The employer cost will depend on the nationality of the employee and gender for health insurance:

• Saudi Nationals: the employer cost is generally estimated at 10.58% of the employee's salary.
• Employees with visas: the employer cost is generally estimated at 17.03% of the employee's salary.

Standard working hours are 8 hours per day, 40 hours per week with a standard work week from Sunday to Thursday. However, employees can have an extended working week from Saturday to Thursday (with Friday as a day off) working 8 hours per day, 48 hours per week.

Part-time employment is not allowed.

Employees are entitled to paid sick leave for up to 60 days. This leave is paid at different rates and by different payers depending upon length:

Terminations in Saudi Arabia can be complex and can include the termination of visa sponsorship.

Compliant terminations include:

• Voluntarily by the employee
• By mutual agreement
• Unilaterally by the employer based on:
  • probation period
  • objective grounds
  • disciplinary dismissal
  • performance due to unsuitability for the job
• By expiration of the contract

In Saudi, employees are entitled to severance of a half-month wage for each of the first five years and a one-month wage for each of the following years. The calculation is done based on the last wage received and the length of employment.

Severance also must be paid during resignations and is known as the end-of-service award.

To protect you from unforeseen financial risks arising from terminations, Deel applies a Severance Accrual to all employment agreements in this country.  Deel has extensive expertise in managing litigation risk globally and our Severance Accrual calculation is based on the prevailing common-law or statutory entitlements and local best practices. In the event your employee resigns or is not entitled to severance, all unused amounts will be returned to you.

Full-time employees are entitled to 21 working days of paid time off (PTO) a year. PTO accrues monthly at 1.75 working days per month.

Employees who have been with the company for more than five years of service are entitled to 30 days of annual leave.

Saudi Arabia celebrates 4 national holidays. National public holidays include:

• Founding Day
• Eid al-Fitr Holiday (4 days)
• Eid al-Adha Holiday (4 days)
• National Day

The onboarding timeline will depend if the employee requires a visa and the type applied: 

• Saudi Nationals: 15-20 business days after MSA signature and deposit payment
• Visa in-country (Iqama transfer) 25 business days after MSA signature and deposit payment
• Visa out of country: 60-120 business days after MSA signature and deposit payment

Contracts must be in Arabic and can be bilingual. They must be signed by both parties in the governmental portal. There will be a contract followed by an amendment:

• Document from the government to submit the application for visas, or sign in the QIWA portal
• Amendment to cover additional clauses (non-competition, privacy policy, among others).

A contract must include:

• name
• start date
• length of employment no more than two years
  • if the contract is for more than one year, a visa renewal must be agreed upon
• job description
• termination conditions