Under the UAE Wage Protection System, wages for each Gregorian month are due on the first day of the following month. Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026 set that single deadline from 1 June 2026, removed the old fifteen-day grace period, and treats an employer as compliant only if at least 85 per cent of the wages due are transferred by the 1st. Here is what that means for your calendar, and how to plan payroll so the 1st never catches you out.
What changed in 2026
Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026 took effect on 1 June 2026 and replaced Ministerial Resolution No. 598 of 2022. Two changes matter for anyone who runs payroll:
Check your own calendar
If your payroll calendar still assumes you have until the middle of the month, it is working to a rule that ended in May 2026.
The due date, month by month
The rule is easy to state and easy to misread, so here it is against real dates:
Weekends and holidays do not move it
The due date does not move because the 1st falls on a weekend or a public holiday. Bank processing time is yours to absorb, not the ministry's, so in months like November and January the practical deadline is the last working day before the 1st.
Your payroll cut-off is not your WPS deadline
Many UAE companies close attendance on a fixed day, for example the 25th, and run a salary month from the 26th to the 25th. That is a sensible way to run payroll, and nothing in Resolution 340 stops it. But WPS deadlines run on the Gregorian calendar, not on your payroll cut-off. Whatever period your payroll covers, the wages for a calendar month are due on the 1st of the next one.
The safest arrangement is a cut-off early enough that review, approvals and the salary file all fit before the last working day of the month, with a few days of slack for the month something goes wrong.
The 85 per cent rule, worked through
Suppose your total wages due for a month, after lawful deductions, are AED 400,000. To be treated as compliant, at least AED 340,000 has to be transferred through WPS by the 1st.
Two points are worth being clear about. First, the threshold is measured against the total wages due, so a handful of employees paid late on a large payroll may stay above 85 per cent, while a single delayed batch on a small one may not. Second, 85 per cent is how compliance is measured, not a discount: the remaining wages are still owed to the people who earned them, and paying them promptly is still your obligation.
The most common way to drop below the line is not deciding to pay late. It is a salary file that is rejected on the last working day, with no time left to fix and resubmit it.
What happens after the 1st
Resolution 340 sets out an escalation timeline, counted by day of the month after wages fall due:
What about the fines?
Resolution 340 sets the timeline and the compliance test rather than the penalty amounts. Fines are levied under separate rules and depend on how late the payment is, the size of the establishment and how many workers are affected. Figures quoted online vary and disagree with each other, so confirm your own exposure with MOHRE or a legal adviser rather than relying on a headline number. What is not in doubt is that the consequences start within days: a suspension on new work permits from the 5th can stall hiring long before any fine arrives.
Who the rule applies to
The 2026 rule applies to all private-sector establishments licensed with MOHRE. Construction, transport, storage, security, cleaning and recruitment are named as higher-risk sectors. The exemptions are narrow: staff paid outside the UAE with approval, workers under liberty restrictions, and mission permits of three months or less. If you are unsure whether any of your staff fall into one of these, ask MOHRE before you rely on it.
A payroll calendar that meets the 1st every month
Working backwards from the 1st gives a calendar most teams can keep:
How Wurxa keeps you ahead of the 1st
Start with the free WPS deadline tracker: pick a salary month and it shows the due date, the 85 per cent threshold and each escalation date, so the whole team can see the timeline.
Then take the work out of the last week. Wurxa Payroll and WPS builds payroll from the same workspace as attendance and leave, so the month you close is the month you pay, and unpaid leave already approved by a manager comes off automatically. You can set the day your salary month starts, and the salary file declares that real period to the bank. Every line is checked before the file is made: the IBAN checksum, the 9-digit routing code, net pay against basic plus allowances minus deductions, days within the period and a labour card in date. The file only becomes available once every error is fixed, in the format your bank or exchange expects. Staff open their payslips in the employee app, and gratuity for each employee is worked out under UAE rules from the records you already keep.
Payroll and WPS is an add-on at AED 2,400 a year plus VAT on any paid Wurxa Workforce plan. You can try Wurxa for 14 days with every feature and no credit card: start your trial, close one month of attendance, and see how much earlier your salary file can be ready.
Put the workflow into practice.
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