Payroll for a DIFC Company: How Nathan HR Supports DEWS

A small consultancy operating in DIFC partnered with Nathan HR for payroll outsourcing and DEWS administration. Our role was to support compliant payroll processing, accurate DEWS contributions and ongoing regulatory support, reducing the administrative burden on the client’s internal team.

DIFC operates under its own employment-law framework. Eligible DIFC employers fund end-of-service benefits through monthly contributions to the DIFC Employee Workplace Savings Plan (DEWS) or another qualifying scheme, so DIFC payroll cannot be run on mainland assumptions.

The Client’s Requirement

The client is a small DIFC-based consultancy. It needed one outsourced arrangement covering both its payroll and its DEWS obligations, with continuing regulatory support as DIFC requirements applied to the business.

Because this case is published, we describe the engagement at a high level. The DIFC payroll and DEWS detail that follows is general information from official sources, not a description of this client’s internal processes.

Why DIFC Payroll Is Different

Payroll in DIFC follows the DIFC Employment Law (DIFC Law No. 2 of 2019, as amended) and its regulations, not the UAE Labour Law that governs mainland employers. DIFC is a financial free zone with its own civil and commercial laws, courts and regulators, and its current employment legislation is published in the DIFC legal database.

The largest practical difference is how end-of-service benefits are funded. Under the traditional mainland gratuity system, the employer calculates gratuity when employment ends and pays it from its own resources; mainland employers can also opt into MOHRE’s voluntary Savings Scheme. In DIFC, monthly funding is the legal requirement: employers pay end-of-service contributions into DEWS or another qualifying scheme every payroll cycle.

Three consequences follow for DIFC payroll and wider DIFC employment compliance:

• end-of-service benefits become a monthly payroll cost, not a liability settled at exit

• payroll rules, terminology and templates should come from DIFC law, not mainland labour law

• mainland processes, including WPS, should not be assumed to apply; confirm which wage-payment process applies to your entity

What Is DEWS?

DEWS is the DIFC Employee Workplace Savings Plan. Launched in February 2020 following changes to the DIFC Employment Law, it replaced the traditional end-of-service gratuity for eligible DIFC employees with a funded, professionally managed defined-contribution plan.

Employers pay a monthly contribution for each eligible employee. The money is held in trust and invested; employees can view their balance, choose investment options, including Sharia-compliant funds, and decide at exit whether to withdraw or stay invested. Employees can also add voluntary contributions through salary deduction.

DEWS belongs to the DIFC framework, with Zurich Workplace Solutions as plan administrator. It is not a UAE mainland requirement or a payroll provider’s product, and DIFC also lists GO SAVER as an approved qualifying scheme.

Who Needs to Comply?

DIFC-registered employers with employees generally must register with a qualifying scheme, enrol eligible employees and pay monthly contributions. According to the DEWS administrator, Zurich Workplace Solutions, this covers employees under a DIFC employment contract or DIFC visa who receive a basic salary, subject to limited exemptions, in DIFC companies of every size and sector.

Points to check, subject to the applicable DIFC rules:

• Scheme choice: employers can join DEWS or use another qualifying scheme that meets the DIFC regulations.

• Enrolment timing: employees are enrolled once they complete probation, with contributions covering the months already worked, or immediately where no probation applies.

• UAE and GCC nationals: employees registered with the General Pension and Social Security Authority (GPSSA) follow pension rules. Since DIFC Law No. 1 of 2024, employers may need to pay a top-up into a qualifying scheme where GPSSA contributions fall below the DIFC end-of-service amount.

• Exemptions: these are limited and set by the regulations. Take advice before treating any employee as exempt.

How DEWS Contributions Work

The minimum employer contribution is a percentage of basic salary, set by length of service. These rates are published by the DEWS administrator and in the DIFC DEWS employer guide:

Contributions are paid by the employer and are not deducted from the employee’s salary. They are calculated on basic salary only, so allowances fall outside the base, and employers can choose to contribute above the minimum.

Each month, the employer uploads a contribution file to the DEWS portal and transfers the matching total to the trustee’s bank account. Both must be completed before the 21st of the month after the payroll cycle: contributions for August, for example, must arrive before 21 September. The employer covers any bank charges.

How Payroll and DEWS Connect

Every DEWS contribution is built from payroll data, so an error in the payroll record becomes an error in the contribution file. For DIFC employers, DEWS administration can depend on these payroll inputs:

This is why DIFC employers should treat DEWS as its own monthly process, aligned with payroll. A mainland WPS salary file records wage payments; it does not calculate, report or pay DEWS contributions.

Running payroll and DEWS uploads as separate internal tasks? Get an indicative payroll quote in about two minutes, or speak with our payroll team about bringing both into one managed arrangement.

How Nathan HR Supported the Client

For this small DIFC-based consultancy, Nathan HR provided payroll outsourcing and DEWS administration support. Within that arrangement, we supported compliant payroll processing and accurate DEWS contributions.

We also provided ongoing regulatory support, so the consultancy had continuing guidance on the DIFC payroll and DEWS requirements that applied to it.

What Changed for the Client

The outsourced arrangement reduced the consultancy’s internal administrative burden. With Nathan HR supporting its payroll and DEWS requirements within the agreed scope, the firm could focus on its core business.

Employer Responsibilities

Outsourcing payroll does not transfer the employer’s legal obligations. In a payroll-only arrangement, your business remains the employer; Nathan HR does not become the legal employer.

As our guide to how payroll outsourcing works in the UAE explains, the employer keeps responsibility for employment decisions, payroll inputs, approvals and funding. In practice, the employer provides accurate employee and salary information and approves payroll inputs before processing. It also holds approval authority for salary changes, deductions, joiners and leavers, funds payroll and DEWS contributions on time, and notifies the provider of employee changes promptly.

Some DEWS obligations sit with the employer by design. DIFC asks each participating company to designate an authorised signatory for its DEWS plan through the DIFC Client Portal.

What Employers Should Prepare

Before scoping DIFC payroll outsourcing with DEWS support, gather:

• employee master data and employment contracts

• basic salary for each employee, recorded separately from allowances

• employment start dates and probation status

• allowances, deductions and other recurring pay elements

• payroll history; three months of previous payroll may be required during onboarding

• approved salary changes and expected joiners and leavers

• DEWS or other qualifying-scheme details

• eligibility status for each employee, including UAE or GCC nationals registered with the GPSSA

• names of internal payroll approvers

• your payroll calendar, aligned with the DEWS deadline of the 21st

How Nathan HR Supports DIFC Payroll

A DIFC company can outsource payroll to a specialist provider while remaining the employer. Depending on the agreed scope, our DIFC payroll services can include salary calculations, allowances, deductions, overtime, payslip generation and payroll reporting. They can also cover WPS or non-WPS processing depending on jurisdiction, end-of-service calculations where applicable and, for DIFC employers, DEWS-related payroll administration.

Where it forms part of the solution, employees can access payslips online or through a mobile app, and our clients receive dedicated payroll and HR support. A transition can involve a requirements review, validation and a shadow payroll before an agreed go-live.

Nathan HR processed more than AED 1.5 billion in payroll in 2025. Each engagement starts by defining which tasks we perform and which remain with your team, so not every client receives every service element.

Outsource DIFC Payroll With Nathan HR

If your DIFC business runs payroll and DEWS contributions as separate internal tasks, we can help bring them into one managed arrangement. Speak with our payroll team about your employee population, current payroll process and DEWS requirements, and we will define the appropriate scope.