Salary survey of non-western expat labor in Dubai

If you've heard about Dubai, the Arabian Dream and you're interested in relocating to build your fortune, then this article is for you. Dubai is the favored job destination for expats looking for high salaries and is always at the top of the list of where job seekers want to go.

20% of the population of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are native Emirati, the other 80% are Arab, non-western, and western expats that make up the vast majority of the workforce. This extremely lopsided statistic has put tremendous pressure from the government to Emiratize the workforce, but there is an equally strong resistance by companies to continue hiring expats over Emiratis to save costs. Emiratization has been most effective in the government and banking sectors.

There are two types of companies that you can work for in Dubai, western or Arab. This article deals exclusively with Arab companies. Working for a western company is considered preferable, especially for western expats used to western business practices, but being an Arab country, most companies are obviously Arab owned and run.

Salary structure in the UAE consists of your basic wage + allowances. Allowances may include:

• Company provided housing or cash housing allowance. Our 2 bedroom/2 bath villa in Mirdif, located on the outskirts of Dubai, costs 60,000 dirham ($16,300 USD)/year

  Note: Rent is normally paid one year at a time - in full. This is because your company traditionally pays your rent or the company has it's own dormitory. Now that cash housing allowances are becoming more common, landlords are beginning to accept quarterly payments. You give the landlord a check for three months rent plus another three post-dated checks at the start of your lease. Don't bounce checks - the number one reason for going to prison in the UAE is over bounced checks and unpaid credit cards.

• Company paid water & electricity or a cash allowance
• Company provided car or cash allowance
• Company pays petrol bills for your car or a cash petrol allowance
• Annual leave tickets back to your home country, usually for your entire family.

The basic wage is important because your end of service gratuity is calculated from your basic wage. End of service gratuity is a lump sum of cash you get when you quit your job. It is calculated as 21 days of basic wage for each year you work.

The work week is either 6 full days with Friday off or 5 1/2 days with half day Thursday plus Friday off. Most western companies have a five day work week with Friday and Saturday off to coordinate better with their home office.

Vacation is normally one month per year starting after you complete one year. Note that when they say month, it also includes the weekends.

There are seven national/religious holidays:

You salary for the same job will depend on your nationality. Arab companies place you in one of the following salary scales depending on which passport you hold:

1. Local Emirati Arab - highest paid. The UAE government gives Emiratis many job protections that expats do not enjoy. A case in point - the Emirati receptionist at my wife's company wanted to double her salary after one month of employment and reduce her workload by servicing calls for Arab speaking customers only. The company denied her request, so she complained to the labor ministry. The labor ministry agreed that her salary was too low for an Emirati (which was already much higher than her expat co-workers) and ordered the company to double her salary.

   This has actually made it difficult for many Emiratis to find employment as businesses are wary of potential problems.

2. Western.
3. Arab - Bilingual Arabic/English prefered.
4. Asian (mainly from India but also Philippines, Pakistan, etc)- lowest paid

Philippines

Filipino workers are highly sought after in the hospitality and service industries because they speak English, are college educated, and the economic situation in the Philippines make it desirable to look outside their country for employment.

I interviewed the T.G.I. Friday's waiter (located on Sheik Zayed Rd by Starbucks) on May 2004. They pay him 14,000 pesos ($250) / month plus shared accommodation - four to a room. He told me he made 8,000 pesos in the Philippines. When asked if he prefers Dubai or back home, he told me he prefers Dubai due to problems back home such as corruption and poverty, which fuels desperation and crime. He said he can't walk down the street talking on a cell phone for fear that it will be stolen out of his hands. He did not pay a job placement fee for his T.G.I. Friday's job because his sister was already in Dubai.

My next interviews were the nurses at my wife's obstetrician. Median salaries range from 3000 - 3500 dirham ($815 - $950 USD). This is more than 5 times the 8000 peso ($142 USD) average nursing salary in the Philippines. Even more startling is typical take home nursing salary after standard deductions for social security, income tax, medicare, and pag ibig (housing plan) is 4000 - 5000 pesos ($80 USD). Starting salaries for nurses just arriving in Dubai, without any prior Middle East experience is 2500 dirham. Clearly, Dubai is the winner here.

About job placement fees: Unless you get your job through a friend already in Dubai, you will pay a "fee" to a Filipino job agency back home. The "fee" is generally a year or more of your Dubai salary. Most Filipinos don't have a year's salary to pay as a fee but if you have a house or land then you can trade that for the fee. If you don't own a home, you make monthly payments from your Dubai salary.

I've been told if you renege on your monthly payments once you get to Dubai then your family back home will be threatened or assaulted, so the job placement agencies aren't too worried about non-payment. I have independently confirmed this with the nurses I interviewed previously, but I plan on interviewing more Asian expats to verify this is true.

The other Filipino that I interviewed is a housemaid/childcare/cook for an American-Danish family. Her salary is 1600 dirhams + private (and actually very cute) miniature bungalow detached from the family house. This western family lives in Jumeira, the "Beverly Hills" of Dubai with both husband and wife working and an extremely high combined family income.

Keralite Indians

The majority of Indians in Dubai are from Kerala so you have good company. For those not familiar with Kerala, it is a communist state in India, primarily Muslim, and has been left behind in India's recent economic success.

The Keralites I have interviewed (about 20 so far) have told me they are grateful to work in Dubai. They can often double their salary. I learned that Keralites also pay a "fee" to the job agency generally equivalent to a years salary but I ran across several Keralite Indians that paid two years salary to their middleman. Without having lived outside a Western country, I would never have learned or even believed that indentured servitude was still a normal business practice.

Now for actual salaries

1. Female executive secretary of a 4000+ employee Arab owned company earns 2000 dirham ($544 USD) basic + 2000 dirham allowances. Her husband earns 8000 dirham ($2,180 USD) total.
2. Housemaid/childcare/cook of the female executive secretary above. 850 dirhams ($230 USD) + own room + food + personal items (soap, shampoo, cloths, etc).
   
   The female executive secretary has had recent troubles with the salary structure for her housemaid. Over time, the housemaid has become more demanding about the quality of the personal items (shampoo, soap, clothing, etc) that she receives from the family. I suggest that to keep things simple, simply pay your housemaid a basic wage sufficient to allow her to purchase whatever personal items she likes and restrict allowances to housing, tickets, etc.
3. Tea boy (actually, a 28 year old married man) earns 600 dirham ($163 USD) + accommodation (shared room with 11 others) and has been with the company for four years. He also puts in a lot of overtime so he ends up making more than 600 dirham.

Egyptian

1. Manager in a large company with 10+ years of service
   8000 dirham ($2,180 USD) + 6 year old (somewhat beat up) company car + 28,000 housing allowance + annual leave tickets.
2. Another manager at same company, less than one year, same position as #2:
   8500 dirham ($2,315 USD) + new Toyota Camry + 38,000 dirham housing allowance + yearly tickets. #2 is upset because he has longer service and works harder and smarter then #3 (which is actually true).
3. British educated technology professional, 10+ years experience: I don't have salary details but he talked a lot about his experience at the largest IT training center in Bahrain. Apparently, he was the victim of several of the deceptive employer practices against newcomers to the region. These included: promising to give him his work visa soon, but throughout his eight months with the company never actually receiving it, giving him an air ticket to do his visa run (necessary because he only had visit visa status) but the air ticket was discounted and only good for travel during the low season, promising to reimburse the difference in price in the tickets but never actually doing it, and forcing overtime without pay.

British

One interview, I'll add more later:

28 year old professional. First came to Dubai on a visit visa to look for work. First time in the Middle East. He found a sales/marketing job with a small Arab business and signed a labor contract to work. When he received his first month's paycheck, it was about half what he was told in his contract. He protested but the owner told him that sales were slow that month and therefore his hands were tied (a fairly common incident in the Middle East).

He didn't like that so parted ways (in a friendly manner). Looks for a few more months and got a job with another large Arab company in middle management.

12,000 dirham ($3,270 USD) base salary + Toyota Camry + 40,000 housing allowance + annual leave tickets.

I've casually spoke with many, many other British citizens living in Dubai. Every one of them loves working and living here and would only go back home kicking and screaming.

Their main reasons are:

• Higher salary
• No tax.
• Sunny, almost no rain, long days with short nights, never cold.
• Sunny and not-crowded beaches. Many have complained beaches in Europe are crowded or not family friendly (topless?).
• None of the "old style" British thinking (I'm not completely sure what that means)
• Lower prices of goods as compared to Britain and the rest of the EU (but higher than the US)
• Normally get housing and car paid by company or at least subsidized
• Wives need not work, or work for enjoyment only. We call non-working expat wives "Jumiera Jane's" after the swanky area that these expats tend to live in.
• You can afford to hire your own housemaid/cook, maybe houseboy too. 1600 dirhams for a Filipino or less for Sri Lankan housemaids. (I realize this sounds racist but I'm just giving the facts)

Beware that this could be a case of self-selection as any British citizens that disliked Dubai wouldn't live here and I wouldn't get to opportunity to speak with them. In any case, of those that stay, they tell me that they enjoy life here so much they intend to spend the rest of their working career here and would like to retire if the government will allow it.

Another compelling factor for British citizens is that you do not need a university education to have a nice job. I know of several Britons with only a high school education that have managed to position themselves as an upper level manager. Doing the same in your home country will be much more difficult and salaries for Britons working in the UK are less than similarly educated Britons working in Dubai.

South Africans

In the past, the UAE has been generous in giving visas but lately they are becoming much more stingy as the number of South Africans has increased dramatically, partly because so many are trying to leave Saudi Arabia.

French

Australian

Pakistani

Without a doubt, construction is the #1 industry in Dubai. It's difficult to drive anywhere in Dubai without seeing hundreds of Pakistani construction workers in their blue uniforms. Surrounding my own villa are new construction projects and crews working seven days a week.

Nearly all construction workers are from Pakistan and from my point of view, these guys aren't treated too well. Average salaries are a couple hundred USD / month, working conditions are punishing, and safety gear is a bottom line expense that companies can save money on. In the summer, temperatures reach over 45 C. Unfortunately, as the least skilled group, they are also the most likely to be taken advantage of by their employers. The local paper (www.gulfnews.com) often has stories of workers not being paid for months at a time. Recently, 800 Pakistani construction workers attempted to march to the labor office to complain of not being paid for over six months (they were prevented by the police). They had to borrow money from friends and family just to buy food. Over several months the newspaper reported the negotiations between the company and it's employees. The company kept promising to pay the next month, but when next month came, the company needed just a bit more time. This dragged on for an additional four months.

I think in the end, the company managed to send most of the employees back to Pakistan. Often, companies will trick the worker by giving him a small amount of money + tickets home if he'll leave the country. As long as they can get the employee out of the country, their off the hook to pay his back wages or gratuity. Obviously, what's a poorly educated Pakistani going do once back in Pakistan? In defence of the UAE, this practice is not too common and when done so outrageously, is reported in the newspaper.

If your wondering why an employee would stay at a company that doesn't pay him, it's because the employer keeps the workers passport and holds his work visa. The worker can't travel home without a passport or work for another company (well, legally anyway) without the company transfering the work visa.

Even with these problems, I've been told that this is much better than their home country. Apparently, jobs are incredibly scarce while corruption is rampant. I really feel sorry for these guys if they think that their (in my view) hard life making almost nothing is nirvana.

Americans

Three American Interviews:

1. Teacher at the University of Sharjah - coming soon...
2. Senior Management for Dubai Port Authority - coming soon...

3. Last is me! - coming soon...

Now, nobody is coming to Dubai to conduct research or code software, so what are the desirable jobs here? - oil and construction specialists, senior management, teaching, and possibly medicine. Also view the salary survey to see how your job compares. Generally, the higher up the food chain you are, the more favorable your package will be here as compared to back home. Note that if you were a middle manager in the states you will qualify as an upper level manager here. This may be a fast method of jumping the corporate ladder. Overall, my wife did very well compared to what she would have earned in the states. More importantly, she can go back with the experience of building the HR department of a 4000 employee multinational company on her resume and easily jump right into a high level position. -->

American/European's workers rights

As an American or European citizen, you need to be aware of workers rights in the Arab Middle East. First, if you're not employed by one of the many Western companies in the Free Trade Zones (Dubai Internet City and Dubai Media City), your employer will expect to hold your passport. This practice does apply to American and European citizens. You will get your passport back upon completion of employment or while traveling outside the country. The standard practice is to show your ticket to your employer, your employer will meet you at the airport just before your flight to hand over your passport. Many western expats have successfully kept their passport after returning from vacation.

Another key difference is that signed, written contracts are forever negotiable. This is a cultural trait and something that I frankly didn't believe until I ran across several blindsided expats.

My American friend took a high-level position in senior management. His contract stated that his children's tuition would be paid by his company, the Dubai Port Authority. After he accepted the position, he was notified by his children's school they would not be allowed to attend because nobody paid the bill. He went to his employer and asked why they didn't pay the tuition as stated in his contract. They told him they changed their mind. My friend ended up paying the considerable tuition out of his own pocket.

Another incident was my British neighbor I mentioned above, when his first paycheck was half what he expected because sales were slow that month. His fiancée also experienced renegotiation of her contract after working several months in her new job.

This common practice is discussed in greater detail in an excellent book about doing business in the Arab Gulf countries entitled, Don't They Know It's Friday? by Jeremey Williams.

Closing Thoughts...

Westerners in certain specialized fields can make a great deal more in the Middle East. Oil and contruction specialists can make over $200,000 / year. PhD teachers, middle/upper management, Human Resources (especially specializing in Organizational Development), can do over $100,000 year. Just keep in mind the cost of living is higher in Dubai and if your coming from a major city with exceptional museums, restaurants, culture, etc, then Dubai's offerings will be modest. Even if you not here to make the big bucks, I still feel it is educational to live as an expat and become exposed to how others in the world live.

Europeans have an even more compelling reason to relocate here. Tax free salaries, lower cost of living, cheap cars and petrol, and a sunny and dry climate (appreciated greatly by the British!).

American teacher's experience in Dubai
Another expat's account of Dubai (from 1998-1999)