welshmum

DH made redundant in UK - although work was abroad 95%/yr. Currently in process of being offered position in national company based in Jeddah. We have 3 children ages 11,10 and 9! When the 3 were younger we were based in KL and that worked out fine. He would be going in at Director level and I am not sure at all how salaries are defined etc.. due to possible 'global downturn'. Can anyone help us here as I don't want to look stupid either way and to be honest one would only go if money was fair. Is it also the norm to expect full housing, car, health and education along with flights home once a year. Please be patient with me - I have tried and tried to find accurate info with little success. Read The Deans post which proved very useful could not access still.unsure's piece on financial in wiki must be me I will keep trying. Also has anyone got advice on cost of living - I am concerned with the STG/SAR rates - it is ok now but what happens by the end of the year. Any info you can kindly give will be gratefully received and will indeed help us to make an informed decision. I know it might not be a great time to post as it is weekend etc.. so apologies for that. Many thanks.

eylesda

I will probably be shot down for this but Sr 80k to Sr 100k per month, plus, plus, plus, at exec level should be expected.

I have friends on these packages now.

Not unreasonable. It is not exactly Disneyland here after all.

still.unsure

agree with eylesda on the exec salaries, but would expect them to start lower (65k starting) and also which industry. (some here in the magic kingdom are taking more of a battering than others, which, in part, is due to them being 'associated' with bad industries overseas than their actual performance)

in terms of how the packages seem to be worked out here is;
- your base salary is quote on a monthly basis with 13 months in the year (12 calendar plus included ramadan bonus)
- housing (done as either "here's your house" or an allowance of 3+ months salary equivalent)
- health insurance (provided by the company and make sure it covers your family - covers most treatments and others will need to be negotiated such as physiotherapy et al)
- schooling (done as either an allowance per child or 1x months salary per child)
- travel (done as either so many "tickets" home per year (sometimes redeemable for cash) or 1x months salary)
- car (either an allowance per month or given as a company car)
- end of service (not really sure on this one but done in a weird algorithm of 2x weeks for every year then after 5x years, 1x month for every year)
- relocation (allowance - make sure you get door-to-door as well!)

the caveat is that all of the above is really subject to the company, but from conversations this seems to be the core.

as for the GBP/SAR, personally i negotiated everything in SAR figuring on the pegging to the USD. there are some people here which have been seconded from their home company and getting paid in GBP and are regretting it, but then, we're all subject to the currency fluctuations then...

in terms of cost of living, you can get a good feel for the price of groceries etc from looking at the 'sales catalogues' on here... http://www.carrefourksa.com/English/hpro.asp (carre four is a 'hypermarket' akin to tescos), and here... http://www.jarirbookstore.com/ (jarir is akin to comet) and good ol' ikea... http://www.ikea.com.sa/ and the price of petrol is about 0.50SAR (diddely squat!)

welshmum

Thank you very much for the valuable and detailed info. The 13mth salary was new to me just like the French system although that is suppose to help with the end of yr tax bill. As it is a national co. I am sure the salary etc will be in SAR. Will take all the info you gave and hopefully be able to get DH to negotiate well. If we do move forward and if one thinks that it would be of value I will write up the events/proceedures and the pitfalls etc.. and put it up on wiki. Thanks again it is greatly appreciated our end.

still.unsure

no problems. couple of things to include in the negotiations...

- accommodation (this is an absolute make or break point, fat lot of good getting a huge allowance an no available place (and decent) to spend it on!)
- multi exit/entry visa and retention of passports (most expats are fine with this but have had a bl--dy rough time with this point myself so a bit of a personal vendetta on this one). make sure you get multi's for all the family and that you can hold your passports as well as your iqamas

haz saeed!

Duracell_Bunny

What is the difference between a Transferrable and Non Transferable Iqama?

My mate will be getting a Transferrable one in about a months time.

Does this mean you can leave the job and get another one in Saudi without any problems? Do you still need the letter of No Objection? Are there ways around these no objection issues?

Thanks.

Jess1983

Yep thats pretty much what it means. My husband is here on a transferable one, makes things much easier.

still.unsure

as Jess1983 said, that's pretty much it. as for the NOC, have heard stories of people getting in the right persons ear and they magically disappear. the other one used to be swapping passports but that only works if they haven't fingerprinted you.