BRev UAE gratuity calculator — end of service under the new Labour Law
Work out your end-of-service gratuity under Article 51 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021: 21 days’ basic wage a year for the first five years, 30 days after that, part years pro rata, unpaid days left out and the two-year cap — every line with its article.
End-of-service gratuity for private-sector employees in the UAE is set by Article 51 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, the Labour Law in force since 2 February 2022. A full-time foreign employee who completes one year of continuous service earns 21 days of basic wage for each of the first five years and 30 days for each year after that, with part years paid pro rata. Days of unpaid absence are not counted, the benefit is worked out on the last basic wage (allowances are left out), and the total cannot exceed two years’ wage. Many calculators still apply the old 1980 law, which cut the gratuity when an employee resigned; Article 51 has no such reduction. This calculator follows the new law as written: it counts service in days on Article 67’s 365-day year, takes one day’s wage as the monthly basic divided by 30 (Article 67 fixes the month at 30 days), and shows each band, the cap check and the date the payment is due. The rules are as of 24 October 2026, read from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation text of the law and its implementing regulation. It is an estimate, not legal advice.
What you can do
- Counts your service in days, both the first and the last working day included, and takes out unpaid absence (Article 51(4))
- Applies the one-year minimum exactly: 365 days of service earns a gratuity, 364 days earns nothing (Article 51(2)–(3))
- Splits the result into the first five years at 21 days a year and the years after at 30 days a year, part years pro rata
- Shows how one day’s wage is derived — last monthly basic ÷ 30, under Article 67 — and the total days of wage earned
- Checks the two-year cap (Article 51(6)) and tells you when it applies
- Gives the date the gratuity must be paid by: 14 days after your contract ends (Article 53)
- Lists what the figure does not include: unpaid salary, leave encashment, notice pay and lawful deductions
- A worked example you can load with one click; its figures in the answer below are the ones the calculator produces
How to use uae gratuity calculator
- Enter your start date and last working dayPick the first day you worked and your last working day. Both days count as service.
- Enter your last basic monthly salaryType the basic salary in your contract, in UAE dirhams, without housing, transport or other allowances. Commas are fine.
- Add any unpaid leave daysIf you took unpaid leave or had unpaid absence, enter the number of days. They are taken out of your service. Leave it blank if there were none.
- Read the resultThe results column shows your gratuity, your counted service, the daily wage, the days earned in each band, the two-year cap check and the date the payment is due.
FAQ
How is gratuity calculated in the UAE?
Under Article 51 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, a full-time foreign employee in the private sector who has completed one year of continuous service gets 21 days of basic wage for each of the first five years and 30 days of basic wage for each year after that. Part years are paid in proportion to the time worked, unpaid days of absence are not counted, the benefit is based on the last basic wage, and the total cannot be more than two years’ wage. One day’s wage is the monthly basic salary divided by 30, because Article 67 says that for the law “the month represents (30) thirty days”; for the same reason a year of service is 365 days.
Worked example: nine and a half years on AED 12,000 basic
An employee started on 1 March 2016 and her last working day was 31 August 2025, with a basic salary of AED 12,000 a month and 20 days of unpaid leave. The dates cover 3,471 days; less the 20 unpaid days, 3,451 days of service count — 9 years and 166 days. One day’s wage is AED 12,000 ÷ 30 = AED 400. The first 1,825 days (five years) earn 21 days a year, 105 days, which is AED 42,000. The remaining 1,626 days earn 30 days a year, 133.64 days, which is AED 53,457.53. In all she earns 238.64 days’ wage, a gratuity of AED 95,457.53. The two-year cap, 24 months of basic or AED 288,000, is not reached. The employer must pay it by 14 September 2025, 14 days after the contract ended.
Do I lose gratuity if I resign?
Not under the current law. Article 51 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 gives the same gratuity whether the employee resigns or the employer ends the contract, as long as the employee has one year of continuous service. The reductions for resigning — one third or two thirds of the benefit for short service — came from the old Federal Law No. 8 of 1980, which the new law replaced from 2 February 2022. If your service ended before that date the old rules applied, and this calculator does not compute them. One exception reaches past that date: if you were on an open-ended (undefined-term) contract under the old law, Article 68(3) lets the employer calculate the benefit for that contract under the old law, so a resignation reduction can still apply to it — the calculator flags this when your service started before 2 February 2022 but does not make the reduction. Article 51 also has no exception that takes the gratuity away from an employee dismissed without notice under Article 44; if your employer says otherwise, check your case with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation.
I was on an open-ended contract under the old law. Does that change my gratuity?
It can, if you resigned. The new law required open-ended contracts (“contracts of undefined terms”) made under the 1980 law to be converted to fixed-term contracts (Article 68(2)), and Article 68(3) says the employer may calculate the end-of-service benefit “in accordance with the provisions of the employment contract with an undefined term” in the 1980 law. Under that law, resigning from an open-ended contract with less than five years’ service reduced the benefit. How Article 68(3) applies to your years before the conversion — and whether the employer used it — is a question for your employer or the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation. This calculator applies Article 51 to the whole of your service and makes no old-law reduction, so for a resignation from an open-ended contract its figure may be higher than what is due; it shows a note whenever service started before 2 February 2022.
Is gratuity calculated on basic salary or total salary?
On basic salary. Article 51 says the benefit is “calculated according to the basic wage” and on “the last basic wage the worker was entitled to”, and Article 1 defines the basic wage as the contract wage “which does not include any other allowances or benefits in-kind”. Housing, transport and other allowances are left out. If your basic salary changed over the years, the last one is used for the whole service.
When must the gratuity be paid?
Within 14 days of the end of the contract. Article 53 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 requires the employer to pay the worker’s wages and all other entitlements, including the gratuity, within fourteen days from the date the contract ends. If it is not paid, you can file a complaint with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation; claims must be brought within two years of the end of employment (Article 54(9)).
Can my employer deduct money from my gratuity?
Only amounts owed under the law or a court judgment (Article 51(7)). Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, Article 29, lists them: loan repayments or amounts paid to you in excess of your entitlement, pension and insurance contributions required by law, fines under the employer’s penalty regulation approved by the Ministry, debts under a court ruling, and the cost of damage you caused by your fault. This calculator shows the gratuity before any deduction.
What does this calculator not include?
Only the end-of-service gratuity. Your final settlement may also include unpaid salary, payment for annual leave you have not taken, notice pay if notice was not worked, and air tickets or other benefits in your contract — and may be reduced by lawful deductions. It does not cover UAE and GCC nationals (whose end-of-service benefit follows the pension law and the General Pension and Social Security Authority), employees in the DIFC (which has its own employment law and the DEWS savings scheme) or ADGM (its own employment regulations), federal and local government employees, domestic workers, part-time or other non-full-time work patterns, pay on a piecework basis, or employers that have joined the voluntary alternative end-of-service savings scheme.
Why does the calculator divide the basic salary by 30 and not use 365 days?
Because the law fixes the month. Article 67 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 says the year is 365 days “while the month represents (30) thirty days”, so one day of basic wage is the monthly basic divided by 30, and “a wage of 21 days” is 21 times that. Some calculators use basic × 12 ÷ 365, which gives about 1.4% less; that mixes the 365-day year into a month the law sets at 30 days. Service itself is counted in days and divided by 365, so a leap day worked counts as a day of service.
Is my data uploaded, and is this legal advice?
Nothing is uploaded: the calculation runs in your browser, and your last inputs are kept only in this browser so they are there when you come back. It is an estimate, not legal advice. The rules are as of 24 October 2026, read from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation text of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 and Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022; the official Arabic text prevails, and the Ministry or a court decides any dispute.