The rules, explained
Everything the calculator applies, and everything around it that decides what a final settlement should contain, set out in plain terms with the article of the law each rule comes from. If you were given a number you did not expect, one of these pages says why.
A UAE final settlement is decided by a small number of rules applied to a small number of facts. The rules are in Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 — in force since 2 February 2022 — and its executive regulations, Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022. The facts are three: your basic wage, your service period, and how and when the employment ended. Almost every disagreement about a settlement turns out to be about one of those three facts rather than about the formula, which is why the pages below spend as much time on the facts as on the law.
The pages are grouped in the order most people need them: first how the gratuity itself is worked out, then the rest of the settlement and the process of leaving, then the situations where the federal rules do not apply at all.
Calculating the gratuity
Article 51 pays a full-time foreign worker 21 days of basic wage for each of the first five years of service and 30 days for each year after, once a year of continuous service is complete, up to a ceiling of two years' wage. These pages take that sentence apart.
- How gratuity is calculatedArticle 51 step by step — the daily wage, the 21 and 30 day bands, the two-year ceiling, and three worked examples you can check against
- What counts as basic salaryAllowances are excluded, and for most packages that halves the answer. Where to find your real basic wage
- The service periodWhat counts, what unpaid leave costs, and what quietly breaks continuity of service
- Resignation no longer reduces your gratuityThe one-third and two-thirds scale was repealed in 2022. How to spot a calculator that still applies it
- Work models: part-time, job-sharing, flexible, temporaryArticle 30 pro-rates two of them by contracted hours and excludes a third from gratuity altogether — the part almost nobody covers
- What changed on 2 February 2022The old law against the new one, and why so much outdated guidance is still online
The rest of the settlement, and leaving
Gratuity is usually the largest line, but it is one of several, and the others are where settlements most often come up short. The timing matters too: notice decides when the contract ends, and the end of the contract starts the fourteen-day clock in Article 53.
- Notice periodsThe 30-to-90-day rule in Article 43, notice pay on the full wage, the weekly job-search day, probation and summary dismissal
- Unused annual leaveHow Article 29 pays out untaken leave on basic wage, part-year leave, and the arguments about carry-over
- The 14-day deadlineFrom notice to payment: what the fourteen days run from, and what clearance and paperwork can and cannot delay
- Visa cancellation and the final settlementTwo separate processes: what the employer must do, what to check before you sign, and grace periods
- Filing a MOHRE complaintStep by step: asking in writing, the amicable stage, MOHRE’s power to decide claims up to 50,000 AED, and court referral
For the whole settlement on one page, use every line you are owed.
When the federal rules do not apply
The calculator and most of the pages above apply to private-sector employers licensed on the mainland and in most free zones. Four groups are governed by something else, and for them a federal figure is not just approximate — it can be wrong in kind.
- Free zones: which law decides your gratuityJAFZA, DMCC and most others follow the federal law; DIFC and ADGM have their own regimes. How to tell which you are in
- DIFC DEWSMonthly contributions of 5.83% and 8.33% of basic wage since February 2020, and what happened to gratuity for earlier service
- ADGM end of serviceSection 61 of the 2024 regulations: a 365-day daily rate, a 50% basic floor, no cap and a 21-day deadline
- Domestic workersA separate decree-law, a ten-day payment rule, a three-month claim limit — and a gratuity left to rules the Cabinet has to set
- UAE and GCC nationalsWhy Emiratis receive pension contributions rather than an Article 51 gratuity, and how GCC nationals are treated
How to use these pages
If you have a figure from your employer, start by working backwards: divide the gratuity offered by your daily basic wage to get the number of days, and compare it with the days the formula gives for your service. A shortfall in days points to the service period; the right days at the wrong rate point to the basic wage. Then check the other lines against the checklist. The worked scenarios show the same process on complete cases, from resignation in probation to retirement after 28 years.
Each page quotes the provisions it relies on and links the primary sources at the foot. How we research, check and correct these pages is set out in our editorial policy.
This is general information about the law as published, not advice about your situation. It cannot account for your contract wording, your employer's records, or anything a tribunal might make of the facts. Where the amounts matter, a UAE-qualified lawyer or MOHRE is the right place to take it.
This index revised 2026-10-18. Each page carries its own review date against Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 and its executive regulations.