Dubai & UAE · Employer of Record · Payroll · PEO
You have found the person you want to hire in Dubai — now you need a compliant way to employ them, and in the UAE that starts with a visa. JN Recruitment is the expansion partner that connects international companies with vetted Employer of Record and payroll partners in Dubai and the UAE — providers who sponsor the residence visa, run WPS-compliant payroll and accrue the gratuity — and delivers the boutique recruitment that finds the candidate in the first place.
for an EOR to complete work permit, residence visa and Emirates ID once the offer is signed
no income tax and no social security for expatriate employees — gross is net in the UAE
no free-zone or mainland licence required — the EOR is the legal employer and visa sponsor
our recommendation is free — the best specialist from our vetted UAE network, matched to your case
Payroll partner Dubai
Employing in Dubai is unlike employing anywhere in Europe — not because of taxes, but because of sponsorship. There is no income tax and no social security for expatriate staff, yet nobody works legally in the UAE without an employer-sponsored work permit, residence visa and Emirates ID. Add the Wage Protection System (WPS) that requires salaries to flow through registered channels, mandatory health insurance, end-of-service gratuity accruing on basic salary, and the 2022 Labour Law that abolished unlimited-term contracts — and a compliant first hire needs a licensed local employer from day one. That is precisely what an EOR provides.
There are two clean routes. If you have (or will build) a UAE entity — free zone or mainland — a payroll service provider in Dubai runs the monthly WPS payroll, gratuity accruals and renewals for you, usually alongside PRO services for visas. If you have no entity and don’t want one yet, an Employer of Record (EOR) employs your hire legally in the UAE and — the decisive part — sponsors their visa, while you direct the day-to-day work: what many US companies would call a PEO. Dubai’s provider market is huge and loud; licence scope, visa quotas and pricing vary enormously. And sooner or later a Gulf expansion also needs an employment lawyer, a corporate-tax advisor and an accountant. We vet all of it for you.
JN Recruitment is a boutique recruitment firm headquartered in Mannheim, with offices in Poland and Cyprus — Larnaca is three hours from Dubai — and the expansion partner international companies use for the Gulf. Years of placing people in the region have built us a network of the best employment lawyers, tax advisors, payroll bureaus, PRO firms, accountants and EOR providers in the UAE. We recommend exactly the specialists your case needs — free of charge, at the partner’s standard rates — and stay your single point of contact. What we deliver ourselves is the headhunting: the sales recruitment agency for Dubai that international machinery, industrial-technology and recycling companies already use to enter the region.
What we arrange
Whatever stage your Gulf plans are at — first hire without an entity, or a full team on an existing free-zone company — this is what our vetted UAE network delivers: EOR providers, payroll bureaus, PRO services, employment lawyers and accountants, matched and introduced by us:
The partner becomes the legal employer and — crucially — the visa sponsor of your hire: work permit, residence visa, Emirates ID, medical insurance, MOHRE-compliant contract, WPS payroll and gratuity accrual, while you manage the work day-to-day. No licence required. The standard route for a first hire in the Emirates.
For companies with a UAE entity: a specialised payroll partner runs the monthly payroll through the Wage Protection System, structures packages into basic salary and allowances, accrues end-of-service gratuity correctly and issues payslips — no in-house UAE payroll expertise needed.
Searching for a “PEO Dubai”? The US-style PEO doesn’t exist 1:1 under UAE law — the compliant equivalents are EOR employment under the provider’s sponsorship or outsourced payroll and PRO services on your own licence. We translate what you actually need into the right UAE construct.
Work permits, residence visas, Emirates ID, medical fitness tests, family sponsorship and renewals — the government-relations legwork every UAE employment involves. Partners run it for EOR employees as standard and as a stand-alone service for companies with their own licence.
If the Gulf becomes a long-term market, partners guide the licence decision — free zones like JAFZA and DMCC with 100% foreign ownership and their own visa quotas, or a mainland licence for direct onshore trading — plus the 9% corporate-tax registration and the eventual switch of EOR employees onto your own sponsorship.
The part we deliver ourselves: executive search for technical sales and leadership roles in Dubai and across the GCC. If you don’t have the candidate yet, we find them — then plug visa, employment and payroll in behind the signed offer.
Market knowledge
UAE employment runs on sponsorship, allowances and gratuity rather than taxes and social funds. The essentials we brief every company on before a Dubai hire:
Expatriate employees — the vast majority of the Dubai workforce — pay no income tax and no social security; gross is net. Only UAE and GCC nationals are enrolled in the GPSSA pension scheme, with an employer contribution of roughly 12.5–15%. Employer cost planning therefore revolves around visa, insurance and gratuity, not percentage contributions.
No work permit, no employment: every hire needs an employer-sponsored work permit, residence visa and Emirates ID, and only a licensed UAE entity can sponsor them. This is what makes EOR different in the Gulf — the provider isn’t just running payroll, it is the immigration sponsor. Processing typically takes two to four weeks from signed offer.
Salaries must be paid through the Wage Protection System — an electronic channel monitored by MOHRE and the central bank that verifies staff are paid what their registered contracts say, on time. Late or off-system payments trigger fines and block new work permits, which is why UAE payroll belongs with a partner who runs WPS daily.
Instead of employer pension contributions, expatriate employees earn an end-of-service gratuity (EOSB): 21 days’ basic salary per year for the first five years, 30 days thereafter. It is calculated on basic salary only — which is why UAE packages split into basic pay plus housing and transport allowances, and why the split must be structured deliberately. Since the 2022 Labour Law, all contracts are fixed-term (renewable); unlimited-term contracts were abolished.
Employer cost benchmarks
A UAE employer budget looks nothing like a European one: no percentage social contributions for expat staff, but real money in visas, insurance and gratuity. The items behind every serious Dubai quote:
| Contribution | Employer pays | Employee pays |
|---|---|---|
| Income tax & social security (expatriate employees) | None | None — gross is net |
| GPSSA pension (UAE & GCC nationals only) | ≈12.5–15% of pensionable salary | ≈5–11% |
| End-of-service gratuity accrual (EOSB, on basic salary) | ≈5.8–8.3% of basic salary | — |
| Work permit, residence visa & Emirates ID (per hire, ~2-year cycle) | ≈AED 5,000–8,000 | — |
| Mandatory health insurance (varies by plan & family size) | ≈AED 1,500–15,000+ / year | — |
| Unemployment insurance (ILOE scheme) | — | AED 60–120 / year |
Orientation figures for 2025/2026, rounded: visa costs differ between free zones and mainland, health-insurance mandates differ by emirate (Dubai and Abu Dhabi are strictest), gratuity is 21 days’ basic pay per year for the first five years and 30 days thereafter, and GPSSA rates depend on the national’s enrolment date. Rule of thumb: an expat package costs the employer roughly 8–12% on top, dominated by gratuity, visa and insurance. Your payroll or EOR partner’s quote is the binding number.
Yes. An Employer of Record (EOR) employs your candidate in the UAE on your behalf — and, decisively, sponsors their work permit, residence visa and Emirates ID, which only a licensed UAE entity can do. The EOR holds the MOHRE-compliant employment contract, runs WPS payroll, provides the mandatory health insurance and accrues the gratuity, while you direct the day-to-day work. No free-zone or mainland licence, no UAE bank account, no registrations on your side. It is the standard route for a first hire in Dubai.
More than a European EOR, because it is also the immigration sponsor. The provider obtains the work permit, residence visa and Emirates ID, arranges the medical fitness test and health insurance, issues a compliant fixed-term contract under the 2022 Labour Law, registers the salary with the Wage Protection System and pays it through WPS every month, accrues end-of-service gratuity on basic salary, and handles renewals and, at the end, visa cancellation and final settlement. You remain in charge of the work itself and reimburse the EOR for the package, pass-through costs and a service fee.
Typical UAE EOR pricing is a flat AED 1,500–3,000 (≈€400–750) per employee per month, plus pass-through costs for visa, Emirates ID, medical test and health insurance — on top of the salary package itself. Compare that with the alternative: a free-zone company means licence fees, establishment-card and visa-quota costs, office requirements and annual renewals — typically five figures in euros per year before anyone is employed, and rarely worth it below three to five employees. We match you with a partner whose pricing fits your head-count and flag the all-in monthly number before you commit.
For expatriate staff there are no percentage social contributions at all — no income tax, no social security. Budget instead for the real items: end-of-service gratuity accruing at 21–30 days’ basic salary per year served (≈6–8% of basic pay), a visa-and-permit cycle of roughly AED 5,000–8,000 per hire every two years, mandatory health insurance from a few thousand dirhams for an individual to far more for family cover, and the employee’s own small ILOE unemployment-insurance premium. Rule of thumb: 8–12% on top of the package, dominated by gratuity and insurance. Only UAE and GCC nationals carry GPSSA pension contributions.
In the US, a PEO co-employs your staff while you keep your own entity; an EOR employs them fully so you don’t need one. In the UAE the distinction is sharper than anywhere: because only a licensed local entity can sponsor visas, a company without a UAE licence has no co-employment option — the EOR route, where the provider is both legal employer and visa sponsor, is the only compliant construct. If you already hold a licence, the equivalent of PEO-style support is outsourced WPS payroll plus PRO services on your own sponsorship. We translate what you actually need into the right setup.
Yes — through providers holding the right licences. Third-party employment in the UAE runs on MOHRE-approved constructs and free-zone outsourcing arrangements, and serious EOR providers operate on exactly those. The risk is the informal version: working on a visit visa, on a visa sponsored by an unrelated company, or paid outside WPS is illegal and exposes both you and the employee to fines and bans. Licence scope and sponsorship arrangements are the first things we verify in our partner vetting — and a question you should ask any Dubai EOR you talk to.
Yes. If your free-zone or mainland company already exists, a UAE payroll partner takes over the monthly run: WPS-compliant salary transfers, package structuring into basic pay and allowances, gratuity accruals, leave and air-fare tracking, payslips and reporting — usually alongside PRO services for permits and renewals. Typical pricing runs per payslip per month. The same partners register your entity with MOHRE and WPS if it has never employed anyone in the UAE before.
Via EOR: the offer letter and contract are ready within days, and the work permit, residence visa and Emirates ID typically process within two to four weeks once documents are complete — faster if the candidate is already in the UAE on a cancellable visa. Setting up your own free-zone entity first adds one to three months including licence and visa quotas. UAE notice periods run 30 to 90 days and candidates are used to moving, so time-to-start is usually shorter than in Western Europe — and managing that transition is the part we handle as recruiters.
Only if they hold their own freelance permit and visa — a real but narrow construct aimed at media, tech and consulting professionals. Someone working full-time for you on a spouse’s visa, a visit visa or another employer’s sponsorship is not a compliant workaround: the UAE enforces immigration and WPS rules strictly, with fines and bans for both sides. For a genuine sales role with fixed scope and one principal, EOR employment with proper sponsorship is barely more expensive and removes the risk entirely; our partners also regularise existing informal setups.
No — and that is deliberate. JN Recruitment is a boutique recruitment firm and your expansion partner for the Gulf: over years of placing candidates in Dubai and across the GCC we have built a vetted network of the best employment lawyers, tax advisors, payroll bureaus, PRO firms, accountants and EOR providers — and we recommend exactly the specialists your case needs. You contract directly with the partner at their standard rates; the recommendation costs you nothing, and we stay your single point of contact. What we deliver ourselves is the search: if the candidate doesn’t exist yet, our Dubai headhunting finds them.
Across Europe
The same specialised technical sales search opens every market on the continent — pick the country you are expanding into.
Hiring in several markets at once?
Hiring at leadership level? Our executive search practice:
Candidate found — and now need a compliant way to employ them?
Talk to us — no strings attached. We get back to you within 24 hours.
Our mission is simple: placements that open new markets.
30-minute intro call
Two quick steps — tell us what you need and how to reach you. Within one business day you get an intro call and, where it fits, a direct introduction to the right specialists from our vetted network.
Your contact person Jonas Strambach Director & Senior Recruiter, JN Recruitment +49 1525 2077583 [email protected] Thank you — we’ll get back to you within one business day to schedule your intro call.
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Before you go
Every month a key sales seat stays empty pushes your expansion plans back — and leaves serious revenue on the table. We fill technical sales positions within weeks, so you hit your expansion targets on schedule.
Jonas Strambach Director & Senior Recruiter, JN Recruitment Free vacancy check · reply within 24 hours
