United Arab Emirates employment facts
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These are the 16 statutory values we hold for United Arab Emirates in Global Employment Facts (Employ Borderless), 11 of them read from a statute or the government that administers it. Each row names the page it came from, the date the figure took effect and the date a person last checked it. They are legal minimums, not what employers in United Arab Emirates actually offer, and they are what our three published indexes score United Arab Emirates on.
Robbin Schuchmann
Co-founder, Employ Borderless
What the law requires in United Arab Emirates
AE| Field | Value | Unit | Tier | Source | Effective | Verified | Caveats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statutory paid annual leaveannual_leave_days | 22 | working days a year | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-16 | - |
| National public holidayspublic_holidays | 13 | days a year | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-16 | - |
| Statutory notice periodnotice_weeks | 4.3 | weeks | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | - |
| Statutory severanceseverance_weeks | 18.1 | weeks | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | - |
| Employer social contributionsemployer_ssc_rate | 15 | % of gross pay | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | - |
| Employee social contributionsemployee_ssc_rate | 11 | % of gross pay | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | - |
| Income tax bracketsincome_tax_brackets | 1 band | - | Official | OECD | 2026-01-01 | 2026-09-13 | - |
| Corporate tax ratecorporate_tax_rate | 9 | % | Secondary | PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries | 2026-03-12 | 2026-06-23 | - |
| Standard VAT ratevat_rate | 5 | % | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2018-01-01 | 2026-09-17 | - |
| Statutory maternity leavematernity_leave_weeks | 8.6 | weeks | Extracted | Editorially reviewed secondary research | 2026-01-01 | 2026-06-11 | - |
| Statutory paternity leavepaternity_leave_weeks | 0.7 | weeks | Extracted | Editorially reviewed secondary research | 2026-01-01 | 2026-06-11 | - |
| Statutory parental leaveparental_leave_weeks | 1 | weeks | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | - |
| Maximum probation periodprobation_months | 6 | months | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | - |
| Statutory weekly hoursavg_weekly_hours | 48 | hours a week | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | - |
| Overtime premiumovertime_premium_pct | 25 | % above base pay | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | - |
| State pension ageretirement_age | 60 | years | Official | SSA Social Security Programs Throughout the World | 2023-01-01 | 2026-06-23 | - |
Where a field is missing from this table, we hold no sourced value for United Arab Emirates and publish the gap rather than filling it. Where a statute and a compilation disagree, the statute wins.
Source tiers on this page: Statute is statute or government source · Official is official multilateral compilation · Secondary is secondary compiler · Extracted is machine-extracted, editorially reviewed.
Use these numbers
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with attribution. The full edition, the per-field coverage table, the corrections log and the methodology live on the dataset page.
For what these rules mean in practice, who can employ under them and what hiring there actually costs, read our guide to hiring in United Arab Emirates.
Schuchmann, R. (2026). Global Employment Facts (Employ Borderless) [Data set]. Employ Borderless. https://employborderless.com/hiring-intelligence/global-employment-facts/
DOI pending. Until the Zenodo record resolves, cite the canonical URL above. Cite the dataset, not this page: the edition is frozen, so the numbers above will still be these numbers next quarter.