Revealed: Average Arab expatriate salaries in the Gulf

Arab expatriates in the GCC saw a small drop in their salaries in the last year according to the 2017 Gulf Business salary survey, the only expatriate group not to see a rise in wages.

The average monthly salary earned by a Arab expatriate across the GCC fell by 0.08 per cent, from $11,787 in last year’s survey to $11,778 this year.

But those in certain sectors bucked the trend.

Information technology and digital marketing professionals in particular are in high demand as the need for technology based payment solutions, online branding and the development of apps increases.

This was shown with a 7.96 per cent increase in the average salary for Arab advertising creative managers from $7,985 last year to $8,621 on this year’s survey.

“At present technology is a sector which I believe will not see a slowdown for some time,” says Jennifer Campori, managing director of Charterhouse Middle East.

“Technology has many pros and cons. The pros being that technology makes our life easier and it takes less time to get things done. The cons are that we take technology for granted and can lose sight of reality.”

The Gulf Business 2017 Salary Survey polled the average remuneration for 20 roles, including finance, real estate and media, across the six Gulf countries.

Average monthly salary in USD ($) for an Arab expatriate employee in the Gulf

	BAHRAIN	KSA	KUWAIT	UAE	OMAN	QATAR
CEO/MD – Multinational	33,990	41,716	35,789	37,555	29,202	43,017
CEO/MD – Local Company	21,841	26,487	23,366	23,632	20,339	27,012
Human Resources – Manager	9,338	12,924	9,759	11,666	9,333	9,000
Information Technology – Manager	12,177	15,528	13,592	14,130	12,710	15,733
Sales/Marketing – Account Manager	6,096	8,054	6,360	7,185	5,928	8,079
Legal – Lawyer Marketer/Manager	10,652	12,814	10,963	11,725	9,749	12,575
Facilities Management – Manager	7,514	11,222	9,233	9,648	8,533	10,400
Finance & Accounting – Manager	8,882	11,459	8,827	10,073	8,070	11,461
Recruitment – Manager	7,014	10,639	8,438	8,561	7,460	7,000
Healthcare – General Practitioner/ Manager	9,140	14,033	10,322	10,865	9,779	11,800
Real Estate – Manager	9,271	14,330	9,424	9,809	8,904	12,800
Banking – Branch Manager	8,824	13,219	9,489	10,864	8,233	11,350
Banking – Treasury Manager	11,405	16,874	13,256	13,738	10,929	14,800
Banking – Retail/Personal Banking Manager	8,918	12,598	9,537	10,873	8,471	11,420
Media – Advertising Creative Manager	8,096	10,551	8,630	9,035	8,115	7,300
Media – Public Relations Manager	7,170	9,672	7,831	8,359	7,280	9,488
Media – Publishing Editor	6,540	7,747	7,069	7,362	6,789	5,500
Construction – Project Manager	11,338	15,009	12,358	12,484	10,574	14,126
Events – Manager	5,892	8,256	7,047	7,310	6,113	8,000
Executive Secretary/PA	5,155	6,192	5,063	5,557	4,572	6,137

The 2017 salary survey was compiled based on inputs from regional recruitment companies including Nadia and Charterhouse. Click here for the complete report.