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Gulf (GCC)
Gulf (GCC)
Free guide · Gulf (GCC)
Kuwait Payroll & Employment Guide 2026
Kuwait pairs a tax-free salary environment with a Labour Law framework (No. 6/2010, as amended) that is administered through the Public Authority for Manpower. There is no personal income tax, yet employers carry defined obligations for working hours, leave, PIFSS social insurance on Kuwaiti nationals, wage protection through WPS and the AS'HAL portal, and end-of- service gratuity. Employment contracts must be written in Arabic and registered with PAM. Two structural changes shape 2026 payroll: the AS'HAL Salary Portal became mandatory on 1 November 2025, linking salaries to work permits with a 5th-of-month deadline, and PAM Resolutions 1 and 15/2025 tightened permit registration and moved daily working schedules fully electronic. Each is covered in the sections that follow.
At a glance
Four key payroll indicators for Kuwait
0%PERSONAL INCOME TAX
30dANNUAL LEAVE ENTITLEMENT
11.5%PIFSS EMPLOYER RATE (NATIONALS)
18 moEOSB GRATUITY CAP
What is inside
7 chapters, 10 pages
The opening summary of every chapter is below. Download the PDF for the full text, tables and rates.
Company Setup & Key Platforms
Entity types plus the 2025/2026 changes to AS'HAL and PAM permit registration.
Foreign employers can operate through a local entity or an Employer of Record. Company formation is administered alongside the Public Authority for Manpower, which controls work permits and now links every salary to a permit through the AS'HAL portal. Two PAM resolutions issued in 2025 changed how permits are registered and how attendance is recorded.
Working Hours & Leave
Annual, sick, maternity, Hajj and bereavement leave, with summer and night-shift limits.
The Labour Law sets out annual, sick, maternity, Hajj and bereavement leave. Annual leave accrues at 30 working days and unused balance is cashed out on termination. Sick leave runs on a sliding scale over an annual maximum of 75 days, and summer and night-shift limits apply to specific categories of work.
Social Security — PIFSS
The two-tier contribution structure for Kuwaiti nationals and the expatriate exemption.
There is no personal income tax in Kuwait. Social insurance runs through PIFSS, which covers Kuwaiti nationals only. Expatriates are fully exempt. Contributions follow a two-tier structure split at KWD 1,500 per month, with a separate employee gratuity component in the basic tier.
End-of-Service — EOSB
Gratuity on termination versus resignation, the salary base and the 18-month cap.
End-of-service gratuity is calculated on the full recurring salary: basic pay plus obligatory allowances, commissions and bonuses, excluding expense allowances and profit shares. The total is capped at 18 months' salary. The amount an employee receives on resignation is scaled by tenure.
Payroll Operations — WPS & AS'HAL
Bank transfer, the AS'HAL salary portal and the 5th-of-month filing deadline.
Salaries are paid electronically through an accredited Kuwaiti bank and monitored through two linked systems: the Wage Protection System and the AS'HAL salary portal. Both carry a 5th-of-month deadline, which is earlier than most WPS regimes in the region. Records appear in AS'HAL within 24 hours of transfer, and non-compliance suspends the employer's PAM file.
Hiring & Termination
Arabic contracts, probation, salary-reduction consent and the notice-period regime.
Contracts must be written in Arabic, with employer and employee each receiving a copy, and registered with PAM. An employer cannot reduce salary without written employee consent under Article 28. Probation runs to a maximum of 100 working days, and notice periods depend on the contract type.
Practical Notes
The checks that prevent the most common and most costly Kuwait payroll errors.
The obligations in this guide reduce to a short list of checks that prevent the most common and most costly Kuwait payroll errors. Each should be settled before the first pay run.
This guide is general information, not legal advice or a complete statement of the law. It reflects the legislation in force when it was prepared, and legislation changes. Always seek country-specific professional advice for a specific situation.
With Datassist
Running payroll and employment operations in Kuwait
Employing people in Kuwait means applying the rules in this guide again every pay cycle: tracking rates, filing social security, running compliant wage payment channels and calculating end-of-service entitlements. Datassist teams exist so you can manage that from a single point.
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