Payroll
GOSI and payroll, for people who did not ask to learn payroll
What comes off a Saudi salary, who pays which half, and why the rate depends on nationality.
Published 5 Sep 2026 · 2 min read
A Saudi payroll run is mostly arithmetic on top of one table: the GOSI contribution schedule. Employee and employer each contribute a percentage of a capped base, and the percentages differ for Saudi and non-Saudi employees because the branches of the scheme differ.
The mistakes are rarely in the percentage. They are in the base — which allowances are included, which are not, and where the cap bites — and in the end-of-service calculation, which follows the labour law's own formula and depends on how the employment ended.
What software should do here is refuse to guess. A payroll run that silently picks a rate is worse than one that stops and asks, because the first is discovered by an auditor and the second by you.
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