Reference

UAE workplace savings, A to Z

Published 10 September 2026 · 26 terms, A to Z · 8 min read

Workplace savings in the UAE borrows vocabulary from three regimes, two free zones and one federal law, and the same word does not always mean the same thing in each. Twenty-six of the terms that matter, one per letter, defined as they are used in practice.

Alternative End of Service Benefits Scheme: The federal voluntary scheme established by Cabinet Resolution No. 96 of 2023, usually called the Savings Scheme. Lets onshore private sector employers pay monthly contributions into an approved, invested fund instead of accruing gratuity as a balance sheet liability. Administered by MoHRE; funds licensed by the CMA.
Basic contribution: The employer's mandatory monthly payment under the Savings Scheme: 5.83% of basic salary for employees with under five years' continuous service, 8.33% thereafter. Designed to match the value of the statutory gratuity accrual it replaces.
Capital guarantee: A required investment option under the Savings Scheme that protects contributed capital. The default and mandatory option for unskilled workers; available to any member. Sits alongside a broader investment range.
DEWS: The DIFC Employee Workplace Savings plan, mandatory for DIFC employers since February 2020. Run by a scheme operator, under DFSA oversight. The model the federal scheme followed, though the two differ in regulator, structure and participation rules.
End-of-service gratuity: The statutory lump sum owed to an employee upon termination of employment. Typically accrued and unfunded unless the employer joins a scheme.
Fund administrator: The party that runs fund-level accounting: unit pricing, NAV calculation, unit issuance and the investor register for a specific fund.
GPSSA: The General Pension and Social Security Authority, which administers pensions for UAE nationals. UAE nationals are covered by GPSSA, not by the Savings Scheme.
Hosting: Where a platform's infrastructure physically runs. UAE-hosted means company details, member records, contribution history, transaction data and reconciliation artefacts sit on servers inside the country, which is what data residency requires and what determines architecture from the first design decision.
Investment options: The range a fund must offer under the Savings Scheme: a capital guarantee portfolio, risk-based portfolios across a range of expected return and volatility, and Sharia-compliant funds. The member (skilled workers only) chooses within the range; the employer does not choose for them.
Joiner: An employee added to a scheme by an employer, often referred to as a ‘Member’.
Know your customer (KYC): The identity and eligibility checks applied to employers at onboarding and members at exit.
Legacy balance: The gratuity an employee accrued under the traditional system before their enrolment date into a Savings Scheme or DEWS. Preserved as a debt of the employer and paid upon termination.
MoHRE: The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, which administers the federal Savings Scheme.
NAV: Net asset value, the per-unit price of a fund calculated on a defined cycle. Member balances are the units they hold multiplied by the NAV.
Onboarding: The process of bringing an employer onto a scheme: agreement, payroll data mapping, member records, bank account setup, first contribution file.
Payout: What the member receives at exit. Voluntary contributions and their returns belong to the member throughout.
Qualifying alternative scheme: In DIFC, a workplace savings scheme other than DEWS that an employer may use if it holds a certificate of compliance, for example ‘Go Saver’. Not a federal concept.
Reconciliation: The daily or monthly matching of cash received in the scheme bank account against contribution files and expected amounts for members.
Sharia-compliant fund: An investment option structured to comply with Islamic finance principles. A required part of the option range under the Savings Scheme, and a common preference across the UAE workforce.
Trustee: In DEWS and Go Saver, the entity that holds scheme assets on behalf of members and sits above the scheme operator. There is no trustee layer in the federal scheme; the CMA-licensed fund manager carries the responsibility directly.
Unit pricing: Converting a member's contributions into fund units at the NAV on the pricing date.
Voluntary contribution: An employee's own additional payment into the Savings Scheme, up to 25% of annual salary. Belongs to the employee throughout and follows different access rules from the employer-funded portion.
Wage Protection System (WPS): MoHRE's electronic salary transfer system for onshore employers.
Cross-border transfer: We’ve tried our best but no workplace savings term begins with X, so this letter goes to the thing data residency exists to prevent: moving member data to servers outside the UAE.
Years of service: The measure that sets the contribution rate. Under five years of continuous service, the employer contributes 5.83% of basic salary; from five years, 8.33%. The same threshold that moves gratuity accrual from 21 to 30 days a year.
Zones, free: The UAE's financial free zones, DIFC and ADGM, each run their own workplace savings arrangements under their own regulators and are excluded from the federal Savings Scheme. Employers in most other free zones fall under MoHRE and can join it.