Part-Time Gratuity in the UAE — How End-of-Service Is Calculated Pro-Rata

Yes. One of the most common misconceptions in the UAE is that end-of-service gratuity is only for full-time staff. It is not. Workers on a non-full-time arrangement — part-time, temporary, flexible, remote, or job-sharing contracts — are entitled to an end-of-service gratuity too, calculated on a pro-rata basis that reflects how many hours they actually worked compared with a full-time role.

The qualifying condition is the same threshold that applies to everyone: you must have completed more than one continuous year of service with the employer. Below a year, no gratuity is due, exactly as for a full-timer. Above a year, you accrue a gratuity, but the amount is scaled down in proportion to your contracted hours.

The principle is straightforward and fair: a worker contracted for half the hours of a full-timer, over the same period, earns roughly half the gratuity. The detail is in how that proportion is worked out, which the rest of this guide explains. You can run your own full-time baseline figure first using our UAE EOSB Calculator, then scale it by your hours.

Under the current labour framework (Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021), the UAE formally recognises several work models beyond the traditional full-time contract. Part-time is one of them, alongside temporary, flexible, remote and job-sharing arrangements. The point of recognising these models in law is precisely so that the entitlements attached to them — wages, leave, and end-of-service gratuity — are clear rather than left to chance.

For part-time work to fall cleanly inside this framework, the arrangement should be a properly documented part-time contract, and the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) operates a dedicated part-time work permit for it. Two practical points follow from this:

• Your contract is the anchor. The pro-rata calculation depends on the number of working hours your contract specifies, so a vague or undocumented arrangement makes it harder to establish your entitlement. A registered part-time contract that states your hours is your strongest evidence.
• Multiple employers are allowed under part-time permits. The part-time permit model is what makes it lawful to hold more than one job. Where you work part-time for more than one employer, each employment relationship is assessed separately — each employer owes its own pro-rata gratuity based on the hours you worked for that employer and your length of service with them.

So if you split your week across two companies, you do not pool the two into one "full-time" entitlement. You have two independent gratuity calculations, each scaled to the hours in that contract.

The method works in two layers. First you establish what a full-time worker would receive for the same wage and service; then you scale that figure down by your hours.

Layer 1 — The Full-Time Gratuity (Article 51)

The full-time gratuity is the standard UAE end-of-service calculation, on basic salary:

• 21 days of basic wage for each of the first 5 years of service.
• 30 days of basic wage for each year after the fifth.
• The daily rate is your monthly basic salary divided by 30.
• The total is capped at the equivalent of 2 years' wage.

Layer 2 — Scale It by Your Hours

For a part-time worker, the gratuity is reduced in proportion to the hours you were contracted to work against a full-time schedule. The proportion is worked out from contracted hours, not days:

1. Take the number of working hours in your contract per year.
2. Divide it by the number of working hours in a full-time contract per year. A full-time year is taken as roughly 2,080 hours (about 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, across the year).
3. Multiply by 100 to get a percentage.
4. Apply that percentage to the full-time gratuity from Layer 1.

In short: part-time gratuity = (your annual hours ÷ full-time annual hours) × full-time gratuity. The basic-salary basis, the 21-then-30-days accrual, the one-year minimum, and the 2-year cap all still apply — the hours ratio simply sets the proportion of that full-time figure you receive.

Suppose you worked part-time for 4 years on a contract of 18 hours a week, with a monthly basic salary of AED 6,000.

Step 1 — your annual hours: 18 hours/week × 52 weeks ≈ 936 hours per year.

Step 2 — your proportion of full-time: 936 ÷ 2,080 × 100 = 45%.

Step 3 — the full-time gratuity for 4 years at AED 6,000 basic:

• Daily rate = AED 6,000 ÷ 30 = AED 200/day
• 4 years × 21 days = 84 days (all within the first 5 years, so 21 days/yr applies)
• Full-time gratuity = 84 × AED 200 = AED 16,800

Step 4 — scale it by your hours:

• Part-time gratuity = AED 16,800 × 45% = AED 7,560

So a part-timer at 45% of full-time hours, over 4 years, would receive AED 7,560 — about 45% of the AED 16,800 a full-timer on the same basic salary would have earned. If your figure comes out far from this, check the two inputs that move it most: the contracted hours used for the ratio, and whether the calculation is on your basic salary (not your total package).

Part-time gratuity is settled less often than full-time gratuity, and the practical detail can vary more in real cases than the headline rule suggests. A few things are worth being honest about:

• What counts as "full-time hours" can shift the result. The ~2,080-hours-a-year figure is the common reference, but the exact full-time baseline used in your sector or contract can move your percentage. Always work the ratio from the actual hours stated in the relevant contracts.
• Undocumented part-time work is the real risk. If your hours were never written into a contract, the pro-rata calculation has no firm input to work from. The single best protection is a registered part-time contract that states your weekly or annual hours.
• Multiple employers are assessed separately. Do not assume two part-time jobs combine into one full-time entitlement — each is its own calculation, and each must independently clear the one-year service threshold.
• The rules continue to develop. The UAE has been steadily formalising flexible and part-time work, so the precise mechanics are an area to confirm against the current MoHRE guidance for your situation rather than relying on a single rule of thumb.

If a part-time gratuity offer looks low, work out your own figure with the two-layer method above, then use our Settlement Checker to see exactly where your number and the employer's diverge before you sign anything. For the rules on whether resigning changes your gratuity at all, see our guide on gratuity after resignation in the UAE.