Country guide · 7 min read · Updated October 2026

Payroll in Qatar: the month, the calendar and a salary worked through

How a payroll month runs in Qatar: the deadlines, social insurance for Qatari nationals, a salary worked through to net pay and employer cost, overtime, the year's holidays and what changed this year.

How does payroll work in Qatar?

A monthly wage falls due on the 1st and goes through WPS into the employee's account in Qatar within seven days. GRSIA contributions for Qatari nationals are due by the 5th of the next month: 14% from the employer and 7% from the employee. Expatriates are outside GRSIA. Every employee with a year's service builds up a gratuity of at least three weeks' basic pay a year. There is no income tax.

Know the month's deadlines

Five deadlines shape a Qatar payroll. Each one sits with your own entity.

Deadline	What is due
Within seven days of the 1st of each month	Monthly wages, which fall due on the 1st, through WPS into each employee's account in Qatar
By the 5th of the next month	GRSIA contributions for each Qatari, both shares together
Within 30 days of joining or leaving	Registering a Qatari employee with GRSIA, or telling it that they have left
Each January	The contribution salary of each Qatari employee for that month, to GRSIA, with any change reported as it happens
When employment ends	Final pay, by the end of the working day after the contract ends. When the employee left without giving notice, within seven days of leaving

GRSIA contributions paid late carry a fine of 2% a month on the amount late, from the due date until payment. An employer that has not registered someone, or has paid on less than the real wage, owes an additional 10% of the contributions due.

An employer that pays wages late can have its new work permits stopped, or its dealings with the Ministry of Labour suspended. The stop is lifted once the employer shows that every late wage has been paid.

Work out social insurance for each group

GRSIA, the General Retirement and Social Insurance Authority, covers Qatari nationals aged 18 or over, in a regular, permanent job lasting at least a year. Contributions are worked out on the contribution salary: basic pay, the social allowance and housing.

	Employer	Employee
A Qatari national	14%	7%
A national of another Gulf country	Their home country's rate, no higher than Qatar's	Their home country's rate
An expatriate from outside the GCC	Nothing	Nothing

Housing counts up to QAR 6,000 a month. Where you provide housing instead of an allowance, the allowance it replaces still counts. The contribution salary counts up to QAR 100,000 a month.

For a Qatari national, the employer pays both shares to GRSIA and deducts the employee's share from pay.

A national of another Gulf country is covered by their own country's scheme, under the Gulf states' unified system for extending insurance protection. You register them through GRSIA. Where their home country's employer rate is higher than Qatar's, the employee makes up the difference from pay, unless their own country pays it.

Follow one salary through the month

Take a salary of QAR 30,000 a month: QAR 18,000 in basic pay, QAR 7,000 for housing and QAR 5,000 in other allowances, none of them a social allowance. Here is the same salary for a Qatari national and for an expatriate from outside the GCC.

Only QAR 6,000 of the housing counts for GRSIA, so the Qatari national's contribution salary is QAR 24,000.

	A Qatari national	An expatriate
Gross pay	QAR 30,000	QAR 30,000
GRSIA, from the employee	QAR 1,680	Nothing
Net pay	QAR 28,320	QAR 30,000
GRSIA, from the employer	QAR 3,360	Nothing
End of service, built up each month	QAR 1,050	QAR 1,050
The employer's cost for the month	QAR 34,410	QAR 31,050

The gratuity is at least three weeks' basic pay for each year of service, on the last basic wage. It is owed to every employee with a year's service, Qatari nationals included.

The Labour Law counts a month as 30 days. This example works out a day's basic pay on that basis, as the month's divided by 30. The law sets the gratuity in weeks, and this example counts three weeks as 21 days.

Qatar has no income tax on salaries, so nothing else is withheld.

Pay overtime at the right rate

	What it earns
Overtime	Basic pay for the hours, plus at least 25%
Overtime between 9pm and 3am	Basic pay for the hours, plus at least 50%, except for shift workers
Work on the weekly rest day	Another rest day, and either the pay for an ordinary rest day or basic pay plus at least 150%
Work on an official holiday	Paid as overtime, at the rates above

Normal hours are 8 a day and 48 a week. In Ramadan, they are 6 a day and 36 a week, for every employee.

Normal and overtime hours together may not pass 10 a day. The exception is work needed to prevent a serious loss or a dangerous accident.

Friday is the usual weekly rest day, except for shift workers. Other than a shift worker, nobody works more than two Fridays in a row.

These rules do not cover senior staff who hold the employer's authority over other workers.

Mark the year's public holidays

Each holiday is paid at the full wage.

Holiday	Days
Eid al-Fitr	Three working days
Eid al-Adha	Three working days
National Day	One working day, the 18th of December
Days you set	Three working days, on dates you choose

The holidays are counted in working days, so a weekly rest day inside an Eid does not use one up. The two Eids follow the moon, so their dates move through the year.

The Ministry of Labour announces each holiday for the private sector before it falls. For Eid al-Fitr in 2026, its notice applied the overtime rates to anyone who worked the holiday. Check the notice before each one.

Pay on time, and deduct only what the law allows

	The rule
Minimum wage	QAR 1,000 a month in basic pay. On top of it, QAR 300 for food where the employer does not provide food, and QAR 500 for housing where it does not provide housing
Wage protection	Wages are paid in riyals, into the employee's account in Qatar, through WPS. A monthly wage falls due on the 1st and is paid within seven days
Loans from the employer	No interest is charged. No more than 10% of a wage may be deducted to repay one
All deductions	No more than 50% of the wage in a month. Anything above that moves to the next month
Attachment	Only under a court judgment, and no more than 35% of the wage
Annual leave	Before the leave starts, the employee is paid the wage earned to date and the leave pay
Income tax	None on salaries, so none is withheld from pay

See what changed this year, and what is next

When	What changes
8 September 2026	The wage protection rules fix the due date for a monthly wage at the 1st of each calendar month. It goes into the employee's account through WPS within seven days

No change to GRSIA's rates, its caps or the gratuity had been published by October 2026. When one is, it is in our engine before the run it affects. You are told what changed and what it does to your figures.

Run the month from one record

A Qatar month brings together the WPS salary file, GRSIA for each Qatari with housing counted to its cap, a gratuity building up for everyone and holidays counted in working days. A payroll fed from several places struggles to keep them in step.

On our payroll, each comes from one record, on an engine we build and maintain for Qatar's law. Your entity submits the files and pays its people.

Common questions.

When are GRSIA contributions due?

By the 5th of the month after the one they are for, both shares together. Paid late, they carry a fine of 2% a month on the amount late.

Do expatriates pay social insurance in Qatar?

Not an expatriate from outside the GCC. GRSIA covers Qatari nationals, and nothing is deducted from such an expatriate's pay for it. A national of another Gulf country is covered by their own country's scheme. Every employee with a year's service, expatriates included, is owed the gratuity.

When must wages be paid in Qatar?

A monthly wage falls due on the 1st of each month. It goes through WPS into the employee's account in Qatar within seven days.

See how a payroll month runs with us.

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