UAE construction payroll and WPS

What makes construction payroll different

A contractor pays a large workforce, mostly on basic salary with allowances, across several sites, with long days, night work and rest-day shifts. Hours come from site attendance, overtime has to be authorised, advances and fines are common, and the cost has to land on the right project. All of it must close in time for the bank to move the money through WPS.

This guide follows the monthly cycle from attendance to bank file. The labour rules behind each figure are in the UAE labour law guide for contractors, and what happens when someone leaves is in the gratuity and final settlement guide.

The due date: the 1st of the month

Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026, in force from 1 June 2026, replaced Resolution No. 598 of 2022 and made the first day of each month the single due date for the previous month's wages. A payment after that date is late, and the escalation in the resolution starts from the 2nd. The answer on when salaries must be paid covers the change.

An establishment counts as compliant if it transfers at least 85% of the total wages due by the due date. The 85% rule measures compliance; it does not permit paying less, and any shortfall per worker must come from lawful deductions. Workers can still claim anything unpaid.

The monthly cycle

Attendance closes first: punches become worked hours, late arrivals and absences are settled, and overtime is confirmed against authorisations. Leave is posted, including unpaid days. Deductions are applied: advance instalments, overpayment recovery and approved fines. The run then calculates payslips, checks each worker's bank details, produces the salary information file and posts the journal. The file goes to the bank or exchange house early enough for the money to arrive by the 1st.

Pricing the payslip

Overtime, rest-day pay, leave pay and gratuity are all priced on basic salary, so the split between basic and allowances in each contract decides most of the payroll. Overtime is paid at the basic hourly wage plus at least 25%, or 50% between 10 pm and 4 am for workers not on shifts, and is limited to two hours a day. The overtime calculator prices a month, and the unpaid leave deduction calculator works out a day's deduction.

Deductions and the 50% limit

Article 25 limits what may be taken from a wage and caps all deductions together at 50%. A salary advance must be recovered without interest. Heavy recovery in one month can also push net pay below 85% of the wage, which looks like non-payment under the WPS test unless each deduction is lawful and documented. The answer on salary deduction limits lists what is allowed.

What goes in the salary information file

The WPS SIF file holds one EDR line per worker, with person code, routing code, IBAN, pay period and amounts, and one SCR control line with the employer's ID, the record count and the total. Banks reject files whose header total does not match the lines, whose record count is wrong, or which carry an IBAN with a bad check digit. The free WPS SIF file checker runs these structure checks in the browser.

Workers outside WPS

Article 4 of Resolution 340 lists who is excluded, including workers with a wage claim in court or a valid absconding report, workers on approved unpaid leave notified to the Ministry, and short mission permits of up to three months. Several exclusions apply only once MOHRE has been notified. A worker who is simply left unpaid still counts against the establishment.

Corrections after the money has left

Once the WPS transfer has gone, a paid run should not be edited. A mistake is corrected by working out the difference and paying it as arrears, or recovering it as an overpayment within the Article 25 limits, through an off-cycle payment that leaves the original run intact as the record of what was paid.

How SupaJack Construct runs it, and what it does not do

In SupaJack Construct approved attendance, overtime authorisations, unpaid leave and loan instalments flow into the payroll run. Overtime is priced on the hourly basic rate and paid only inside a manager-approved authorisation. Loan and advance recovery is limited so total deductions stay within 50% of the wage; a larger instalment is split across later months. The run refuses any worker whose IBAN, 14-digit person code or routing code is missing or invalid, produces the SIF file, and posts the journal by cost centre and project. A run can be tied to the company bank account that pays it. Corrections are settled as arrears or overpayment recovery through off-cycle payments, and the same correction cannot be settled twice.

It does not send the file to the bank; finance uploads it through its bank or exchange house channel. It does not yet check a run against the 85% threshold or warn when a run will miss the 1st-of-month due date in Resolution 340, so the payroll team watches both. Whether a file is accepted is decided by the receiving bank.

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