United Arab Emirates Statutory minimum wage
United Arab Emirates Statutory minimum wage: no single figure applies. The reason is set out below, cited to the governing instrument. Last checked against the official source on 24 Jul 2026.
Private-sector statutory minimum wage. STRUCTURAL NULL — the UAE has no statutory minimum wage figure for the private sector. The Labour Law empowers the Cabinet to set one but no such rate has ever been issued.
| Current value | no single figure |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2022-02-02 |
| Official source | Federal Decree-Law No. (33) of 2021 on the Regulation of Employment Relationships ('UAE Labour Law', in force 2 February 2022), Article 27 — the minimum wage 'shall be determined and assessed' by Cabinet resolution upon a proposal of the Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) in coordination with the relevant authorities; no such resolution has been issued |
| Last verified | 2026-07-24 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
STRUCTURAL NULL, positively established: the private-sector labour framework (Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, administered by MoHRE, in force since 2 Feb 2022) contains an ENABLING provision — Article 27 lets the UAE Cabinet set a minimum wage on the MoHRE Minister's proposal — but the Cabinet has never exercised it, so no statutory minimum wage figure exists for the private sector. This is not an oversight to be filled with a proxy: wage floors in practice come from (a) the Wages Protection System (WPS), which mandates timely wage payment through approved banking channels but sets NO minimum amount, and (b) visa/work-permit salary benchmarks used for family sponsorship and certain permits — administrative thresholds, not a statutory minimum wage, so they are not served here. There is a separate historical MoHRE circular (No. 27M/2013) that set indicative minimum salaries for UAE NATIONALS by education level (e.g. AED 3,000-5,000) to encourage Emiratisation, but that is a nationals-only, non-statutory guideline, not a general private-sector minimum wage. Federal-government (public-sector) pay is set by separate HR decrees and is also not a general minimum wage. MoHRE (mohre.gov.ae) is the authority; value remains null with a sourced explanation rather than a fabricated figure.
Get it programmatically
curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/ae/minimum-wage
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/ae/minimum-wage/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://asiaref.dev/provenance/ae/minimum-wageOther United Arab Emirates series: CBUAE Base Rate (Overnight Deposit Facility) · VAT standard rate · VAT registration threshold · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate Tax (headline rate) · Withholding tax rates · Statutory delay interest on commercial debts · Personal income tax · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Uzbekistan · Vietnam · Bahrain · Bangladesh · China · all 28