KSA compliance · Nitaqat

Your Saudization ratio is not your headcount.

A Saudi employee paid SAR 4,000 counts as one, paid SAR 3,500 counts as a half, and paid SAR 2,900 counts as nothing at all while still filling a place in the denominator. The weighting is where a payroll report and a Nitaqat position stop agreeing.

Last reviewed 15 August 2026

Saudi nationals, by how they count

Paid SAR 4,000 or moreCounts as one each.

Paid SAR 3,000 to under 4,000Counts as a half each.

Paid under SAR 3,000Counts for nothing, and still occupies headcount.

Part-timeCounts as a half each.

On the flexible-work systemCounts as a third each, subject to hours and to contributions being paid.

With a disabilityCounts as one unless the multiplier below is applied.

Apply the ×4 disability multiplierOff by default. It is widely reported and not confirmed against the ministry guide, and the 10% cap on it rests on a single source.

Everyone else

Non-Saudi employeesDenominator only.

Your establishment’s band floors

We do not ship these, and that is deliberate. Under the developed Nitaqat programme the required percentage is derived per economic activity from a curve that scales with establishment size, and the constants are revised each cycle. There is no published grid to look yours up in — two firms in the same sector with different headcounts do not share a threshold. Read yours off your establishment page on Qiwa, where they are authoritative, and type them here. Leave them blank and the ratio above still computes.

Low Green (%)

Mid Green (%)

High Green (%)

Platinum (%)

Weighted Saudization

26.38%

21.5 weighted against 81.5. By raw headcount it would read 29.41% — the gap is what the weighting does, and it is why a payroll report is not a Nitaqat position.

Saudi, SAR 4,000 or more × 118 → 18

Saudi, SAR 3,000 to under 4,000 × 0.54 → 2

Saudi, part-time × 0.53 → 1.5

Weighted Saudi count21.5

Weighted total workforce81.5

Headcount, unweighted85

Ratio26.38%

Enter your four band floors from Qiwa to see which band this ratio sits in and how many hires the next one takes.

What this cannot tell you

A point-in-time ratio. MHRSD assesses the band on a rolling average, so a recent hire will not have moved it yet.
From 15 April 2026 only Saudi employees whose contracts are documented on Qiwa are counted. This calculation cannot see that.
The weighted Saudi count is used in the denominator as well as the numerator. Counting raw heads in the denominator instead would give a different ratio; no source consulted settles which MHRSD applies.

An estimate for planning. Your Qiwa establishment page is the assessment of record, and it is computed on a rolling average this cannot see.

An estimate for planning. Your Qiwa establishment page is the assessment of record: it runs on a rolling average and on contract documentation that this form cannot see.

Why there is no threshold table here

Because there is no threshold table to publish.

Under the developed Nitaqat programme the required percentage for each band is not a grid you look your sector up in. The ministry derives it per economic activity from a curve that scales with establishment size, and revises the constants behind that curve each cycle — the 2026 cycle regrouped the activities, raised most Red and Low Green floors, and removed the Yellow band. Two firms in the same sector with different headcounts do not share a threshold.

The percentages that circulate freely — engineering at 30%, accounting rising to 70%, procurement at 70% — are occupational quotas issued under separate ministerial decisions. They are a real obligation and they are not Nitaqat band thresholds. A calculator that presents them as bands produces a confident answer to the wrong question.

So the four floors are yours to supply, from the one place they are authoritative: your establishment page on Qiwa. Everything above them — the weighting, the ratio, and how many hires the next band actually takes — is what this page is for.

Saudization: what the regime requires →

How each employee counts

1Saudi employee paid SAR 4,000 or more
½Saudi employee paid SAR 3,000 to under SAR 4,000
0Saudi employee paid under SAR 3,000
½Part-time Saudi employee
⅓Saudi employee on the flexible-work system

A Saudi employee with a disability is widely reported to count as four, capped at a tenth of the workforce. That multiplier is off by default in the calculator: it is not confirmed against the ministry guide, and the cap rests on a single source.

Non-Saudi employees count as one each, in the denominator only.

What most calculations get wrong

Five things worth knowing before you plan against a band.

A hire moves both sides of the fraction

The shortfall to a band is not the target percentage times your headcount minus your Saudi count. Each hire adds one to the numerator and one to the denominator, so reaching a threshold takes more people than the subtraction suggests — and the higher the target, the wider the gap between the two answers. This is the arithmetic error in almost every workforce plan built in a spreadsheet.

At a 30% target on a workforce of 66 with 16 weighted Saudis, the subtraction says four hires. The answer is six.

Paying a Saudi employee under SAR 3,000 is the most expensive way to employ one

They occupy headcount in the denominator and contribute nothing to the numerator, so the ratio falls. Between SAR 3,000 and SAR 4,000 they count as a half, which is better and still dilutive. The minimum wage for Nitaqat purposes is not a labour-law minimum — it is the price of being counted.

The band is assessed on an average, not on today

A ratio computed from this morning’s payroll is not the band Qiwa will show. The assessment runs on a rolling weighted average precisely so that hiring ahead of an inspection does not work, and sources differ on whether the window is thirteen weeks or twenty-six. Either way, a hire made this week moves the band months from now.

From April 2026, an undocumented contract does not count

Only Saudi employees whose employment contracts are documented on Qiwa are included in the calculation. An establishment that has hired the people and not completed the documentation has the cost and not the credit, and will read its own payroll as compliant while the ministry does not.

Red is a trading constraint before it is a compliance one

The Red band restricts work permits, visa quotas and employee transfers, and closes access to government tendering. For a contractor bidding public work, the band is a prequalification question — which is why it belongs in workforce planning rather than in an annual compliance review.

Sources

Minister of Human Resources raises the minimum wage for Saudis registered in Nitaqat to SAR 4,000 — and the full, half and nil counting rules — Saudi Press Agency
What is Nitaqat and how is it calculated — the establishment’s own thresholds — Qiwa (Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development)
Implementing the new Nitaqat programme — Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development
Guidelines for classification of work permits by skill categories — Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development
Saudization (Nitaqat) — bands, weighting rules and 2026 cycle changes — Mercans
Qiwa contract documentation now governs which Saudi employees are counted — Saudi Gazette

No source in this list publishes the band thresholds by activity and size, and that is not an omission — the procedural guide is distributed through the ministry and Qiwa, and the constants move each cycle. If you have the current guide for your activity, the four floors are the only inputs the calculator needs from it.

The band moves with every contract won and lost.

For a contractor or a facilities business, headcount rises and falls with the order book and the ratio moves with it. Knowing the band at the end of the quarter is not planning; knowing what the next award does to it is.

The GOSI cost of that headcount Book a scoping call