Qatar
Employ in Qatar without an entity.
A contract under Qatar's Labour Law, the work visa and residence permit arranged, and pay in riyals through the wage protection system. One contact and one invoice.
The facts of employing in Qatar.
Paid in riyals, every month.
Through the Wage Protection System.
A 48-hour week.
36 hours in Ramadan, with Friday the usual rest day.
Three weeks of annual leave.
Four weeks after five years' service.
A minimum wage for every worker.
QAR 1,000 basic, plus QAR 500 for housing and QAR 300 for food where the employer does not provide them.
What employing in Qatar involves, in plain words.
Each is handled for everyone you employ through Global Kinect EOR.
- Contracts
Written in Arabic, in three copies, and authenticated by the Ministry of Labour.
- Fixed-term for up to five years and renewable, or open-ended.
- Trial period: up to 6 months, once per employer. The employer ends it with a month's notice.
- QIDVisas and residence
A work visa, then a residence permit, carried as the QID, the Qatari ID card.
- Qatarisation
A programme employers plan for. The Ministry of Labour sets the Qatari share of jobs by sector.
- GRSIASocial insurance
Pension cover for Qatari nationals. Expatriates are outside it, and have the end-of-service gratuity instead. A national of another Gulf country is covered by their own country's scheme, under the Gulf extension of insurance protection.
- Leave
Three weeks a year after the first year, and four weeks after five years.
- Sick leave, after three months' service: two weeks on full pay, four on half pay, then unpaid.
- Maternity leave: 50 days on full pay, after a year's service.
- Ending employment
After the trial period, notice is a month in the first two years of service and two months after that.
- End-of-service gratuity, after a year's service: at least three weeks' basic wage for each year, part years counted.
Hiring in Qatar, step by step.
You choose the person
And agree the role and the salary in riyals.
The contract is put in place
Under Qatar's Labour Law, with a work permit where one is needed.
They are paid monthly
In riyals, through the Wage Protection System.
You get one invoice
With every other country you hire in.
Questions about employing in Qatar
What does it take to employ an expatriate in Qatar?
An expatriate in Qatar needs a contract written in Arabic and authenticated by the Ministry of Labour, a work visa, and a residence permit carried as the QID. Every worker is owed at least QAR 1,000 basic a month, plus housing and food allowances where the employer does not provide them. After a year's service, a gratuity of at least three weeks' basic wage per year builds up.
Can an employee change employer?
Do Ramadan hours apply?
Employing in Qatar, worked through in full.
Each guide goes further than this page.
- Hiring in Qatar: permits, Qatarisation and the contract, step by step
How you hire in Qatar without an entity of your own: the work visa and residence permit step by step, moving someone already in Qatar, Qatarisation, the contract, the employee test, leave, and what changed this year.
7 min read
- The cost of employing in Qatar: what you pay on top of salary, worked through
What employing someone in Qatar costs on top of salary: social insurance for Qatari nationals, the gratuity for everyone and the one-off costs of an expatriate hire, worked through for a year at two salaries.
5 min read
- Ending employment in Qatar: notice, the gratuity and a final settlement worked through
How employment ends in Qatar: the ways a contract ends, the notice it needs, what an unlawful dismissal costs, a final settlement worked through, resignation, when final pay is due, and the steps with the authorities.
8 min read