Maternity pay in the United Arab Emirates: how employers handle it
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Maternity pay in the UAE is governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, which sets a statutory minimum that employers must fund directly — there is no state insurance fund to claim back from.
What the law requires
Female employees are entitled to 60 calendar days of maternity leave. The first 45 days are paid at full basic wage plus allowances. The remaining 15 days are paid at half pay.
These entitlements apply from the day an employee joins. There is no minimum service requirement to qualify for maternity leave, unlike annual leave, which requires one full year of service before the 30-day entitlement is triggered.
If a newborn is ill or has a disability, the employee is entitled to an additional 30 calendar days at full pay immediately after the standard 60-day period, and may extend by a further 30 days unpaid.
In the event of a stillbirth after six months of pregnancy, or the death of the newborn, the employee still receives the full 60-day entitlement.
Who pays and how
The employer bears the full cost of maternity pay. There is no government reimbursement scheme, no social insurance fund for expatriate employees, and no mechanism to reclaim any portion of what you pay. This is different from many other jurisdictions where statutory maternity pay is partly subsidised by the state.
For UAE and GCC national employees enrolled in the GPSSA pension scheme, the pension contributions continue as normal during paid maternity leave — the employer keeps making those contributions on the salary being paid.
Expatriate employees receive no pension contributions regardless of whether they are on maternity leave or not, but their end-of-service gratuity continues to accrue. Gratuity is calculated on basic wage, and since the employee is receiving their basic wage during at least the first 45 days, that period counts toward their continuous service and gratuity accrual under Federal Decree-Law No. 33/2021.
Running maternity pay through WPS
All salary payments, including maternity pay, must be processed through the Wage Protection System (WPS). The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) monitors WPS data, and late or missing payments trigger compliance flags against your establishment.
Practically, this means:
- Process the first 45 days at the employee's full contractual wage (basic plus allowances) on the normal payroll cycle.
- Process the 15 half-pay days at 50% of the same figure, again on the normal cycle.
- If the leave spans two payroll months, split the calculation accordingly rather than paying a lump sum upfront — WPS expects payments on your registered cycle.
There is no separate payroll code or WPS category for maternity pay. It runs through the same channel as regular salary. What changes is only the amount for the half-pay portion.
What you cannot do
The law is explicit on several points that employers sometimes misread:
- You cannot terminate an employee because she is pregnant or on maternity leave.
- You cannot require her to use annual leave to cover any part of the 60-day statutory entitlement.
- You cannot offset maternity leave against other paid leave entitlements already accrued.
- Reducing her basic wage or benefits in anticipation of an upcoming maternity leave is not permitted.
Violations can result in fines and labour complaints filed through MOHRE, so it is worth having these rules clearly documented in your HR policy.
Paternity leave and adoption
For completeness: fathers are entitled to five days of paid paternity leave, which can be taken within six months of the child's birth. The same employer-pays, no-reimbursement principle applies.
There is no statutory adoption leave in the UAE. Some employers offer it as a contractual benefit, but it sits outside the federal framework.
Practical planning for small employers
Because the UAE has no maternity insurance pool, the cost of maternity pay lands entirely on your payroll in the months the employee is absent. For small businesses this can create a short-term cash flow pressure, particularly if more than one employee takes leave in the same period.
A few things worth doing before the leave begins:
- Confirm the employee's exact basic wage and allowances so the 45-day and 15-day calculations are not disputed later.
- Note the expected start date and map the payment splits across your WPS cycles.
- Review whether your employment contract contains any enhanced maternity pay above the statutory minimum — if it does, that higher figure is binding.
- For businesses running payroll across multiple jurisdictions, make sure your payroll system is configured to treat UAE maternity pay as employer-funded with no third-party offset.
The statutory minimum is the floor. Many employers in competitive hiring markets offer enhanced terms, and whatever is written into the contract takes precedence over the statutory minimum where it is more generous.
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