The Ministry of Labor has no plans to count a Saudi who receives a salary of SR 8,000 or more in the private sector as two in Nitaqat system. Spokesman Hattab Al-Enizi also said the ministry will not count expatriates with high salaries as two as well when calculating nationalization rate.
Although the idea of counting a Saudi earning SR 8,000 as two Saudis for the purposes of Nitaqat has not gained any traction, Al-Enizi told Arab News that the ministry is studying ways to encourage private establishments that pay high salaries to their employees “in appreciation of their role in nationalizing jobs.”
Al-Enizi did not elaborate how the government would show its appreciation for business that nationalized jobs. According to one estimate, 68 percent of all expatriates receive a SR 1,000 monthly salary, 20 percent receive SR 2,000 or less per month, while 10 percent receive SR 10,000 and above. The last category are mostly engineers, doctors and consultants.
To solve the problem of low wages, Minister of Labor Adel Fakeih had announced that no Saudi should be paid a monthly salary below SR 3,000. This would be a condition to count a Saudi in a private company’s records in Nitaqat. The decision also includes ways to count Saudis who receive less than SR 3,000. A Saudi who receives SR1,500 would be counted as half a Saudi employee, and one who receives less than that will not be counted at all as far as the ministry is concerned.
According to a study carried out by the World Bank in cooperation with the Saudi Ministry of Economy and Planning, Saudi per capita income is roughly SR 6,400 per month compared to SR 15,200 in GCC countries and SR 23, 600 in Europe. Saudi women’s average monthly income was estimated at SR 3,900 compared to SR 8,700 in GCC countries and SR 15,000 in Europe.
A Ministry of Labor survey shows that the average monthly salary of Saudis is SR 3,477. The ministry’s study stated that Saudi salaries in the private sector are two times less than their counterparts in the government sector. Wages in the private sector have dropped in recent years while salaries and allowances in the government sector have been increasing, which created a gap that can foil the Labor Ministry’s efforts to increase the number of national work force in the private sector, given the government sector’s high allowances, raises, lower working hours, job security and training opportunities.
Govt studies ways to encourage high pay for Saudis
