london_lad

Hi All,

I am British and have recently accepted a job in Doha. It is with company which is well known in the western world. In UK, after tax I get about 65 to 70k GBP per year (including bonus, etc).

In Qatar I am offered roughly 620k QAR per annum (including bonus). In essence monthly I will get 39K SAR and annual bonus + flights, etc all in cash comes up to 620k QAR figure.

So its 70k vs 103k GPB (620 QAR translates to 103k GBP).

Total difference is about 30k extra savings per annum, given that apart from housing the rest of the cost of living is very cheap and of high quality/luxury.

What do you guys think?

Have I short sold myself?

abbey08

Sounds like you are coming out here for the same money you get in the UK but are just not paying any tax.

There was no way I was accepting that sort of deal and managed to get 30k more sterling on top of my UK gross salary i.e before tax.

Your cost of living will be slightly higher here but whether you have sold yourself short or not will depend on what you do and how experienced you are.

Oyibopeppeh

Rule of thumb is UK salary +50%, but of course it depends on the rest of the steal.

soukie

Difficult to comment on package until we know what sort of work you do.

london_lad

Thanks everyone. It gets really confusing and messed up with allowances and add ons. However, if I combine everything then this is the comparison:

Gross before tax in UK is 105k GBP (of which bonus not guaranteed and last year I got less, so using the year before bonus for calculations)

Gross in Qatar = 112k GBP (with 6 as conversion rate rather than 5.7 - to be on conservative side). Additional benefits include interest free loan, etc.

On Net basis (ie, after tax in UK) the difference is about 45k GBP more in Qatar. Which is a considerably higher jump than I could ever get in the UK.

For people who say rule of thumb is 50% more I think are people with lower salaries in UK (ie, in range of 30 to 60). When you go above 100k GBP in UK, then you sort of start hitting the ceiling. The reason I say is that I havent heard of anyone in my profession's circle getting this much in the middle east. The max I have heard is someone reaching 35k QAR/AED/SAR range.

My area of work is accounting/auditing.

Any insights would be helpful.

Millhouse

Just one tip... Don't assume you will be getting any bonus. A bonus is exactly that - a bonus.

Whether you will be better off depends, largely, on the number of dependants. If you have kids they can be expensive (don't forget the free education in the UK vs. paid for in Qatar).

gottheTshirt

I think you need more research. The cost of living is very high. accommodation, utilities car purchase/rental, school fees etc all need to be included in the equation.

london_lad

Thanks guys.

The bonus is guaranteed. Even without bonus I will be better of by around 27,000 GBP per annum on a net basis (ie, net take home in UK vs Qatar)

We dont have any kids, so no worries about that for next few years.

Cost of living is higher than UK? really guys?

I understand about the housing, but everything else seemed dirt cheap compared to UK. Think about it those who have been out of UK for long time (eg, Council tax, energy bills, car insurance, food, 20% VAT, Petrol, etc.

As an example: in UK it goes around 150 GBP each week for weekly shopping vs, I went to LuLu in Doha and took an inventory of what we buy every week, and even went overboard with extra 100 QAR in my calculation and it came up around 500QAR which is 50GBP saving per week in comparison.

I feel I am having the same problem as QL crowd (over there most of the people are from Asia region and they think I will live like a king on this salary), while over here I think people were lowly paid in UK and not in senior management position like myself and for them the jumps were crazy in comparison to their UK incomes.

Anyone here above more than 35k QAR range?

Johnnyboy11

Remember to factor in the following, which you won't get in Qatar:

Job security
Employment right, of any kind
Pension
Sickness benefit
Healthcare, other than basic Hamad Hospital randomness
Decent holidays (30 callendar days being the norm)

[J]

co durham boy

You'll not shop in Lu Lu for long it's a toilet , it's not cheap to live here that's for sure . We can spend 700 QAR a week on shopping and there's only two of us.

Throw in a few nights out as well and it creeps up . 64 QAR for a bottle of Magners cider , yes 11 quid.....

jackthehat

Doha? - A Nation Yawns!

mission

agreed - Lu Lu's, carrefore and geante are totally the lower end of the produce chain - their fruit and veg is totally shyte.

Ronnie Biggs

What is the QL crowd? Is 70K in the UK really "senior management" these days??! Sounds like you have an over inflated opinion of yourself that isn't quite matched by your salary.

london_lad

I think you didnt really read the whole thread. 70k is after tax a senior management (Director) level position (yes still in UK). This is after paying 40% tax. You do the maths for gross now.

commander

is that all directors get paid? Thank **** I never stuck in at school. We pay our service engineers better.