End-of-service gratuity in the UAE is money already earned: after one year of continuous service, every month adds to a lump sum priced on the last basic wage, which the employer must pay within 14 days of the contract ending. That makes it an asset, and it was the largest line missing the first time I added up my net worth. I opened two banking apps, subtracted the card statement, and wrote down one number. It was wrong by more than AED 30,000, and every dirham of the gap was money that already belonged to me.
The method I use now is borrowed from work. At the trading company where I work, the month-end close does not stop at the bank balance. It carries an end-of-service provision for every employee, a list of deposits paid to landlords and utilities, and supplier invoices that have arrived but not yet been paid. A personal balance sheet needs the same three lines, for the same reasons.
How do you calculate net worth on a UAE salary?
The formula is one line: assets minus liabilities. The work is in deciding what counts, and at what value. Here is a sheet with round numbers, close to the shape of mine.
| Line | AED |
|---|---|
| Current account | 12,400 |
| Savings account, second bank | 31,000 |
| Rent security deposit held by landlord | 4,250 |
| DEWA security deposit | 2,000 |
| End-of-service gratuity accrued (4 years 3 months, basic AED 8,000) | 23,800 |
| Car at today’s resale value | 38,000 |
| Total assets | 111,450 |
| Credit card: last statement balance | (3,100) |
| Credit card: unbilled transactions | (1,650) |
| Car loan: outstanding principal | (29,500) |
| Total liabilities | (34,250) |
| Net worth | 77,200 |
The banking-app version of this sheet is the two accounts minus the card statement: AED 40,300. The gratuity and the two deposits add AED 30,050 that the apps never show, about 39 percent of the true figure. The car and its loan net to AED 8,500, and the unbilled card spend takes AED 1,650 back off.
Should end-of-service gratuity count in net worth?
Yes, once it is legally owed, and at the value the law gives it. Article 51 of Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021 entitles a foreign full-time worker “who has completed one or more years of continuous service” to gratuity “calculated according to the basic wage”: “the wage of twenty-one (21) days for each year of the first five years of service” and “the wage of thirty (30) days for each year in excess of that”, with the total capped at “two years’ wage”.
Four years and three months is 89.25 days of basic wage. At AED 8,000 divided by 30, that is AED 23,800. I use basic ÷ 30; an employer working on a 365-day year lands about 1.4 percent lower, so the line is an estimate either way, and I label it that way. The full gratuity maths, with a worked example, covers the part-year and day-rate details.
Three rules keep the line honest:
- Zero before the first anniversary. The company books a provision from day one. My sheet does not, because before twelve months of continuous service nothing is owed.
- Net of anything owed back. Article 51(7) lets the employer “deduct from the end-of-service gratuity any amounts that are due by law or by a judgment.” If I owe the employer anything, I net it here rather than hope it is forgotten.
- Nationals use a different line. Article 51(1) routes an Emirati worker’s entitlement through the pensions law instead, and Article 51(8) lets the Cabinet approve “other alternative systems for the end-of-service gratuity system”. If an employer has enrolled staff in one, that scheme’s own statement is the better source for this line. Gratuity is not a pension, and the two should not be valued the same way.
The accrual is not linear either. Inside the first five years each month adds AED 466.67 on this basic. From year six it adds AED 666.67, a 43 percent step-up for doing the same job.
Untaken annual leave is a second accrued line of the same kind, settled in cash at exit, though a leave day is worth less cashed out than taken. I keep it on the sheet as a separate, smaller line rather than folding it into gratuity.
Why a raise to basic salary moves net worth overnight
Article 51(5) prices the whole gratuity on “the last basic wage received.” So a raise does not only change future accrual; it re-values every year already served.
Lift the basic in the example from AED 8,000 to AED 9,000 and the same 89.25 days are worth AED 26,775. Net worth rises AED 2,975 in the month of the raise, before a single extra salary is paid. In the company’s books that jump is a one-off catch-up charge to the provision, which is the hidden cost an employer weighs when choosing between a raise to basic and a raise to allowances.
A raise to basic is paid twice: once in every future salary, and once, immediately, on every year you have already worked.
The reverse holds too. A package restructured toward allowances, with basic held flat, freezes the value of the past service.
Are rent and DEWA deposits an expense or an asset?
An asset, for as long as someone else is holding them. Article 20 of Dubai’s tenancy law lets the landlord take a deposit “to ensure maintenance of the Real Property” on condition that he “undertakes to refund such deposit or remainder thereof” at the end of the lease. DEWA collects AED 2,000 for an apartment and AED 4,000 for a villa, according to Arabian Business on 26 April 2026, and refunds it when the account is closed; the same report says refunds up to AED 4,000 are now processed in eight minutes.
Most trackers book both as spending on move-in day, which is how my first sheet lost AED 6,250. I hold them at face value and cut the rent deposit only when the landlord flags a deduction, since the law’s own wording, “or remainder thereof”, already expects some to come back short.
Which number goes in for the card and the car loan?
For the card, the statement balance plus every transaction since the statement date. Leaving out the unbilled part overstates net worth by whatever was spent in the last few weeks.
For the loan, the outstanding principal, which the bank’s app or a liability letter shows. Adding up the remaining instalments is the common shortcut, but that total includes interest the bank has not charged yet, so it overstates the debt. The car itself goes in at what it would sell for this month, not at the price on the invoice.
Run the sheet once a quarter, on the same date, with the same rules. The number matters less than the direction, and the direction only means something when every line is measured the same way each time.