Gratuity Calculator UAE 2026: Your Complete Guide to End-of-Service Benefits

Use the calculator below to work out your UAE gratuity in seconds. Enter your basic salary, contract type, and joining and leaving dates, and you’ll get an instant estimate based on the current UAE Labour Law — Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021. Whether you’re on a limited contract, a legacy unlimited contract, resigning, or being let go, the tool applies the correct formula automatically.

If you’ve ever asked HR “how much gratuity will I get” and been handed a number with no explanation, you already know why this page exists. Gratuity — مكافأة نهاية الخدمة, or your End-of-Service Benefit (EOSB) — is often the single biggest paycheck an expat will ever receive from a UAE employer. Getting the number wrong before you resign can cost you thousands of dirhams. Getting it right means you walk into HR’s office already knowing what you’re owed.

What Is Gratuity in the UAE?

Gratuity is a legally mandated, lump-sum payment your employer owes you when your employment ends, provided you’ve completed at least one full year of continuous service. It’s not a bonus, not negotiable, and not something HR can decide to skip — it’s set out in Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, which replaced the older Labour Law No. 8 of 1980.

It applies to:

• Private-sector expatriate employees across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and the rest of the UAE
• Most free zone employees, including JAFZA, DMCC, and DDA
• Domestic workers, under a separate but related calculation

It generally does not apply to UAE nationals, who are covered under a government pension scheme instead — a distinction that trips up a lot of people searching for this exact answer.

One important note on accuracy: gratuity is calculated on your basic salary only. Housing allowance, transport allowance, and any bonuses are excluded, no matter how large a share of your total pay they make up. This single point is where more people lose money than any other — more on that below.

How the Gratuity Calculator Works

The calculator above needs five pieces of information to give you an accurate figure:

1. Basic monthly salary (AED) — the fixed base figure in your contract, not your gross salary
2. Contract type — limited (fixed-term) or unlimited
3. Reason for leaving — resignation or termination
4. First working day
5. Last working day

Once you enter these, the tool calculates your total service period, applies the correct 21-day or 30-day formula for each year worked, and shows a year-by-year breakdown — not just a single lump number, so you can see exactly how the figure was built.

Limited vs Unlimited Contracts: Which One Do You Actually Have?

This is the part almost every other gratuity calculator online gets muddled, and it’s the reason two different tools can give you two different answers for the same numbers.

Since February 2, 2022, when Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 came into force, all new UAE employment contracts are required to be limited (fixed-term) contracts — typically running up to three years and renewable. If you were hired after this date, you’re almost certainly on a limited contract, and the resignation penalty described below doesn’t apply to you.

If your contract started before February 2, 2022, and it hasn’t since been converted or renewed into a new fixed-term agreement, you may still be on a legacy unlimited contract. These older contracts carry a different — and less generous — set of resignation rules.

Legacy Unlimited Contract: Resignation Rules

If you resign from a legacy unlimited contract:

• Under 1 year of service: No gratuity
• 1–3 years: You receive one-third (⅓) of the standard 21-day entitlement per year
• 3–5 years: You receive two-thirds (⅔) of the standard 21-day entitlement per year
• Over 5 years: Full 21 days per year for the first five years, then 30 days per year after that

Legacy Unlimited Contract: Termination Rules

If your employer terminates you (without misconduct) from a legacy unlimited contract, the reduction above doesn’t apply — you receive the full 21/30-day rate regardless of how many years you’ve served, as long as you’ve passed the one-year mark.

If this feels unclear, it should — this is genuinely the most confused topic in UAE gratuity searches, and you’ll find conflicting answers even between government-adjacent sources. If your contract predates 2022 and hasn’t been renewed since, the safest move is to check the exact wording with your HR department or MOHRE directly before you resign.

The Gratuity Formula: How the Math Actually Works

The formula itself doesn’t change based on emirate — Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah all use the same federal calculation. Here’s the breakdown:

For your first five years of service:
Gratuity = (Basic Salary ÷ 30) × 21 × Years Served

For every year beyond five years:
Gratuity = (Basic Salary ÷ 30) × 30 × Additional Years

Worked Example — Limited Contract, 6 Years, AED 15,000 Basic Salary

• Years 1–5: (15,000 ÷ 30) × 21 × 5 = AED 52,500
• Year 6: (15,000 ÷ 30) × 30 × 1 = AED 15,000
• Total gratuity: AED 67,500

Worked Example — Legacy Unlimited Contract, Resignation After 4 Years, AED 10,000 Basic Salary

• Years 1–3 (⅓ of 21 days): (10,000 ÷ 30) × 21 × ⅓ × 3 = AED 7,000
• Year 4 (⅔ of 21 days): (10,000 ÷ 30) × 21 × ⅔ = AED 4,667
• Total gratuity: AED 11,667

Partial years are prorated. If you’ve worked 5 years and 7 months, those extra 7 months count proportionally toward your total — this is exactly the kind of calculation that’s easy to get wrong by hand, and it’s where the calculator above earns its keep.

The maximum gratuity payout is capped at two years’ basic salary, no matter how long you’ve worked. If your basic salary is AED 10,000/month, your absolute ceiling is AED 240,000.

Why Might Two Gratuity Calculators Give You Different Numbers?

If you’ve already tried another calculator and gotten a different figure than this one, you’re not imagining it — and it’s not necessarily a bug. The three most common causes:

• Legacy vs. new contract confusion. Some tools apply the resignation-penalty reduction to everyone; others apply it to no one. The correct answer depends entirely on your contract start date, as explained above.
• Gross salary entered instead of basic salary. This is the single biggest source of inflated (and wrong) results across every calculator online, including this one if the wrong number goes in.
• Date-counting differences. Some tools count a year as 360 days, others 365 — a small difference that compounds over long service periods.

If you’re getting conflicting numbers, treat this page’s breakdown table as your reference point, then cross-check the specific figure against your actual contract wording or with MOHRE before making a decision based on it.

Who Is Eligible for Gratuity?

You qualify if:

• You’ve completed at least one continuous year of service with the same employer
• You’re a private-sector expatriate employee (or a free zone employee under JAFZA, DMCC, DDA, or similar)
• You weren’t dismissed for serious misconduct under Article 120 of the Labour Law
• You didn’t resign without serving your contractual notice period

You will not receive gratuity if you leave — for any reason — before completing one full year. This is a hard cutoff with no exceptions.

Free Zones: DIFC and ADGM Work Differently

Most UAE free zones — JAFZA, DMCC, DDA, and others — follow the same federal gratuity formula described above. DIFC and ADGM are the exceptions.

• DIFC employees are covered under the DEWS (DIFC Employee Workplace Savings) scheme — a funded, investment-based savings plan your employer contributes to monthly, rather than a lump-sum gratuity calculated at the end.
• ADGM allows employers to opt into a similar savings-scheme structure instead of traditional gratuity.

If you work in either free zone, don’t rely on the standard formula above — check your specific scheme documentation, since the payout mechanics are genuinely different, not just a variation of the same math.

Your Final Settlement Includes More Than Just Gratuity

Gratuity is usually the biggest line item, but it’s one part of a larger final settlement. A complete settlement typically includes:

• Gratuity (EOSB) — calculated as above
• Unpaid salary up to your last working day
• Accrued annual leave, converted to salary based on your basic pay
• Notice period pay, if your employer waives your notice and asks you to leave immediately
• Deductions — any amounts you legitimately owe (loans, advances, and similar)

Under Article 53, your employer is required to settle this in full within 14 days of your last working day. If they don’t, you have the right to file a wage complaint with MOHRE.

Real Mistakes That Cost UAE Employees Real Money

• Entering gross salary instead of basic salary. This alone can inflate — or wrongly deflate — your result by 30–50%, depending on your allowance structure.
• Salary “splitting” tricks. Some employers structure contracts with an artificially low basic salary and a high housing or transport allowance specifically to reduce the gratuity payout. Check your actual contract figure, not your payslip total, before you calculate anything.
• Miscounting the start date. Use the date on your signed contract, not the date your first salary hit your account.
• Resigning one month before a service milestone. Crossing the five-year mark unlocks the 30-day rate for every year after — timing your exit by even a few weeks can change your total meaningfully.
• Assuming years worked abroad count. They don’t. UAE gratuity is calculated purely on continuous service with your current UAE employer.
• Accepting a verbal number from HR without a written breakdown. Always ask for the calculation in writing and check it against your own.

Checking Your Gratuity Through the Official MOHRE Channel

This calculator gives you an accurate estimate, but MOHRE also lets you check your entitlement directly through their own system if you’d rather see it from the source:

1. Install the MOHRE smart app and sign in with your UAE Pass
2. Select Employee, then go to End of Service Calculator under the available services
3. Enter your contract type, joining date, last working day, and reason for leaving
4. Review the figure MOHRE’s own system generates

Cross-checking your number here against the estimate above is a smart habit before you sign anything with HR.

Frequently Asked Questions

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This calculator provides an estimate for planning purposes based on Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021. It is not a substitute for an official calculation from your employer or MOHRE. For a legal opinion on your specific contract, consult MOHRE directly or a licensed UAE labour lawyer.

Written and reviewed by Muhammad Hanif, founder of Mohre Enquiry UAE, focused on making MOHRE and UAE labour processes easier to understand for expatriate workers. Last reviewed: 2026.