Oman Salary Question

Old Oct 23rd 2015, 1:11 am
  #1  
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Default Oman Salary Question

Hi all,

Sorry another salary package question; I see lots of advice on Dubai, AD and Qatar salaries but not much on Muscat.

So I'm in construction, 18rs experience mostly commercial management. I have an offer to go to Oman with a US consultancy, 5 days per week, usual 30 days AL. I'll be bringing the wife and 2 young children aged almost 1 and 3. Would like to get a 3-4 bed villa or 3 bed apartment in an expat area so that we can make friends and mingle.

Final all-in negotiated package totals circa 6300 Rials + medical. This is everything; I need to pay for accommodation, car, utilities, flights and schooling from this. In addition, they will mobilise the family, contribute a little to mobilisation costs and put us up in a hotel for the first month. After that my package needs to take care of everything.

The package looks okay to me for the first couple of years, thereafter schooling fees will kick in for our eldest. I'm a little disappointed that they are holding out on covering schooling separately as I have seen from other posts that it should be covered. They have advised that they might be able to help out down the line but I'm not holding my breath.

I'm trying to remain positive as its a good opportunity for me considering there is little work going in my home city at the moment. At the same time I don't want to get to Muscat and realise that everyone else does in fact get schooling on top of their package.

Can anyone from Oman please shed some light on this situation, whether we can live comfortably on this package and how it compares to others in the region.

Thanks in advance,
Shrinkems
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Old Oct 23rd 2015, 3:46 am
  #2  
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Default Re: Oman Salary Question

6300 OR is about 63,000 AED. That's a pretty good monthly income for a family in Dubai and will cover a comfortable 3-4 bed villa and school fees for two kids.

Unless the Oman schools are more expensive than the Dubai schools, which I'd find hard to believe, your package offer should be very liveable even if forking over your own school fees.

I looked up the British School in Muscat and the most expensive year is 8,000 OR and that's for Year 14. The Primary years top out at 4,500 OR.

By the way, the trend in the Gulf is moving away from base + benefits package to all inclusive and letting people pay for the housing/fees on their own. Your all-in is 6300 and is there a difference between that and a traditional package of 4000 base and 2300 in benefits?
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Old Oct 23rd 2015, 5:01 am
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Default Re: Oman Salary Question

Thanks for that DXBtoDOH.

From your reply it sounds like there will be others that don't necessarily have the separate accommodation allowance but will be able to service it through an all-inclusive package then.

Note that my package is broken down into things like accommodation, car, etc but education does not feature in the breakdown. I found this odd considering there have been so many posts that say to make sure that education is taken care of by the company.

I guess it then comes down to whether the overall number is on par with others in Oman working in my industry with similar experience. If, as you mention, the equivalent package in Dubai is okay, then another way to answer this question would be to understand relative salary levels between Dubai and Oman. If anyone could shed some light on that, it would be much appreciated.
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Old Oct 23rd 2015, 5:05 am
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Default Re: Oman Salary Question

oops...
From your reply it sounds like there will be others that don't necessarily have the separate EDUCATION allowance but will be able to service it through an all-inclusive package then.
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Old Oct 24th 2015, 5:31 am
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Default Re: Oman Salary Question

Originally Posted by shrinkems
Hi all,

Sorry another salary package question; I see lots of advice on Dubai, AD and Qatar salaries but not much on Muscat.

So I'm in construction, 18rs experience mostly commercial management. I have an offer to go to Oman with a US consultancy, 5 days per week, usual 30 days AL. I'll be bringing the wife and 2 young children aged almost 1 and 3. Would like to get a 3-4 bed villa or 3 bed apartment in an expat area so that we can make friends and mingle.

Final all-in negotiated package totals circa 6300 Rials + medical. This is everything; I need to pay for accommodation, car, utilities, flights and schooling from this. In addition, they will mobilise the family, contribute a little to mobilisation costs and put us up in a hotel for the first month. After that my package needs to take care of everything.

The package looks okay to me for the first couple of years, thereafter schooling fees will kick in for our eldest. I'm a little disappointed that they are holding out on covering schooling separately as I have seen from other posts that it should be covered. They have advised that they might be able to help out down the line but I'm not holding my breath.

I'm trying to remain positive as its a good opportunity for me considering there is little work going in my home city at the moment. At the same time I don't want to get to Muscat and realise that everyone else does in fact get schooling on top of their package.

Can anyone from Oman please shed some light on this situation, whether we can live comfortably on this package and how it compares to others in the region.

Thanks in advance,
Shrinkems
I left Oman just over a year ago, so I may be a little out of date.

Housing in MSQ and surrounds is about 1500 per month but generally this is paid in a lump sum up front. I don't know what electricity and utilities cost as my housing was company housing.

British School / ABA fees are the most expensive. I'm not sure what the waiting lists are now. All schools will expect you to pay a one off registration fee as well. Costs are advertised on their websites.

Some companies pay school fees on top but 6300 all in is a good package as those on all in will have a lower salary. Note you only get paid bonus on your base salary so employers like to pad the package with allowances rather than salary to reduce the year end bonus.

Holiday timing and working days is standar to good. 25 days leave is a minimum.

Not everyone gets flights paid for home each year. That's getting rarer.
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Old Oct 26th 2015, 11:43 am
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Default Re: Oman Salary Question

Okay thanks OriginalSunshine, that's reassuring.
Having lived in Oman before, do you know whether salaries are on par with those in Abu Dhabi or Dubai?
Were you able to mingle with other expats in similar situations and did you generally enjoy yourselves? And what was the pace of life like?
After research into education and considering our eldest would start off in Kindie, we are thinking MIS or ABA. But from grade 6 definitely ABA for the IB. How are these schools considered by the general expat population?

Last edited by shrinkems; Oct 26th 2015 at 11:44 am. Reason: grammatical
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Old Oct 31st 2015, 5:28 am
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Default Re: Oman Salary Question

I don't know as I never lived in the UAE.
You will almost exclusively mix with other expats or westernised locals.
Pace of life is slow and outdoorsy.
I'm a year out of date on how schools are considered but these two are the top two schools of choice.
The BSM was not good for our boys, but horses for courses. We tried to switch to ABA but once you have a place at BSM then ABA put you bottom of the list and we were treated with contempt and arrogance by the registrar at ABA.
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Old Nov 1st 2015, 10:13 am
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Default Re: Oman Salary Question

What do you earn in the UK at the moment?
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Old Nov 1st 2015, 10:25 am
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Default Re: Oman Salary Question

Hi Scamp,
A bit over £100k so it will be an increase, bonus obviously being that I won't be taxed. But not enjoying things here.
Does this sound about right for Oman vs UK?
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Old Nov 1st 2015, 10:46 am
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Default Re: Oman Salary Question

Originally Posted by shrinkems
Hi Scamp,
A bit over £100k so it will be an increase, bonus obviously being that I won't be taxed. But not enjoying things here.
Does this sound about right for Oman vs UK?
So;

Roughly 5,500 per month net of tax in UK.
Mortgage / Rent in UK = ....
Car in UK = ....
Utilities in UK = .....
= 5,500 - rent - car - Utilities = X,000

Oman
6,300
- 1,500 housing (for sake of argument)
- 400 schooling (DXBtoDOH rough estimates from research for one child)
- 300 Utilities (guess work, educated though, someone else might KNOW)
- 200 Flights (roughly 8no annual flights eg; 2 each per person)
- 300 Car (hire something decent / buy something decent second hand. 3,000 would cover the finance payment and maintenance stuff too)
= 6,300 - 2,750
= 3,550 spending money / saving money / beer tokens.

At today's exchange = GBP 5,964


So, making some assumptions (you can change these and share if you like) on your UK costs;

Roughly 5,500 per month net of tax in UK.
Mortgage / Rent in UK = ....1250
Car in UK = ....200
Utilities in UK = .....150
= 5,500 - rent - car - Utilities = 3,900 Spending / Saving money

That's an increase of 2,064 GBP PER MONTH = 24,768 PER ANNUM.

Now, I don't know you from Adam, I don't know your work situation, I don't know your actual costs in the UK, I don't know how good your company is etc.

BUT, what I can roughly calculate is as follows;

You can have a house, car, bills paid, school paid for and have roughly 25,000 quid EXTRA in your pocket each year. Just to reiterate - AFTER you have paid for all the essentials.

To achieve this in the UK (a 25,000 nett increase in take home pay) you would have to ask your current boss for 150,000 salary to match it (according to listentotaxman).

Packages, as have been mentioned are changing- very few firms pay schooling or housing directly etc. We, as a business, don't even have an allowance for schooling, we have basic + allowances for all sorts (Housing, car, flights, furniture, utilities etc) but not housing. Reason for this, in our companies mind is that if you come with 3 school age kids and cost 6300 + (for sake of argument) 4000 per kid per year, you will cost (6300 x 12) + (4000 x 3) = 87,600. If we employ 'you' without the kids (IE another person of similar ability) 'you' would cost 6300 x 12. That's quite a large saving which plays a part but also - why should the first you get 87,600 a year in package terms and the childless 'you' get 75,600? Is that fair?

As I say - that's just part of our justification for not paying any schooling, our management believes it is fairer, or at least thinks that's a good way of justifying it.


Anyway, I digress. In conclusion; I think you should take it. You'll be better off financially, Oman is beautiful, the experience will be great for the family and in 4 years time you'll have 100,000 extra pounds in your pocket and you'll feel obliged to give me 40% of it for convincing you.
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Old Nov 1st 2015, 11:08 am
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Default Re: Oman Salary Question

Thanks Scamp, that's put some perspective on things. I had to make a decision today and we have decided to take the plunge. Oman here we come...who do you bank with?!
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Old Nov 1st 2015, 11:13 am
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Default Re: Oman Salary Question

Originally Posted by shrinkems
Thanks Scamp, that's put some perspective on things. I had to make a decision today and we have decided to take the plunge. Oman here we come...who do you bank with?!
Oh god, I feel so responsible now.

I'm sure it will work out for you, if the family (the wife) are on board and positive then you'll be in a good place.

I bank with HSBC because both my companies here bank with (have banked with) them. The selection in the UAE is pretty average. It's definitely harder to deal with them than in the UK but that goes for all of them, same shit different toilet if you follow my drift.
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Old Nov 2nd 2015, 12:59 pm
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Default Re: Oman Salary Question

All banks are crap. But HSBC is good for getting your money and ass (arse) out of the country when HM dies.
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Old Nov 2nd 2015, 9:40 pm
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Default Re: Oman Salary Question

Of course, you won't save 100k in 4 years. But you will have fabulous memories of holidays in the Maldives, Mauritius, the Landy for the missus, the off-roadrunner for you, family fun trips to Atlantis in Dubai staying in a suite cos it's on special offer. You will have great fun.
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Old Nov 4th 2015, 1:43 pm
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Default Re: Oman Salary Question

Originally Posted by shrinkems
Hi Scamp,
A bit over £100k so it will be an increase, bonus obviously being that I won't be taxed. But not enjoying things here.
Does this sound about right for Oman vs UK?
That £100,000 UK salary is probably worth £150,000 when you factor in the extras you get from a decent UK employer, but probably won't get in the Middle East.

Employer pension contribution?
Performance bonus?
Company car?
45 paid days annual/ statutory hols?
37 hour working week?
Health cover?
Illness cover?
Redundancy cover?
etc.

My last UK employer (public sector) sent all its managers an annual statement illustrating the benefits, which generally worked out about 50% above gross salary.

Then there's UK Child Benefit, and you can minimise Income Tax by paying into a pivate pension.

The Middle East has it's attractions, if you are a risk taker, well educated, experienced in a niche field, and are able to tollerate a lot of hassle and frustration. A lot of UK expats are here for less that a full tax year and leave for various reasons, so face a hefty tax bill on their return to the UK...
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