Laws about hiring are complicated, and the same is true in United Arab Emirates. But there are ways to sidestep the headaches—if your company hasn’t already established a physical presence in United Arab Emirates, you have two real options when it comes to hiring. We’ll detail both below.
If you want to successfully hire in
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
, you have two options:
Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
. Onboarding talent takes days, not weeks or months. Both you, the company, and your talent have more flexibility. And in many cases, since you’re remote, the talent you’re hiring is better classified as a contractor, anyway. Of course, it’s not possible in every case, but it’s what we built Panther for.
This is the long route. You can either establish a physical presence with an entity and register as an employer, or you can use an Employer-of-Record (EOR) solution. Odds are, you’ll find using an EOR to be the easier route. Still, using an EOR in
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
is expensive—it can often be $500 per month per employee—and sometimes prone to lengthy onboarding times.
Hiring contractors is normally the easier, faster, more flexible choice—but don’t just take it from us. Below are the specific benefits and drawbacks to hiring contractors in
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
.
Hiring employees takes months, at the minimum. When you hire with Panther’s locally-generated contracts, it’s a matter of days or weeks. This means you can hire the best talent, fast, without losing them to a hellish procession of paperwork.
It costs just $0 to sign up for Panther, then $49 per month to hire your contractors with Panther. If you hired employees manually (or did contracting on your own), you’d likely be on the hook for thousands of dollars each month. Setting up an entity alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Hiring contractors in
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
means you’re generally not on the hook for things like health insurance and paid time off. This makes hiring flexible for you, and it gives your talent more options.
Hiring employees is a bigger commitment, and can open you up to increased liabilities and regulations. When you hire contractors overseas, your biggest risk is misclassification—but laws surrounding contractor classification are often significantly more straightforward.
The contractor life isn’t for everyone—some people want the security that being an employee often appears to provide. Though it’s rare, this does happen, and it’s one disadvantage of manage an all-contractor team.
Most countries’ contractor-employer relationship laws stipulate that the employer can’t set fixed working hours, among other things. These laws give contractors more freedom over how and when they do their work than an employee would have. In reality, however, most contractors are willing & able to work on the company’s schedule—it’s a matter of setting expectations beforehand.
If you’re hiring contractors in
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
, you can pay them with Panther in a single click. You won’t need to worry about complicated wire transfers, fees, or currency conversions. We’ll take care of it all. Just make a click and your contractor will get paid in their currency of choice. This is a valuable bonus for talent in countries where the local currency is particularly weak—most people appreciate the ability to receive their payment in stronger currencies.
If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in United Arab Emirates than employees. Still, there are valid reasons why you might want to hire employees instead. The content below is for you—we’ll cover employer taxes and obligations in United Arab Emirates.
If an employee has fulfilled at least one year of employment, they are entitled to 30 days of paid leave a year.
7 holidays totaling 14 days.
After 3 months of employment starting from the end of the probation period, an employee is entitled to 90 days of sick leave.
The first 45 days of sick leave are paid as follows:
From the 46th day, sick leave is not paid.
Within the first 2 days of the sickness, the employee must give notice to their employer and produce a medical certificate from a doctor.
A woman is entitled to 45 days of fully paid maternity leave if they have completed at least 1 year of employment.
For women who work under the DIFC employment law, maternity leave is 65 days if the woman has worked for at least 1 year. The first 33 days are paid at a rate of 100% of the normal pay and the remaining 32 days is paid at the rate of 50% of the regular pay.
Paternity leave falls under parental leave.
For private-sector employees, both parents are entitled to 5 days’ paid leave. The leave can be taken until the child reaches the age of 6 months.
Under the DIFC, pregnant employees are entitled to paid leave for prenatal care.
The termination of an employment agreement must be given in writing.
For expatriates, the final payment is made when the employment visa is canceled. In addition, the employer is obligated to notify the authorities when an employee leaves the UAE.
A minimum of 30 days of advance notice is required by law. The employer can choose to give pay in lieu of notice if they so choose.
Under the DIFC employment law, notice period depends on the length of service:
DIFC also allows for pay in lieu of notice.
The amount of severance pay is determined by the length of employment:
If the reason for termination is not recognized by UAE law, the employee may be entitled to additional compensation totaling 3 months’ pay.
The probation period can last a max of 6 months.
The work week in the UAE is from Sunday to Thursday with full-time employment considered 48 hours weekly and 8 hours daily.
For businesses, hotels, and cafes employees, the workday is 9 hours.
During Ramadan, working hours are reduced by 2 daily.
Overtime pay is paid at a rate of 125% of the regular pay, however, for overtime hours worked between 9 pm and 4 am, overtime is calculated at 150% of the regular pay.
For work on Fridays, the employee is entitled to an additional paid day off and overtime pay at the rate of 150% of the regular pay.
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