WPS in the UAE (2026): How the Wage Protection System Works, Who Must Use It and the New Deadlines

If you employ staff on a UAE mainland licence, salaries don't just leave your bank account — they pass through the Wage Protection System, and MOHRE sees every transfer. The rules changed on 1 June 2026, when Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026 replaced the 2022 framework with a single month-end deadline, a stricter 85% test and a faster penalty ladder. This guide is for SME owners, HR and payroll teams, and employees who want to know how WPS works in 2026, who must use it, how to prepare a salary file, and what happens when pay is late.

Quick answer

WPS is MOHRE's electronic salary system: every MOHRE-registered employer pays wages through an approved bank, exchange house or financial institution, which reports each payment to the ministry. From 1 June 2026 wages are due by the 1st of the following month, and an employer is compliant only if at least 85% of total wages due has been transferred.

• New work permits are suspended from day 5 after the due date

• Fines and a Category 3 downgrade for repeat late payers from day 11

• Automatic labour disputes from day 16 where 25 or more workers are unpaid

• Prosecution, travel bans and asset attachment possible from day 21

• Free zones and the DIFC/ADGM follow their own authority's rules

What WPS is and why MOHRE runs it

The Wage Protection System is an electronic salary-transfer channel built by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation with the Central Bank of the UAE. Instead of paying staff by cash or ordinary transfer, an employer sends its payroll through a WPS agent — a bank, exchange house or other financial institution authorised by the Central Bank. The agent moves the money to each worker's account or card and sends the payment data to MOHRE, so the ministry can see who was paid, how much and when.

The legal hook is Article 16 of the Executive Regulation of the Labour Law (Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022), which requires establishments registered with MOHRE to pay wages on their due date through WPS or another system the ministry approves, and to produce proof of payment on request. The same regulation lists failure to comply with WPS as a ground for refusing or cancelling work permits.

The scale is large. In December 2025 MOHRE said WPS covers more than 99% of private-sector workers and carries more than AED 35 billion in salary transfers every month. In the same announcement it launched an upgraded system that connects MOHRE directly with the Central Bank through Al Etihad Payments, the Central Bank's national payments company, and added new digital agents including e&, Botim, Al Ansari Exchange, Lulu Exchange, GCC Exchange and Al Maryah Community Bank alongside the traditional banks. For employers that means salary files can be prepared and checked against MOHRE data on the agent's own app or portal.

WPS at a glance (2026)

the 1st of the following month

Wage due date

MR 340/2026, from 1 June 2026

85%

Share of wages that must be paid

Was 80% under MR 598/2022

99%+

Private-sector workers covered

MOHRE, Dec 2025

AED 35bn

Salaries transferred each month

MOHRE, Dec 2025

Who must pay salaries through WPS

Every establishment registered with MOHRE — in practice every mainland company, branch and sole establishment with staff on MOHRE work permits — must pay wages through WPS. Size doesn't matter: a two-person trading company is covered just as a construction group with 2,000 workers is. Emirati employees on MOHRE contracts are paid through WPS too, and their WPS record is one of the ways MOHRE checks that an Emirati counted towards Emiratisation targets is genuinely employed and paid at least the national minimum wage.

The 2022 resolution excluded four types of establishment from WPS altogether: fishing boats owned by UAE nationals, public taxis owned by nationals, banks, and houses of worship. Law-firm summaries of Resolution 340 of 2026 list the same carve-outs among its exemptions, together with categories of worker who don't count against the employer when wages don't show up in WPS:

• workers with a wage-related labour dispute already before MOHRE or the courts;
• workers reported absent from work (the old "absconding" report);
• workers on approved unpaid leave, provided the employer has notified MOHRE and filed proof;
• seafarers working on ships, on the employer's application;
• foreign employees of foreign companies or branches who are paid abroad, with their consent and MOHRE approval;
• workers on short-term permits, according to Deloitte's summary of the new resolution.

The exemption for unpaid leave only works if you tell MOHRE in advance through its channels. An employee on three months' unpaid leave who simply disappears from your salary file looks, to the system, like an unpaid worker.

Domestic workers sit under a separate law, Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2022, but MOHRE has phased them into WPS. Since 1 April 2023 wages for five professions must go through WPS: private agricultural engineer, personal PRO, personal healthcare provider, private tutor and private trainer. For 14 other professions — housemaid, sailor, security guard, shepherd, horse groomer, falcon trainer, animal tamer, labourer, housekeeper, cook, nanny, farmer, gardener and personal driver — registration is optional for the household employer.

The 2026 rules: Ministerial Resolution 340 of 2026

MOHRE issued Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026 on 12 May 2026. It came into force on 1 June 2026 and expressly repealed Ministerial Resolution No. 598 of 2022. Three changes matter most.

One deadline for everyone. Wages for a month are due no later than the 1st of the following month: May salaries by 1 June, June salaries by 1 July, and so on. Under the old rules, wages were due on the contractual payday and an employer only counted as late after a further 15 days. That grace period has gone. Employers whose contracts already set an earlier payday — the 25th or 28th of the same month, say — must still pay on that date, because the contract binds them; Clyde & Co notes that such payrolls generally don't need to change as long as payments keep landing on or before the 1st.

A higher compliance bar. An establishment is compliant if it transfers at least 85% of total wages due by the deadline, up from 80%. At worker level, an employee counts as paid if they receive at least 85% of their registered wage and any shortfall comes from deductions the Labour Law allows, documented on request. The threshold is a tolerance for lawful deductions and edge cases, not permission to pay 85%; the remaining wages are still owed, and the worker keeps the right to claim them.

A faster escalation ladder. The 2022 resolution waited until day 17 to suspend new work permits. The 2026 rules start penalties within the first week.

What happens after the WPS due date (MR 340/2026)

Due date

Electronic monitoring of every establishment's transfers

Day 2

Alerts and notifications to non-compliant employers

day 5

New work permits suspended; formal warnings issued

day 11

Administrative fines under Cabinet Resolution 21 of 2020; repeat violators within six months downgraded to Category 3

day 16

Labour disputes opened automatically where 25 or more workers are unpaid; wider permit suspensions

day 21

Enforcement or collective dispute procedures; for repeat cases, precautionary attachment, travel bans and referral to the Public Prosecution

The day counts above come from law-firm and Big-4 summaries of the resolution (EY, Clyde & Co, Deloitte and LexisNexis agree on them). The English text of the resolution was not yet on MOHRE's public site when this guide was checked, so confirm the exact wording with MOHRE if you face enforcement.

Worked examples: the 85% test in AED

Example 1 — a small trading company

A Deira trading company has 12 workers with registered monthly wages totalling AED 54,000. By 1 July it has transferred June salaries of AED 46,500 because two sales staff's commission was still being calculated.

• Compliance test: AED 46,500 ÷ AED 54,000 = 86.1% → compliant at establishment level.
• But each worker is tested too. A salesperson with a registered wage of AED 6,000 who received AED 4,500 got 75%, and the shortfall isn't a lawful deduction. MOHRE treats that worker as unpaid, and the worker can complain.
• Fix: pay the fixed wage in full by the 1st and pay commission as a variable amount in a later file, as the contract allows.

Example 2 — a contractor with a cash-flow gap

A fit-out contractor with 40 workers has a monthly wage bill of AED 180,000. A client pays late and the company can only send AED 150,000 by the due date.

• Compliance: AED 150,000 ÷ AED 180,000 = 83.3% → below 85%, non-compliant.
• To reach the threshold it needed at least AED 153,000 — just AED 3,000 more.
• If the gap isn't closed, new work permits are suspended from day 5. Because more than 25 or more workers are affected, disputes open automatically at day 16.
• A short-term overdraft or invoice finance facility costs far less than a frozen permit quota in a business that depends on new hires.

Example 3 — a lawful deduction

A warehouse worker's registered wage is AED 3,000. He agreed in writing to repay an interest-free salary advance at AED 300 a month. The employer transfers AED 2,700.

• Worker-level test: AED 2,700 ÷ AED 3,000 = 90%, and the shortfall is a documented lawful deduction → counted as paid.
• Article 25 of the Labour Law allows loan recoveries only with the worker's written consent and without interest, and caps all deductions together at 50% of the wage. Keep the signed advance agreement on file.

WPS agents, registration and the salary information file

To start paying through WPS, an employer needs its MOHRE establishment record (the company's labour file) and an agreement with a WPS agent. Agents are banks, exchange houses and, since the December 2025 upgrade, other Central Bank-licensed digital platforms connected to MOHRE.

Getting set up on WPS

1. 1

   Open the MOHRE establishment file

   Your company gets a MOHRE establishment number when it registers with the ministry. All work permits sit under it.

2. 2

   Choose a WPS agent

   Pick a bank, exchange house or approved digital platform. Compare per-file and per-employee fees and whether it can issue salary cards to workers without a bank account.

   Tip: Ask the agent for its SIF specification and file-upload channel before signing up.

3. 3

   Register employees

   Each worker's MOHRE personal number, bank routing code and IBAN (or card number) is set up with the agent.

4. 4

   Upload the salary file each month

   Send the salary information file and fund the total. The agent pays workers and reports to MOHRE.

5. 5

   Check the confirmation

   Reconcile the agent's confirmation with your payroll and keep it as proof of payment.

The traditional upload is a Salary Information File (SIF) — a comma-separated text file. According to agent specifications summarised by payroll providers, it has one Employee Detail Record (EDR) per worker and a Salary Control Record (SCR) with the totals. The EDR carries the worker's MOHRE personal number, the routing code of the worker's bank, the IBAN or card number, the pay period, the number of days, the fixed salary and any variable pay. The SCR carries the employer's MOHRE establishment number, the employer's bank routing code, the salary month, the number of records and the total amount. Exact field orders and filename rules vary slightly between agents, so always build the file to your agent's current specification.

Most rejections come from the same handful of errors: the SCR total doesn't equal the sum of the EDRs (even by a fils), the record count is wrong, dates are in the wrong format, an IBAN doesn't match the routing code, or a worker's permit has expired so MOHRE no longer recognises them. Since the December 2025 upgrade, agents' platforms read data directly from MOHRE, which catches many of these problems before submission.

Free zones, the DIFC and ADGM

MOHRE's WPS resolution applies to establishments registered with MOHRE. Most free zone companies are licensed by their free zone authority and sponsor staff through it, so the authority — not MOHRE — sets their payroll rules. Several large zones require employers to pay salaries by bank transfer in WPS format or through their own wage-protection arrangements, and others only require proof of payment. Because the requirements differ by zone and change over time, check your free zone's employment rules or ask your client relations officer; this guide doesn't list zone-by-zone requirements because they couldn't be confirmed from official sources.

The DIFC and ADGM are different again. Each has its own employment law with its own rules on paying wages, keeping payslips and settling final dues, and MOHRE's WPS rules don't apply. If you run a mainland company and a free zone entity, treat them as separate payrolls with separate compliance checks.

Old vs new WPS rules

	MR 598/2022 (to 31 May 2026)	MR 340/2026 (from 1 June 2026)
Due date	Contract payday; late after a further 15 days	the 1st of the following month
Compliance threshold	More than 80% of wages	At least 85% of wages
New permits suspended	Day 17	day 5
Inspections / disputes	Firms with 50+ workers inspected	Automatic disputes where 25 or more workers unpaid
Prosecution referral	Day 45 for 50+ workers	day 21 for serious or repeat cases

Due date

MR 598/2022 (to 31 May 2026)

Contract payday; late after a further 15 days

MR 340/2026 (from 1 June 2026)

the 1st of the following month

Compliance threshold

MR 598/2022 (to 31 May 2026)

More than 80% of wages

MR 340/2026 (from 1 June 2026)

At least 85% of wages

New permits suspended

MR 598/2022 (to 31 May 2026)

Day 17

MR 340/2026 (from 1 June 2026)

day 5

Inspections / disputes

MR 598/2022 (to 31 May 2026)

Firms with 50+ workers inspected

MR 340/2026 (from 1 June 2026)

Automatic disputes where 25 or more workers unpaid

Prosecution referral

MR 598/2022 (to 31 May 2026)

Day 45 for 50+ workers

MR 340/2026 (from 1 June 2026)

day 21 for serious or repeat cases

Penalties beyond the ladder

The WPS ladder sits on top of the Labour Law's general sanctions. Late or missing wages can lead to:

• Work permit suspension, which stops you hiring or renewing staff until wages are paid.
• Administrative fines under Cabinet Resolution No. 21 of 2020 on MOHRE's service fees and fines, as amended. The amounts depend on the violation and the number of workers affected; check MOHRE's current fines schedule for the exact figures.
• Downgrade to Category 3, the lowest tier of MOHRE's establishment classification under Ministerial Resolution No. 209 of 2022. An establishment's category affects what it pays for MOHRE services, so a downgrade costs money long after the late salaries are paid.
• Labour claims. Workers can complain to MOHRE, which decides claims up to AED 50,000 itself and can order the employer to keep paying wages for up to two months while a dispute runs.
• Criminal referral and fines under the Labour Law. Since Decree-Law No. 9 of 2024, fines for core employer violations — including closing a business without settling workers' rights — run from AED 100,000 to AED 1,000,000.

Common WPS mistakes and how to fix them

Paying on the old 15-day grace. Many payroll calendars still assume salaries can go out up to the 15th of the next month. From 1 June 2026 that is late. Move your payroll run so funds reach workers by the 1st.

Splitting salary between WPS and cash. Paying the "basic" through WPS and allowances in cash is common and risky. MOHRE compares transfers with the registered wage in the contract; the cash part is invisible, and the worker can claim it again.

Registered wage doesn't match reality. If the MOHRE contract shows AED 4,000 but the agreed salary is AED 5,500, the worker can prove the higher figure "by all possible means of proof", and your gratuity and leave settlements will be disputed. Amend the contract with MOHRE whenever pay changes — see our guide to UAE employment contracts.

Forgetting unpaid leave notifications. Notify MOHRE before an employee starts unpaid leave, or the system will flag them as unpaid.

Leaving workers with expired permits in the file. Cancel or renew permits on time; an inactive worker causes rejections and can trigger permit-related fines.

Assuming the agent is responsible. You can outsource payroll processing, but the employer stays legally responsible for paying on time. Build a buffer of a few days between your agent's cut-off and the 1st.

Monthly WPS checklist

0/7

• Payroll approved and funded at least 3 working days before the 1st
• Registered MOHRE wage matches the contract for every worker
• Unpaid leave and absence reports filed with MOHRE before the run
• SIF totals, record count and dates reconciled
• Variable pay (commission, overtime) paid in the same or next file
• Agent confirmation saved as proof of payment
• New joiners and leavers updated with the agent

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Official links

• MOHRE — Wage Protection SystemServices for establishments, WPS enquiries and complaints (call 600590000)
• MOHRE — laws and resolutionsLabour Law, Executive Regulation and WPS resolutions
• Central Bank of the UAELicensed banks and exchange houses
• UAE Legislation portalOfficial English texts of federal laws

What to do next

Move your payroll calendar so salaries land before the 1st of each month, check that every worker's registered MOHRE wage matches what you actually pay, and give your agent's file specification to whoever runs payroll. Then plan the bigger payroll liabilities: monthly gratuity accruals for foreign staff, pension contributions for Emirati staff and, if you have 50 or more employees, your Emiratisation targets.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice — confirm on the official source or with a professional.

Frequently asked questions

What is WPS in the UAE?

The Wage Protection System is the electronic salary-transfer system that MOHRE runs with the Central Bank of the UAE. Employers registered with MOHRE pay wages through an approved bank, exchange house or financial institution, which sends the payment data to MOHRE. That lets the ministry see, worker by worker, whether wages were paid in full and on time. MOHRE says it covers more than 99% of private-sector workers.

What is the WPS salary deadline in 2026?

Under Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026, in force from the 1st of the following month — that is, wages for June are due by 1 July. An employer is compliant if it transfers at least 85% of total wages due by that date. Contracts that set an earlier payday still bind the employer.

What happens if salaries are paid late through WPS?

MOHRE monitors payments electronically and escalates. Alerts start soon after the due date, new work permits are suspended from day 5, fines and a downgrade to Category 3 can follow for repeat offenders from day 11, labour disputes are opened automatically from day 16 where 25 or more workers are unpaid, and serious cases can be referred to the Public Prosecution from day 21.

Do free zone companies have to use WPS?

MOHRE's WPS rules apply to establishments registered with MOHRE. Free zone companies are licensed and sponsor staff through their free zone authority, and each zone sets its own payroll rules — several require WPS-format salary transfers through a bank. The DIFC and ADGM run their own employment laws. Ask your free zone authority what it requires.

Are domestic workers paid through WPS?

Partly. Since 1 April 2023 MOHRE has required WPS payment for five domestic professions — private agricultural engineer, personal PRO, personal healthcare provider, private tutor and private trainer. For 14 others, including housemaids, cooks, nannies, drivers and gardeners, registering in WPS is optional for the employer.

Can I pay part of the salary in cash outside WPS?

The whole wage should go through WPS. The 85% threshold only allows for lawful deductions — for example an agreed loan repayment — not a split between WPS and cash. Paying part in cash leaves you without proof of payment if the worker later claims, and MOHRE treats the worker as unpaid if less than 85% of their registered wage arrives.

Sources & verification

Figures on this page were checked against the sources below when it was last reviewed on 12 October 2026. Each rate and limit is stored once with its own official source and review date, and official update channels are monitored daily so changes are picked up. How we verify

1. 1.MoHRE launches new update for the Wage Protection System (10 December 2025) — Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (archived copy) · accessed 12 October 2026
2. 2.Ministerial Resolution No. 598 of 2022 concerning the Wages Protection System — UAE Government portal (archived copy) · accessed 12 October 2026
3. 3.Wages Protection System: registering 14 domestic worker professions is optional — Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (archived copy) · accessed 12 October 2026
4. 4.Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 and its amendments (consolidated English text) — Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (archived copy) · accessed 12 October 2026
5. 5.UAE introduces enhanced Wage Protection System, effective 1 June 2026 — EY · accessed 12 October 2026
6. 6.UAE introduces stricter wage protection system enforcement framework — Clyde & Co · accessed 12 October 2026
7. 7.UAE MOHRE enforces unified salary deadline under new Wage Protection System — LexisNexis Middle East · accessed 12 October 2026
8. 8.Important updates to UAE Wage Protection System regulations — Deloitte Middle East · accessed 12 October 2026
9. 9.WPS SIF file format UAE — Zoho Payroll Academy · accessed 12 October 2026