Leaving a job in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Sharjah after a year or more? Put in your last basic salary and your service, and you'll get the end-of-service gratuity that Article 51 of the UAE Labour Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021) gives a full-time expat worker in the private sector. It also handles the two-year cap and unpaid leave.
A full-time expat earns 21 days of basic salary for each of the first five years and 30 days for every year after that, with part-years paid pro rata once you pass one year. On an AED 10,000 basic salary, 7 years of service gives about AED 55,000. Under one year, the law gives nothing.
Enter your numbers and press Calculate.
General information only, not legal advice. This estimate follows Article 51 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 and Article 30 of Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 as published on the UAE government portal (page updated 15 October 2026). Your contract, a court ruling or MoHRE can change the final figure, so check the official site before you sign a settlement.
How to use the UAE gratuity calculator
- Type your last basic monthly salary. Leave out housing, transport and any other allowance.
- Enter your service in years and months, or switch to dates and pick your first and last working days. In date mode we count both of those days.
- Add any unpaid leave or unpaid absence. Those days come off your service before anything else happens.
- If you're part-time, choose that option and enter your weekly hours next to the company's full-time hours.
- Press Calculate. If your employer says you owe them money (a salary advance, say), put it in the last box to see what's left.
The formula
Article 51(2) sets the 21 and 30 days, Article 51(3) pays part-years in proportion once you've done a full year, Article 51(4) removes unpaid absence, and Article 51(6) caps the total at two years' wage. Article 67 of the same law says a year is 365 days and a month is 30 days, which is where our default daily wage comes from.
Worked example
Basic salary AED 12,000, 8 years of service, full-time. The daily wage is 12,000 ÷ 30 = AED 400. The first five years earn 5 × 21 = 105 days and the next three earn 3 × 30 = 90 days, so 195 days in all. 195 × 400 = AED 78,000, well under the cap of 24 × 12,000 = AED 288,000.
More worked examples in AED
Four and a half years on AED 8,000
All of the service sits inside the first five years, so it's 21 × 4.5 = 94.5 days. The daily wage is 8,000 ÷ 30 = AED 266.67, and 94.5 days come to AED 25,200. The extra six months add AED 2,800 on their own, which is why it pays to check your exact end date.
Eleven months on AED 5,000
Nothing. Article 51 starts only after a full year of continuous service, and the pro rata rule for part-years applies only once you've crossed that line. Eleven months gets AED 0 however high the salary.
Thirty years on AED 20,000 (the cap)
The days add up to 105 + (25 × 30) = 855, which would be 855 × 666.67 = AED 570,000. Two years' wage is 24 × 20,000 = AED 480,000, so the payout stops at AED 480,000. With the ÷30 method the cap only starts to bite after 25.5 years of service.
Part-time: 24 hours a week out of 48
Say the basic is AED 6,000 and the worker has 6 years. A full-timer would get (105 + 30) × 200 = AED 27,000. Under Article 30 of Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 the part-timer gets the share of full-time hours actually in the contract, here 24 ÷ 48 = 50%, so AED 13,500. The resolution talks about hours per year. Weekly hours give the same percentage as long as both figures cover the same weeks.
Using dates: 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2025
Counting both ends, that's 1,096 days because 2024 had 29 February. 1,096 ÷ 365 = 3.003 years, so 63.06 days at AED 333.33 for a basic of AED 10,000, or about AED 21,019.18. Thirty days of unpaid leave in that stretch would drop it to AED 20,443.84.
Only the basic salary counts
This is where most people's mental maths goes wrong. A typical Dubai offer letter splits pay into basic, housing and transport, and the basic part can be a lot smaller than the headline number. The UAE government portal says it plainly: gratuity is worked out on the last basic wage, without housing, transport, utilities or furniture allowances. If your package is AED 15,000 with a basic of AED 7,000, the calculator wants 7,000.
It's also the last basic wage that counts, so a raise in your final month lifts the gratuity for every year you've worked. Workers paid by piece are the exception: Article 23 uses their average daily pay over the six months before the claim.
Why two daily wage methods?
The law gives the days (21 or 30) but doesn't say in Article 51 how to turn a monthly basic into a day's pay. Article 67 treats a month as 30 days, so dividing by 30 is the common approach and our default. DMCC, the Dubai free zone authority, publishes a sample sheet that uses basic × 12 ÷ 365 instead, and it says there's no officially recognised formula. On AED 10,000 with 4.25 years, the two methods give AED 29,750 and about AED 29,342. That's a gap of about 1.4%. Use the dropdown to see both, and ask HR which one your settlement uses.
Resigning no longer cuts the gratuity
Many older articles online still say a resignation after one to five years only earns a third or two-thirds of the gratuity. That came from Federal Law No. 8 of 1980, which Article 73 of the new law abolished. Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 has been in force since 2 February 2022, and Article 51 makes no cut for resigning. DMCC's guidance says the same formula applies whatever the reason for leaving. You still have to work out your notice period, and that period counts as service.
When it's paid and what can come off
The portal says employers must pay outstanding wages, other dues and the gratuity within 14 days of the contract ending. Under Article 51(7) the employer can deduct money you owe under the law or a court judgment, which is what the "amounts you owe" box is for. Your final settlement should also pay unused annual leave separately, so don't let anyone fold it into the gratuity figure.
Planning what to do with the lump sum? The compound interest calculator shows how it might grow, and if you keep it for a lunar year above the nisab, our zakat calculator works out what's due.
Who this calculator doesn't fit
Emiratis in the private sector get pension benefits under the pensions and social security law instead of Article 51. Staff in the DIFC follow DIFC Law No. 2 of 2019; since 1 February 2020 their employers pay monthly into DEWS or another qualifying scheme, and only service before that date earns the old-style gratuity. Article 3 of the law leaves out government employees, the armed forces and police, and domestic workers, so none of them should use this tool either. If you worked in Saudi Arabia instead, the rules are quite different (half a month's wage per year for five years, with resignation cuts), and our Saudi end of service calculator handles them.
The Savings Scheme option
Since Cabinet Resolution No. 96 of 2023, private-sector and free zone employers can sign up to a voluntary Savings Scheme run through MoHRE-approved investment funds. An employer who joins pays 5.83% of the monthly basic salary into the fund for staff with under five years and 8.33% for those with more. Those rates match 21 and 30 days out of a 360-day year. Gratuity earned before enrolment still has to be settled under the law. When the job ends, the worker gets the contributions plus any returns within 14 days. If your employer has enrolled you, your fund statement replaces the result above for the enrolled years.
Before you sign the final settlement
Get the dates in writing, including the day your notice ended. Compare the basic salary on the settlement with your last payslip, not your offer letter from years ago. Ask for the gratuity, unpaid salary and leave pay to be shown as separate lines, and check every deduction against something you actually owe. If you're also buying things on the way out, our VAT calculator has a UAE 5% preset.
FAQ
How is gratuity calculated in the UAE in 2026?
For full-time expats it's 21 days of basic salary for each of the first five years and 30 days for each year after that, with part-years paid pro rata once you've done one year. The total can't go over two years' wage (Article 51, Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021).
Do I get gratuity if I resign?
Yes, if you have at least one year of continuous service. The current law doesn't cut the gratuity for resigning. The one-third and two-thirds rules came from the old 1980 law.
What is the gratuity for 2 years in the UAE?
42 days of basic salary. On AED 6,000 basic that's 42 × 200 = AED 8,400 using the ÷30 method.
Are housing and transport allowances included?
No. The UAE government portal says gratuity uses the last basic salary only, without housing, transport or other allowances.
How fast must my employer pay?
Within 14 days of the end of the contract, together with unpaid wages and other dues, according to the UAE government portal.
Is there gratuity for less than one year?
No. Article 51 requires one year or more of continuous service, and unpaid absence days don't count toward it.
Sources
I read each of these on 27 October 2026 (Riyadh time).
- UAE government portal (u.ae): End of service benefits for workers in the private sector
- Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Employment Relationships, English translation (PDF, u.ae)
- DMCC: End of Service Benefit (EOSB) calculation guidance (PDF)
- DIFC Employment Law, DIFC Law No. 2 of 2019 (consolidated July 2025, PDF)
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