G-P’s Employer of Record (EOR) model allows your company to start hiring talent in minutes via our global entity infrastructure. Unlike a Professional Employer Organization (PEO), G-P allows your company to expand your global footprint without the hassle of entity setup and management.
Our global employment products, including G-P Meridian Prime™ and G-P Meridian Core™, are backed by the largest team of HR and legal experts in the industry. We handle the growing complexities of compliant global expansion — so you can focus on opportunities ahead.
As a global EOR expert, we manage payroll, employment contract best practices, statutory and market norm benefits, employee expenses, as well as severance and termination. You’ll have peace of mind knowing you have a team of dedicated employment experts assisting with every hire. G-P allows you to harness the talent of the brightest people in 180+ countries around the world, quickly and easily.
Hiring in Qatar
The vast majority of the workforce in Qatar is composed of nationals from other countries. When negotiating with a candidate in Qatar, companies should clarify whether they will sponsor only the employee’s work and residency permit, or whether they will also sponsor the candidate’s family’s residency permits.
When negotiating terms of an employment contract and offer letter with an employee in Qatar, it may be useful to keep the following in Qatar in mind.
Employment contracts in Qatar
It’s legally required to put an employment contract in place in Qatar that details the terms of the employee’s compensation, benefits, and termination requirements. An offer letter and employment contract in Qatar should always state the salary and any compensation amounts in the local currency.
Working hours in Qatar
The maximum working hours is 48 hours per week, 8 hours per day. During Ramadan, this is reduced to 36 hours per week, 6 hours per day. Overtime is permitted up to 2 hours per day and must be paid at least 125% of standard pay.
Holidays in Qatar
Qatar celebrates 4 holidays for which employees get varying time off:
- Eid Al Fitr (3 days)
- Eid Al Adha (3 days)
- Independence Day (1 day)
- National Sports Day (1 day)
- 3 working days as specified by the employer
Vacation days in Qatar
An employee who has completed 1 year of continuous service is entitled to a statutory minimum annual leave with pay as follows:
- 1 to 5 years of service: 3 weeks paid leave
- 5+ years of service: 4 weeks paid leave
This is prorated for partial years of service. The employer must pay the employee before they take their annual leave. Market norm vacation allowance in Qatar is often increased to 4 weeks paid leave for executives.
In addition, employers must provide employees with a return ticket to their home countries at least once a year or every 2 years. However, common practice in Qatar is to provide a yearly ticket or allowance.
Muslim employees are entitled to a pilgrimage leave without pay for a maximum of 2 weeks, once during the period of employment.
Qatar sick leave
Employees in Qatar are entitled to paid sick leave after completing 3 months of service. Employees can take up to 2 weeks, but a medical certificate must be submitted to claim this benefit.
Maternity/paternity leave in Qatar
Expecting employees are entitled to 50 days of maternity leave if they have worked for the company for an entire year. Up to 15 days may be taken before the birth and at least 35 days must be taken after. Mothers are eligible to take additional time as unpaid or as annual leave.
There is no statutory paternity leave, but many companies offer fathers 3 to 5 days of paid leave.
Health insurance in Qatar
Locals receive free or heavily subsidized healthcare. International workers will generally seek supplemental insurance.
Qatar supplementary benefits
Supplementary health and life insurance is often provided to employees as a benefit in Qatar.
When negotiating with a candidate, we recommend being clear as to whether health and life insurance benefits will be provided only to the employee or to their family as well.
Total compensation in Qatar normally breaks down into salary, housing allowance, and transportation allowance. Some employees may also negotiate education allowances for their children in Qatar.
In general, we recommend negotiating the total compensation package (a fixed total monthly inclusive of all allowances). Once the total compensation is negotiated, the local employment contract may break down the total amount into smaller amounts to account for the various allowances as required.
Other allowances and bonuses may often be negotiated for in Qatar and may be taxable or not depending on the structure.
Bonuses
It is not legally required to pay a 13-month bonus on top of salary in Qatar.
Termination/severance in Qatar
The maximum probation period is 6 months. An employee may not be subjected to more than 1 probation period with the same employer. The employer may terminate the contract within the probation period with 3 days’ notice if the employer believes the employee is unable to fulfill job duties.
All employees who have completed more than 1 year of employment at an organization are entitled to end-of-service benefits in Qatar. The compensation includes the base wage plus the cost-of-living allowance, if any, and:
- 3 weeks for each year of service up to 5 years of continuous service.
- 4 weeks for each year of service for the second 5 years of continuous service.
- 5 weeks for each year of service for the following 10 years of service.
- 6 weeks for each year of service which exceed 20 years of continuous service.
This sum is due to the employee within 7 days of their last working day with the organization. In practice, most employers provide an amount equivalent to 1 months’ salary for each year or partial year worked.
In general, a 30-day notice period is required for employees on an indefinite contract if the employee has been employed less than 5 years. If the period of service is more than 5 years, the notification period is at least 2 months prior to the date of termination.
Employers sponsoring work and residency permits bear the expenses of returning the employee to their home country and should ensure that the employee leaves the country within 7 days of being issued the exit permit. If this 7-day duration is exceeded, the employer may report this violation to the police or immigration authorities.
Paying taxes in Qatar
There are no personal income taxes or individual social security tax in Qatar.
Why G-P?
At G-P, we help companies unlock the power of the everywhere workforce through our industry-leading Global Growth Platform™. Let us handle the complex and costly tasks involved in finding, hiring, onboarding, and paying your team members, anywhere in the world, with the speed and guaranteed global compliance your business needs.
Contact us today to learn more.