End-of-Service Calculator — Saudi Arabia

Article 84: the basic rule

If the employment relationship ends, the employer must pay the worker an award for the period of service, calculated as half a month's wage for each of the first five years and a full month's wage for each year after that, taking the last wage as the basis, with fractions of a year paid in proportion to the time actually served. That is Article 84 of the Saudi Labour Law, and it is the starting point of every calculation: before any fraction or deduction is discussed, a "gross award" is built from two blocks priced differently — half a month's wage per year in the first block, and a full month's wage per year in the second, so a month of wage in the second block is worth twice what it is in the first.

In short: gross award = wage × [0.5 × years of service up to five + 1 × years beyond five]. A worker whose last wage was SAR 10,000 and who served exactly eight years has a gross award, before any fraction, of five years × SAR 5,000 = SAR 25,000, plus three years × SAR 10,000 = SAR 30,000 — a total of SAR 55,000. A "year" here is not a rigid block: four and a half years of service earns 4.5 × half a month's wage from the first block, and this calculator follows your actual months and days accordingly.

Article 85: the resignation fractions (table)

The only situation that reduces the gross award is an employee ending a fixed-term contract early, of his own accord — resignation in the precise sense. The full Article 84 amount is then scaled by a fraction that rises with length of service, under Article 85:

The fraction applies to the whole Article 84 amount built from both blocks, not to one block or the other: the eight-year resigner in our example does not take two-thirds of the second block and all of the first, but two-thirds of the whole SAR 55,000 = SAR 36,666.67. The longer the service, the weaker the justification for reducing the right, until at ten years a resigner stands exactly where a worker dismissed by the employer stands.

Note: exactly five years of service earns one-third

This is the most delicate point in the entire subject, and the one most often got wrong. Article 85 grants one-third to a worker who served "a period not exceeding five years" (لا تزيد على خمس سنوات), and two-thirds only to one whose service "exceeded five years without reaching ten" (زادت على خمس سنوات ولم تبلغ عشر سنوات). Completing the fifth year — up to its very last day, with not one day more — falls by the statute's own wording inside the one-third tier; the move to two-thirds is conditional on passing five years, even by a single day. In practice: a worker on SAR 7,500 who completes exactly five years and resigns has a gross award of SAR 18,750 and takes one-third of it = SAR 6,250, not SAR 12,500; one further day of service would have lifted the fraction to two-thirds.

The error spreads because many calculators compare a "number of years" produced by dividing days by 365 — and five calendar years contain 1,826 or 1,827 days because of leap years, so they appear to be "more than five years" when they are exactly five. This calculator avoids that trap by comparing your period as it actually is — years, months and days from the start date to the end date — so the boundaries fall exactly where the text puts them: one-third up to the last day of the fifth year, two-thirds from the first day after it. If your service is anywhere near this boundary, the result panel flags it explicitly.

What is the "actual wage"? Are allowances included? (Articles 2 and 86)

Every figure above is built on "the wage", and the practical question is: which wage? Article 2 of the Labour Law defines the actual wage as the basic wage plus all other due increments payable for effort, risk, or by established custom: housing allowance, transport allowance, fixed allowances and due commissions of a recurring nature. The most common error in real settlements is entering the basic salary alone: a worker whose basic is SAR 6,000 with SAR 1,500 housing and SAR 500 transport has an actual wage of SAR 8,000, and calculating on the basic alone quietly cuts about a quarter of the award. This tool therefore asks for one number — the total of your last actual wage — assembled from your contract and payslips.

The single exception is Article 86: the parties may agree in writing that commissions, sales percentages and similar elements that are variable by nature are not counted, wholly or partly, in the wage on which the award is settled. If your contract contains such an agreement, enter the wage after excluding them; if not, due commissions are part of the actual wage in full. Purely discretionary bonuses, not being "due", are never part of it.

Fixed-term resignation vs ending an indefinite contract with notice

This is the point at which many workers lose real money: not every departure at the employee's initiative is a "resignation" governed by the Article 85 fractions. Resigning from a fixed-term contract before its term expires is the fractions' true field — one-third, two-thirds, or nothing before two years (and it can carry other consequences, such as compensation, under the contract and Article 77). By contrast, an employee on an indefinite contract who ends it with proper written notice — sixty days before termination if the wage is paid monthly, thirty days otherwise, under Article 75 — has made a lawful, complete termination, not a resignation for award purposes, and is entitled to the full Article 84 award however short the service.

General calculators that merely ask "did you resign?" push indefinite-contract employees into deducting two-thirds of their own awards. That is why the reason list at the top of this page separates the two cases explicitly: choose the description of your real situation — contract type and manner of termination — not the word that describes how leaving felt. If your service was ended by the employer, or by the contract expiring without renewal, the award is likewise full.

Full award despite resignation (Article 87)

Article 87 excepts two cases from the resignation fractions and grants the full award in them however short the service: first, where the worker leaves because of force majeure beyond his control that makes continuing impossible or nearly so; second, where a female worker ends her contract within six months of her marriage contract or within three months of giving birth, subject to the article's requirements of proof and notice to the employer.

Reaching retirement age — sixty for male workers and fifty-five for female workers, unless the parties agree to continue beyond it — produces the same result in practice: the relationship ends by operation of the legal rule, not by resignation, and the award is full. Choose any of these reasons above and the full fraction applies automatically, even for a single year of service.

When is the award lost? (Article 80)

The one situation in which employment ends with no award, no notice and no compensation is dismissal for one of the grave causes exhaustively listed in Article 80: assaulting the employer or a manager during work or because of it; failure to perform the essential obligations despite written warning; misconduct or an act dishonouring honesty or trust; forgery to obtain the job; disclosing the establishment's secrets; exploiting the position for unlawful gain; and prolonged absence without lawful excuse within the article's limits and warning procedure. Selecting this reason makes the calculator show zero.

But an essential caution: the calculator shows the presumed legal position; it does not — and cannot — decide whether the cause itself is proven. Article 80's causes are a closed list, the burden of proving them rests on the employer, and a dismissal resting on a cause that is unproven or outside the list is an unlawful termination, with the award restored (and possibly compensation as well). If you were dismissed under this label and believe the cause does not apply, the zero shown here is not the last word — consult a labour office or a lawyer before surrendering your right.

A fully worked example, step by step

An employee whose last actual wage was SAR 10,000 began service on 1 January 2018 and ended it on 1 January 2026 by resigning from a fixed-term contract. Step one — length of service: exactly eight full years. Step two — first block: five years × half a month's wage (SAR 5,000) = SAR 25,000. Step three — second block: three years × a full month's wage (SAR 10,000) = SAR 30,000. Step four — the Article 84 gross: SAR 55,000. Step five — the fraction: the reason is resignation, and service is more than five and less than ten years, so the fraction is two-thirds under Article 85. Step six — the net: SAR 55,000 × ⅔ = SAR 36,666.67. Try the same figures in the calculator above and you will get this same breakdown, item by item.

How this calculator differs from the official Qiwa calculator

The official benchmark is the Qiwa platform calculator of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development; cross-check your result on it at an actual settlement. It works, however, inside the platform's portal, and does not usually display the steps behind its result. The Miqyas calculator works instantly with no sign-up or login, and shows every step: your service in days and in years, the value of each block separately, the fraction applied and its basis in the articles of the Law, an explicit flag at fraction boundaries such as the five-year line, and date entry in Hijri or Gregorian, because many contracts and records are still Hijri-dated.

If two calculators ever disagree in front of you, the order of authority is clear: the text of the Labour Law and your written contract first, then the official calculator, then independent calculators such as this one. All sources agree on the foundation: the two blocks of Article 84, the Article 85 fractions at their exact boundaries, the Article 87 exceptions, and the commissions agreement of Article 86 — the rules this tool was built on and tested against.