SAR 5,000 From April 25, 2027: The New Threshold for Your Saudi Employees in Nitaqat and HRDF Wage Support

The Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF, or Hadaf) is among Saudi Arabia's top searches today because of two linked decisions: a royal directive on October 25, 2026 raising the wage needed to count a Saudi employee fully in Nitaqat to SAR 5,000, then SAR 6,000, and the Fund's October 29 announcement raising the minimum supported wage in its Employment Support product from SAR 4,000 to the same levels, on April 25, 2027 and April 25, 2028. The bottom line: any Saudi employee paid under SAR 5,000 will no longer count as one full worker in your Saudization rate, and will not stay in Employment Support. You have about 6 months to find out who they are and what raising their pay costs; start with our article on the monthly payroll close.

What exactly was decided?

• The royal directive, October 25, 2026: the minimum wage needed to count a Saudi worker fully in Saudization rates under the Nitaqat program rises to SAR 5,000, applied 6 months after the measure starts, then to SAR 6,000 after a further 12 months, counted from when the first increase takes effect, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
• Employment Support, October 29, 2026: HRDF announced that the minimum supported wage rises from SAR 4,000 to SAR 5,000 for new requests on April 25, 2027, applying to existing requests from the May 2027 support month, then to SAR 6,000 on April 25, 2028, and to existing requests from the May 2028 support month. Support continues at up to 50% of the monthly wage, capped at SAR 3,000. The Fund said its two stages coincide with the stages of the Ministry's Nitaqat decision.
• Who it covers: the Deputy Minister of Human Resources for Labor Affairs, in remarks reported by Okaz, said the two stages start on April 25, 2027 and April 25, 2028, and that the decision covers 5 categories: full-time workers, part-time workers, workers under flexible work arrangements, students working part time, and people with disabilities who are able to work.

Read the wording carefully: the official text refers to the wage needed to count a Saudi employee fully in Saudization rates, not to a mandatory minimum for every private-sector salary. An employee paid below the threshold remains a lawful employee, but counts as less than one full worker in your Saudization rate, and that rate is what your Nitaqat band is built on.

How your employee counts today, and what changes in 2027

Today's rule was set by Ministerial Decision 61706, which raised the threshold from SAR 3,000 to SAR 4,000:

• SAR 4,000 or more: the employee counts as one full worker.
• SAR 3,000 to under SAR 4,000: counts as half a worker.
• Under SAR 3,000: not counted in the Saudization rate.

From April 25, 2027 the full-worker line moves to SAR 5,000, and from April 25, 2028 to SAR 6,000. The official announcements so far do not say how the half-worker band will be adjusted, so watch the Nitaqat Calculator on the Ministry's website as its rules are updated.

An example to illustrate: a business has 10 Saudi employees, 4 of them paid between SAR 4,000 and SAR 4,999. Today all four count as full workers; after April 25, 2027 none of them counts as a full worker unless their pay rises, so your Saudization rate drops without anyone leaving.

Employment Support: who drops out, and when

The product's conditions, as published on HRDF's Employment Support page for establishments:

• Which wage: basic salary plus housing allowance, and support is calculated on the wage registered with GOSI, the social insurance body.
• Wage limits today: SAR 4,000 to SAR 15,000, for a full-time employee; remote and part-time work are excluded.
• Request timing and duration: the request is submitted from day 91 to day 180 after the employee's GOSI registration, and support lasts up to 24 months.
• Support amount: a fixed 30% that can reach 50% with additional rates, capped at SAR 3,000 a month.

The FAQ on the same page adds: if a beneficiary's GOSI-registered wage falls below the minimum, the beneficiary is excluded under the program's rules. With the new minimum applying to existing requests from the May 2027 support month, every supported employee paid between SAR 4,000 and SAR 4,999 today ends up below the line. For each of them you have two options before that month: raise the registered wage to at least SAR 5,000, or accept that they leave the support and lose full counting in Nitaqat at the same time.

Check your payroll before April 25, 2027 in 6 steps

1. Pull a list of your Saudi employees from the payroll system, with 3 numbers for each: the wage in the contract, the wage in payroll, and the wage registered with GOSI. Fix any difference now, because the Fund calculates support from the GOSI figure, not from your spreadsheet.
2. Sort them into bands: under 3,000, 3,000 to 3,999, 4,000 to 4,999, 5,000 to 5,999, and 6,000 or more. The third band is your 2027 decision, the fourth your 2028 decision.
3. Price the gap: for each employee under SAR 5,000, the monthly difference up to 5,000, then up to 6,000 for the 2028 budget, plus whatever your system calculates on the wage, such as social insurance contributions and the end-of-service award.
4. Test your band after the change: how each employee counts today, and how they will count after April 25, 2027 if their pay stays the same, then enter the result in the Ministry's Nitaqat Calculator.
5. Flag your Employment Support files: who benefits today, when their support ends, and who is paid under SAR 5,000 with support running past May 2027.
6. Add a warning before approval: any job offer or salary change for a Saudi employee below SAR 5,000 shows its effect on your band and on support before anyone signs.

The table you end up with is your written decision for each name: raise the pay, redesign the role, or accept the effect. If your systems do not read from GOSI, Mudad and Qiwa, we explained integrating your systems with government platforms in an earlier article.

The Origami view

We read the two decisions as a shift in the Saudization question, from how many Saudis you employ to how many Saudis you employ at a wage that counts in full. A business whose system knows each employee's wage as GOSI sees it, their band and their support status answers that question with one report; one that gathers figures from scattered spreadsheets may only see the effect after its band has changed.

You do not need a new system to start: the six steps work on one clean spreadsheet. If you want the check to become a dashboard that updates itself with every hire or salary change, and warns before approval rather than after, that is the kind of custom work we build on top of your employee data. Reach us through our services page.

Conclusion

From April 25, 2027, SAR 5,000 becomes the wage at which your Saudi employee counts fully in Nitaqat, and the minimum supported wage in Employment Support; from April 25, 2028 it becomes SAR 6,000. Your step this week: a list of your Saudi employees and their GOSI-registered wages, the cost of raising those below the line, then a written decision for each name before the date arrives.