KSA compliance · General Organization for Social Insurance
Three branches, and which of them apply turns on nationality before it turns on anything else. A Saudi employee carries pension, occupational hazards and unemployment cover; a non-Saudi employee carries occupational hazards and nothing more.
Last reviewed
Monthly cost to the employer
SAR 1,468.75
SAR 1,218.75 deducted from the employee, SAR 2,687.50 remitted to GOSI in total.
Notes on this calculation
An estimate for planning, not a determination of liability. Rates and wage limits are GOSI’s; the sources are listed below.
An estimate for planning, not a determination of liability. Figures depend on how basic wage and housing are stated in the contract and on registration facts this form does not capture.
What the branches are
The annuities branch funds pensions and is charged at the same rate on the employer and the employee. Occupational hazards covers work injury and is charged on the employer alone, for Saudi and non-Saudi employees alike. SANED, the unemployment branch, covers Saudi nationals and is charged at 0.75% on each side.
Since 3 July 2024 the annuities rate depends on when the employee first registered. Nationals with no prior contribution period at that date step up half a point each 1 July until the rate reaches 11%; everyone else stays at 9%. Both sit in the same payroll for decades, which is why the rate belongs on the employee record and not in a company-level setting.
Registration, when contributions fall due, what late costs, and how the contribution record feeds Saudization are the regime rather than the arithmetic, and they are set out on the reference page.
Contributory wage
Counts
Does not count
Floored at SAR 1,500 for the annuities branch and SAR 400 for occupational hazards, and capped at SAR 45,000 for all of them.
Housing provided in kind rather than in cash is valued for this purpose, which is a contract question before it is a payroll one.
What most calculations get wrong
01
Non-Saudis are covered by occupational hazards alone — 2% of the contributory wage, paid entirely by the employer, with nothing deducted from the employee. There is no pension branch and no unemployment branch. A payroll that applies the Saudi rate across a mixed workforce over-remits on every expatriate on the file, every month.
The most expensive configuration error in this area, and one that no employee complains about.
02
The Social Insurance Law that came into force on 3 July 2024 applies to Saudi nationals with no prior contribution period at that date. Their pension rate steps up half a point each 1 July until it reaches 11%. Everyone already contributing stays at 9% for the rest of their working life. Both populations sit in the same payroll, so the rate cannot be a company-level setting.
03
Contributions are charged on basic wage plus cash housing allowance, floored and capped. Transport, commission, overtime and leave encashment are outside it. Where a contract states a single package without splitting out basic and housing, that split has to be established before any figure is reliable — the same problem, in the same place, as the UAE gratuity calculation.
04
Above SAR 45,000 of contributory wage nothing further is charged, so an executive on three times the ceiling carries the same contribution as one on it. Employer cost as a percentage of actual pay falls as pay rises, which matters for how a headcount budget is built and is invisible if the model is a flat percentage of payroll.
05
GOSI may charge up to 4% rather than 2% where an employer fails occupational health and safety requirements. It is a penalty rather than a planning rate, so this calculator does not offer it as an input — but an employer seeing 4% on a statement is not looking at a data error.
One rate here is corroborated rather than confirmed. GOSI's published employer FAQ states the annuities and occupational hazards rates and the wage limits, and does not mention SANED at all. The 0.75% on each side is consistent across every secondary source consulted and is the only figure that makes the published combined totals reconcile — which is strong corroboration and not the same as a primary source. Confirm it against GOSI before relying on it.
Two GOSI systems running in one payroll for the next forty years is a data problem before it is a rates problem: registration date, nationality, and the basic-and-housing split all have to be real fields that survive transfers and rehires.