Moving to Dubai · job offer

Is this Dubai job offer enough?

Enter the offer as the employer wrote it. With published data we check three things: whether the housing allowance covers the median rent registered with the Dubai Land Department for the home you choose, how much end-of-service gratuity the basic salary builds up each year, and what is left each month for your household once the whole package is counted.

Estimate, not legal or financial advice. This page does not judge the employer or rank offers.

The basic salary written in the offer, without allowances. End-of-service gratuity is calculated on this figure only.
Housing
Leave empty if the offer has none. Bonuses, commission, flights and school allowances are not counted.
Home to compare with
Only areas with at least 10 registered rent contracts for this home are listed.
Household
Getting around

Nothing you type is stored, sent or written in the address bar: the calculation runs in this browser.

Example

A basic salary of AED 12,000 a month, a housing allowance of AED 50,000 a year and a transport allowance of AED 1,000 a month, for a couple comparing a one-bedroom apartment across Dubai.

The package

Total package: AED 17,167 a month, AED 206,000 a year.

The basic salary is 70% of the package.

Basic salaryAED 12,000
Housing allowanceAED 4,167
Transport allowanceAED 1,000
Other allowancesAED 0
Total a monthAED 17,167

Housing allowance and registered rent

The housing allowance of AED 50,000 a year does not cover the median registered rent for a one-bedroom apartment across Dubai, which is AED 58,000 a year. The difference is AED 8,000 a year, about AED 667 a month.

Half of the 213,707 contracts registered for this home from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026 were between AED 45,980 and AED 75,000 a year.

Registered rent is the annual rent in Ejari contracts, not asking prices. Agency commission, the security deposit and the 5% housing fee are not in the median; the housing fee is in the monthly budget below.

Source: Dubai Land Department (originator), open datasets «Rent Contracts» on Dubai Data. Original data © Dubai Land Department. Licensed under the Dubai Open Data Licence. The tables are derived by Brainy Prices (aggregates only: medians and ranges of at least 10 registered records); they are not produced, verified or endorsed by Dubai Land Department, Dubai Data or the Dubai Government. The derived tables are available under the same licence: /move-to-dubai.rent.json.

End-of-service gratuity on this basic salary

Gratuity is calculated on the basic salary only. Housing, transport and other allowances do not count.

With a basic salary of AED 12,000 a month, each year of continuous full-time service adds AED 8,400 during the first five years (21 days of basic salary a year) and AED 12,000 for each year after that (30 days a year).

Gratuity after continuous full-time service
ServiceGratuity
After 1 yearAED 8,400
After 3 yearsAED 25,200
After 5 yearsAED 42,000
After 10 yearsAED 102,000

Nothing is due before one year of continuous service. Unpaid days do not count, the total cannot be more than two years’ wage, and part-time work and some other cases follow different rules.

Work out your own dates in the UAE gratuity calculator

Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, Articles 1 and 51, consolidated text published by MOHRE, read on 13 October 2026.

What is left each month

The whole package, AED 17,167 a month, goes into the same calculation as «Is my salary enough for Dubai?». Rent is the median registered rent for a one-bedroom apartment across Dubai; the other costs are the ones that page uses for this household.

Couple · AED 17,167 a month

AED 9,195 left a month

Yes: it covers these costs, even at the higher end. From AED 8,551 left to AED 9,575 left a month. In a summer month DEWA can add about AED 245. Not counted: deposits and moving-in costs, eating out and leisure, buying or leasing a car, domestic help or nanny, flights home.

Estimate from published data, not financial advice

Monthly costs counted
CostMiddleRangeTypeSource
Rent: one-bedroom apartment across Dubai, median registered rentAED 4,833published figureDubai Land Department (DLD) · 1 October 2025 – 30 September 2026
Dubai Municipality housing fee (5% of annual rent, on the DEWA bill)AED 242published figureUAE Government portal (u.ae) · 2 October 2026
DEWA electricity and water, typical monthAED 245published figureDubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) · 2 October 2026
Transport with your own car (fuel, Salik, parking, inspection, insurance) partialAED 879published figureBrainy Prices transport model (fuel, Salik, Parkin, inspection, insurance) · October 2026
Mobile plansAED 213published figureVirgin Mobile · 2 October 2026
Home internetAED 175published figureVirgin Mobile · 2 October 2026
Health insurance for dependants (basic plan band)AED 57AED 48–AED 66estimateDubai Health Authority (DHA) — General Circular GC 03/2024 · 23 July 2024
Groceries (food supply estimate)AED 1,328AED 957–AED 1,963estimateFAO — FAOSTAT Food Balances · 6 October 2026
Total countedAED 7,972AED 7,592–AED 8,615
  • Summer: a typical month assumes 500 kWh and 10 m³ (AED 245); a summer month with air conditioning at 1000 kWh and 20 m³ costs AED 489, so AED 8,950 left that month. Published DEWA slab tariff and fuel surcharge (October 2026); the consumptions are illustrative, not measured averages (enter your own).
  • Partial: Transport with your own car (fuel, Salik, parking, inspection, insurance) does not include vehicle registration (no published figure we can show yet); it is not counted as zero.
  • Mobile lines: 2, each on the Virgin Mobile 12-Month 14GB Plan: this monthly price applies if the year is paid upfront (AED 1,278.90); without paying upfront it is AED 203.00 a month.
  • Not counted: deposits and moving-in costs, eating out and leisure, buying or leasing a car, domestic help or nanny, flights home. Dubai has no personal income tax; UAE and GCC nationals pay pension contributions, which are not deducted here.
  • Groceries: estimate from food supply data, not store prices. FAO. FAOSTAT Food Balances, United Arab Emirates, 2023. CC BY 4.0. FAO does not endorse this site or any product.

Try other households, a savings goal or the school allowance in «Is my salary enough for Dubai?»

How this check works

  1. Housing: your allowance is compared with the median annual rent in contracts registered with the Dubai Land Department for the area, home type and bedrooms you choose, in the latest 12 months we have.
  2. Gratuity: the amounts come from the same calculation as our UAE gratuity calculator, under Article 51 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, for a full-time worker with continuous service.
  3. Monthly budget: the total package goes into «Is my salary enough for Dubai?», with the same rent as the housing check. Estimates are labelled, and what we cannot show is never counted as zero.

What this page does not do

  1. It does not judge the employer, rank offers or say whether you should accept one.
  2. It does not read the contract: bonuses, commission, flights, health cover, school allowances, probation and notice periods are not counted.
  3. It is an estimate, not legal or financial advice. For a dispute about your own gratuity, MOHRE handles complaints from private-sector workers.

Questions

Does the housing allowance count towards end-of-service gratuity?
No. Under Article 51 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, gratuity is calculated on the basic wage, and allowances are not part of the basic wage (Article 1). Two offers with the same total can build up very different gratuity.
How much housing allowance does a one-bedroom apartment need in Dubai?
Across Dubai, the median annual rent registered for a one-bedroom apartment was AED 58,000 from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026, with half of the contracts between AED 45,980 and AED 75,000. It varies a lot by area: choose one above to compare.
How much gratuity does a basic salary of AED 12,000 build up?
For a full-time worker with continuous service: AED 8,400 for each of the first five years and AED 12,000 for each year after that, so AED 42,000 after five years. Nothing is due before one year of service.

Sources