Mr Cenary

1. UAE to Qatar

2. UAE to KSA

3. UK to UAE

Assume for the same role.

I thought we could get this done once and for all for future generations.

psychopomp1

csdf

Where 100% is your current salary, and obviously this is highly subjective

1: 150%
2: 300%
3. 60%+ (this all depends on how good your UK salary is and therefore how meaningful going tax-free would be)

Mr Cenary

Punchy. Approved.

scrubbedexpat141

Reality, not what I'd be hoping for;

1. 0%
2. 10-20% increase in similar company is a good deal at the moment, 30-50+% if you go 'client side' and accept you'll last a year before being punted.
3. Depends. Factoring in income tax as part of the percentage is important, as well as family circumstances and if you're single / married with 3 kids. The percentage increase for the latter will be massive to pay the bills, but potentially means there aren't any jobs paying that much in what they do. Too complicated, in my opinion.

csdf

This is all premised on being currently employed, right? If UAE->KSA market rate uplift is only 10-20%, how are they attracting anyone?

scrubbedexpat141

Sorry, I should have premised on it being related to my industry - construction / real estate.

There are some utterly mental offers that still fly around but the numbers are coming down. There are clients in KSA who will only offer X% over what you're currently on (which is a baffling strategy and destroys any credibility of paying people to do a job).

Some of the people moving will take the same cash for KSA because they just want to get there, which isn't attractive for employers because they'll disappear once they've got an Iqama, some Saudi experience and a client or competitor comes along and offers them more.
Some are here on 50k and will take 55-60 for KSA, so 10-20%, even though employed. I'd say this is reasonably common.
Then there are the PMs on 40/45 who want 65+ to go. They're short phone calls typically.
There are a lot who want to leave family in the UAE and commute every few weeks, but the logistics and cost mean it's never a long term solution.

It's the profile of person who's willing and able to go that affects their 'demands' in salary to be honest and whether it's a possible move or not.

The 'war for talent' in Saudi is mental at the moment. Often the first package to get there isn't the big one, but once in country, with an Iqama you'll find value increases and the second move is potentially very lucrative.

Millhouse

Are you suggesting a gross pay cut on moving from UK to UAE? Or a pay cut from UAE to UK?

The reality is that the original question has no answer. It's pretty personal (number of kids, expectations, family ties etc.) and as Scamp suggests it's set by market forces.

Millhouse

Lower cost of living = **** all to do.

csdf

The former: though perhaps I over-egged it (I was aiming for a net neutral result, but in reality net neutral wouldn't compensate for the upheaval and added job insecurity). Maybe 90%+ is more realistic for a higher-rate tax payer.

Mr Cenary

I’d say 10%, 40% and 20%.

scrubbedexpat141

The more important side of this, is that people should remember the amounts they can expect to drop their package by to live in the UAE.

It's like people on 6 day weeks coming to join on a 5 day week. You suggest they should be expecting a lower package but they all seem to want a pay rise. Weird.

Mr Cenary

I’m sure that’s a clever thing to say but I have no idea what it means.

weasel decentral

Not sure about the pay rise but in real individual terms a 6 day week achieves the same output as a 5 day week, just with the added inconvenience of having to attend work an extra day. If we consider the value of the role rather than the hours attended, then an increase or decrease on hours is irrelevant except as a negotiation point to get more (or less in your case) for the inconvenience/ convenience.

Two days in a row off in KSA is counterproductive, you start to contemplate your life and how you got here on day 2.

scrubbedexpat141

Preaching to the converted about a job paying a rate. I can't stand people with 3 or 4 kids moaning that school fees aren't paid and villas aren't provided. These benefits aren't needed in high volume or cost for a single man/woman, why should they be paid a huge amount more money just because they've reproduced more?

Still, I was using the days/week one as a great example of someone simply wanting 20% more to go from 5 to 6 days, if there's a 20% increase in hours, it's not an unreasonable request at all.........but telling someone you think they should accept a good % less for 6 to 5 days - suddenly it doesn't work like that.