alistair7

Hello, All.

I need advise on what is a good basic salary for an experienced IT manager of an government/royalty-backed oil and gas company in Abu Dhabi.

I am offered a 26k dirhams a month, and it looks very low to me. Am I right?

The offer has other allowances in the package, inc. accommodation and schooling (I am married with 2 primary school age boys), which seem low to me as well, but my main question is regarding the basic salary.

A little bit info about me in case it helps with answering my question: I am a UK national and an experienced senior IT manager. Currently I manage around 100 staff providing services to 4,000 internal IT users. I work for a famous and healthy and secure blue-chip top FTSE10 company.

Thanks in advance for any info you provide.

Regards

hawkhead

If schooling and housing etc are covered (but what are they offering you for this?) then I would have thought you could live off 26k. But as to whether it's a good deal or not I'll leave to someone in the same industry.

still.unsure

you may want to have a look at this thread... http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7269496

the OP on it was asking if 40k p/m was enough and, for the situation they described, wasn't really worth it.

best 'o luck

Hello.Kitty

yes, I may be being a bit slow, but is the 26k what they term "basic salary" and then your various allowances are on top of that (in which case, as Hawkhead says - how much are they offering?!) or is it the overall?

If it's the overall, laugh at them.

hawkhead

Read the thread Kitty!!

Hello.Kitty

I did say I was being a bit slow!

Regardless, it hinges on how much the allowances add up to, dunnit?!

girlabouttown

IF accommodation, schooling, flights, car etc are all included IN FULL then it is a reasonable starting point but I would think given your experience you could command considerably more.

YesICan

I am mulling over a 40K all inclusive offer for an IT Manager position in Abu Dhabi with a private company and based on the opinion provided by almost all of the contributors to this forum it is not sufficient.

I would say 26K AED is not sufficient unless they offer full cost of accomodations and children's education which were the two biggest expenses I added up for my family with 3 elementary school going kids.

I am holding off for 65K offer, anyone knows where I can go to get it?

sassypilotswife

Send me your CV via PM or however. and I will forward to my guys.. Spugsy's guy has the first at bat but send on and will see what I can find out for you.

rena19

It is Alistair7 here using my wife's account, as my one is not working for some reason.

Thanks to all for reply.

The latest final offer today is 70k dirhams/month all inclusive. 31k of this is what they call "base monthly salary", 20k is accommodation, 3.5k is education for both children, plus other items - all together 70k.

The offers sounds good initially, but taking into account the Abu Dhabi factor (vs Berkshire, UK) - is this is good enough package for a person with my experience?

Thanks for responses in advance.

hawkhead

Your main problem here is that you will be getting 20k per month for accommodation (too low for a family of your size anyway) but in AD you have to pay rents yearly in advance. So where are you going to find the c.350-400AED you'll require for your year's rent? Also, if it then all goes t*ts up after three months what happens to the rent you've just paid?
Education is also a bit low. Someone with more interest in money will be able to tell you the exact cost but I think the British school is about 9k per term for primary.
Base salary sounds good to me in terms of general cost of living in AD but I have no idea of it is good for your industry/experience etc.

Blue Cat

70k per month

34,000 per month on rent - and as HH says payable 1 year in advance
7000 per month on schooling, depending on age of kids - again payable per term, we pay 9k per term for our 4 year old.
car for wife - 2000 per month
Water Electricity - not sure exactly but approx 2000 a month, more in summer

that's about 44000 before you consider anything else, thus leaving you 26k for day to day living, you should be fine

it's the initial layouts that are tough, like relocation and security deposits on property, agents fees, furniture, school uniforms, it all adds up.