaces, payroll laws, tax laws to compliantly expand and employ talent in the UAE.

To ensure your employment and expansion plans are hassle-free it is advisable to engage the services of a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) or an Employer of Record (EOR). If you are looking for a UAE PEO, then your search ought to end with Multiplier.

If you are curious of the role played by a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) and whether you must hire one for your business in the UAE, then here are the answers to all those queries. As its name suggests, a PEO is an organization that you can enter into a contractual association with in order to outsource the responsibilities of hiring and managing your workforce – full-time and part-time human resources alike. 

A Professional Employee Organization also makes it easy for you to manage your associations with various stakeholders such as independent contractors. Important responsibilities such as payroll management, administration of employee benefits, the reporting of expenses, the maintenance of employee leave records and timesheets etc. can be easily streamlined with a PEO. 

If you wish to start a business in the United Arab Emirates, the expert services of a PEO UAE can go a long way in ensuring legal compliance and your entity’s smooth operations. In addition to this, you can end up saving a substantial amount by reducing the overall costs of managing your human resources. 

With a presence in more than 150 countries, Multiplier is a comprehensive PEO-EOR platform that can help you manage a gamut of tasks concerning your global workforce. Not only do we have a team of 100+ legal experts who are ready to assist you round the clock vis-a-vis PEO-EOR services, we also have a simple and easy to understand pricing model that makes any association with us profitable. 

Here is a succinct glimpse at our simple pricing model. 

• Onboarding of full-time employees: If you wish to employ people across the globe without creating your own entity in each nation, then Multiplier can help you do so at the feasible cost of $300 per employee per month onwards. This cost covers the following:

1. 1. Management of international payroll systems 
   2. Drafting and execution of multi-lingual contracts of employment 
   3. Administration of employee benefits 
   4. Expense management 
   5. Leave management 

• Onboarding of freelancers: Not only do we provide PEO-EOR solutions for full-time employees, but also for freelancers. If you wish to entrust the onboarding and payroll management of freelancers to us, you shall have to pay a mere $40 per freelancer per month. The aforementioned service includes the following:
• Management of international payroll systems 
• Drafting and execution of multi-lingual contracts of employment 

You can visit our official website now and talk to our experts to engage our services as your UAE EOR.

Hiring a workforce for your business in the United Arab Emirates can be challenging. It is advisable to hire people from the UAE since the country’s citizens have been afforded the priority to work there. On the other hand, foreign nationals can only be employed in any private entity if no UAE national is available or eligible for said role. 

In addition to the above, hiring foreign nationals for an entity based in the UAE requires the relevant approvals from the requisite authorities as well as work permits and a labor card. According to the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC), the local laws of employment mandate employers to issue written contracts of employment to their employees. 

Here are some of the important facets of hiring a workforce in the United Arab Emirates. 

UAE Employment Contracts

As discussed above, all employers in the UAE are required to issue a written employment contract to their employees, comprising, amongst others, the following particulars:

• The names of the employee and the employer/s
• The date from which the contract shall begin 
• The particulars of the wage or salary as well as the period of its applicability 
• Job description 
• Details on working hours 
• Sick leave policy 
• Details on vacation leave
• Clauses for notice period for either party 
• Details of probation period, if any
• Disciplinary policies 
• Grievance redressal mechanism, etc. 

Minimum Wages

If you wish to hire a workforce in the United Arab Emirates, then you must be aware of the regulations for the minimum wages for employees in the country. Whilst there is no provision for minimum wages for employees who are expatriates, there are predetermined minimum wages for the citizens of the UAE. 

Should you hire any UAE nationals in your business organization in the country, you will have to keep the following minimum wages requirements in mind. 

• For employees who do not hold a high school graduation certificate: 3,000 dirham per month onwards 
• For employees who hold a high school graduation certificate: 4,000 dirham per month onwards 
• For employees who hold a college certificate: 5,000 dirham per month onwards 

Working Hours

The United Arab Emirates mandate a maximum of 48 working hours per week or 8 working hours per day. 

Yearly leaves

A minimum of 30 paid leaves must be granted for each calendar year for employees working in the United Arab Emirates. 

Sick Leaves 

There are specific provisions for sick leave for the employees of organizations functioning in the United Arab Emirates. Once an employee has completed a tenure of three months with their present organization, they become eligible for a maximum of 90 days of sick leave in a calendar year. 

Such a leave shall be approved only after the concerned employee has submitted a medical certificate to that effect not later than 48 hours from the first day of the leave. It is important to note that whilst 100% pay shall be provided for the first 15 days of a sick leave, for the subsequent 40 days, 50% pay shall be awarded. 

Maternity Leave

There is a provision of 60 days of Maternity leave in the United Arab Emirates. Earlier this benefit was available only for those female employees who had completed a year of service with their present organization but now this clause has been eliminated from the Maternity Leave benefit. Whilst the first 45 days of a maternity leave are fully paid for, the next 15 days are 50% paid leaves. 

Paternity Leave

Individuals working in the private sector in the United Arab Emirates are eligible for a Paternity Leave of five days. The aforementioned leave must, however, be availed within six months of an employee becoming a parent. 

Public Holidays 

The United Arab Emirates has a provision for 7 public holidays in a calendar year. 

Overtime

If an employee in the United Arab Emirates works over and above their designated working hours, they are entitled to receive either a compensatory leave or an additional pay of 50% for that day’s work. 

Establishing a business entity in the UAE

If you plan to start a business in the United Arab Emirates and/or have employees based in the Gulf nation, then you are required to register a legal entity in the country and obtain a company licence. You can opt to set up your entity either in a Free Trade Zone in the UAE or within the onshore jurisdiction area of the nation.

Taxation in the UAE

Although the United Arab Emirates is celebrated globally as a mostly tax-free nation vis-a-vis the conduction of business, the country has been introducing tax reforms over the past few years. In January 2022, the United Arab Emirates government announced the introduction of a Federal Corporate Tax of 9% that shall be effective from June 1, 2023. The aforementioned tax shall be applicable on the profits made by onshore business entities operating in the country. 

Payroll in the UAE 

After the implementation of the Wage Protection System in the United Arab Emirates, it has become mandatory for all business entities operating in the country to have a well documented payroll management system. This is one area where the services of a UAE PEO can be extremely beneficial. 

Whilst designing a payroll system for your organization in the United Arab Emirates, the following mandatory social security contributions should be accounted for. 

• Contribution by the employer: All employers in the United Arab Emirates are required to contribute 12.5% of an employee’s gross salary towards social security which includes housing allowance. This amount should be between 1,000 dirham and 50,000 dirham per month. In the emirate of Abu Dhabi, however, the employer’s contribution towards social security is supposed to be 15% instead of 12.5%.

• Contribution by the employee: All employees who are UAE or GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) nationals are required to contribute 5% of their gross pay towards social security. 

• Contribution by the government: The government of the United Arab Emirates is required to contribute 2.5% of an employee’s gross salary towards social security. This percentage is 6% for the emirate of Abu Dhabi. 

The aforementioned social security benefits are applicable only for those employees who are the citizens of the United Arab Emirates or any country falling under the Gulf Cooperation Council, that is, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The total social security contribution has to be 20% of the gross salary of an employee for all the emirates, except for Abu Dhabi where this contribution is supposed to be 26% (15% contribution from the employer, 6% contribution from the government, and 5% contribution from the employee). 

Employee benefits in the UAE

Some of the common employee benefits in the United Arab Emirates are as follows:

• Working hours of 48 hours per week 
• 30 paid leaves per annum
• Tax-free income 
• Social security benefits

Employee severance and termination in the UAE

Employees must offer a written notice of one to three months for the severance of a job contract in the United Arab Emirates. However, the termination of an employment contract is permissible in the event of the breach of any clause of said contract or any illegal or fraudulent activity. 

Should you choose Multiplier as your UAE EOR, you shall have access to an expertly designed and professionally managed global employment solution. Our SaaS-based PEO-EOR solutions can help you manage your workforce in the UAE. Multiplier’s UAE PEO and EOr can help you:. 

1. Stay compliant with the local laws of the United Arab Emirates 
2. Manage payroll and employee benefits
3. Pay salaries in multiple currencies 

If you choose Multiplier as your Employer of Record for the United Arab Emirates, then you can be assured of seamless workforce and payroll management. With your human resources worries parked safely with us, you can focus on the expansion of your business. Here are some of the features of our EOR solutions. 

Features of Multiplier’s PEO-EOR solutions

• Hiring talent from different parts of the globe
• Onboarding of a global workforce 
• Management of payroll systems 
• Administration of employee benefits 
• Drafting of multi-lingual contracts
• Compliance with local labor laws 
• Tackling employment risks
• Customized insurance policies for your global workforce 
• Multi-country payroll for full-time employees as well as freelancers 
• Feasible, robust, and reliable PEO-EOR solution 

Book a demo and embrace borderless hiring, simple payroll processing and deliver homogenous and locally compliant benefits to your globally distributed employees.