Gratuity: The Payout You're Owed When You Leave a Job
9 min readUpdated 1 July 2026Article 10 of 13
Gratuity runs on basic salary alone, so two people on an identical AED 25,000 package with different basic-to-allowance splits can walk away AED 17,500 apart after five years. The Article 51 formula, why resigning no longer costs you a third of your accrual, and why DIFC's DEWS beats mainland gratuity.
What this article covers
- 01The Number in Your Head Is Probably Based on the Wrong Salary
- 02The Formula, and How to Run It on Your Own Numbers
- 03Resigning No Longer Costs You, and Neither Does Being Sacked
- 04Some People Accrue Nothing at All, and It Catches Them Late
- 05In the DIFC, You're on DEWS Instead, and It's a Better Deal
- 06The 14-Day Deadline Is a Legal Requirement and a Polite Fiction
- 07Treat It as a Relocation Buffer, Not a Pension
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Sources (4)
- UAE Government Portal: gratuity entitlement, 21/30-day accrual, one-year eligibility and the 24-month cap under Federal Decree-Law 33/2021
- Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE): official gratuity calculator, labour complaint filing and settlement timelines
- DIFC Authority: DEWS scheme rules, contribution rates and employer obligations under DIFC Employment Law No. 2 of 2019
- UAE Cabinet: Cabinet Resolution No. 96 of 2023 establishing the voluntary alternative end-of-service savings scheme