There is no payroll tax on expatriate staff — so the cost sits in gratuity accrual, mandatory medical cover and the visa cycle, none of which appear on a payslip.
Hiring in a different market? Compare all four side by side.
The UAE is the market where the salary line is closest to the true cost, and still not equal to it. There is no income tax and no social security for expatriates. What there is: end-of-service gratuity accruing at 21 days of basic pay a year, employer-paid mandatory health insurance, and the visa, permit, medical and Emirates ID cycle — which the employer must pay by law.
On a typical package that is about 7% on top. The trap is that gratuity accrues on basic pay only, not the total package, and UAE packages are usually split around 60% basic — so a firm that models gratuity on the full number overstates it by nearly half, and one that forgets to accrue it at all gets a very bad quarter when a cohort turns over.
Everything below the salary line is statutory and sourced. The salary is yours.
Excludes tooling, data, management overhead and recruitment. Those are real and they only push the number up. The dirham is pegged at AED 3.6725 to the dollar, so USD figures are exact rather than indicative.
We could not establish a credible published SDR salary median for the UAE. The only public figure we found is a Glassdoor Dubai average of AED 55,146 a year drawn from five self-reported salaries — too small a sample to put in print, and low against what the market actually pays. Rather than assert a median we cannot stand behind, this calculator asks for your number. Everything below it is statutory and sourced.
$3,500–$5,500/mo depending on market; $5,500/mo ($16,500/quarter) for a US-market dedicated SDR. At the same 12–15 meetings a month, that is $233–$458 per meeting. Your in-house number above works out at $332 per meeting once ramp is counted.
Pricing depends on the market your SDR sells into. $5,500/month is the US-market dedicated SDR; rates start at $3,500/month for other regions. The comparisons on this page use the US rate, because everything they are compared against is US cost.
No recruiting, ramp, tooling spend, or attrition risk on the buyer's side. That risk sits with us.
Talk to us about this marketEnd-of-service gratuity. 21 days of basic pay for each of the first five years of service, rising to 30 days a year thereafter and capped at two years' total pay, under Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021. Expressed as an annual accrual that is 21/365 of basic — about 5.75%. Since the 2021 law, an employee who resigns after a year receives the full entitlement; the old reduction for resignation is gone.
The basic-versus-package split matters more than the rate. Gratuity is calculated on basic salary alone — housing, transport and utility allowances are excluded. A 60% basic share is common market practice rather than law, so it is an editable input here. Move it and the gratuity line moves with it.
Health insurance and the visa cycle. Both are employer obligations, and deducting either from salary is illegal under the same decree-law. Cover ranges from a basic federal scheme near AED 320 a year to comprehensive plans past AED 10,000; a two-year visa cycle including work permit, entry permit, medical and Emirates ID typically runs AED 3,000–7,000. The defaults here are mid-range placeholders labelled as such — put your own premium and fee in.
Emiratis are a different cost base. GPSSA pension contributions apply to UAE nationals, at 15% employer for new entrants under Federal Decree-Law 57 of 2023, and Emiratisation quotas apply above 50 staff. This calculator models the expatriate case, which is the usual one for an SDR seat.
We do not publish a UAE salary median. The only public figure we found is a Glassdoor Dubai average built on five self-reported salaries — too thin to print and low against the real market. The salary field starts at a round number, not a benchmark, and the honest instruction is to replace it with yours.
At the starting figures above, employer on-costs come to AED 9,468 a year — about 6.6% on top of pay. Statutory rates move; this dataset was verified on 5 August 2026 and is re-verified quarterly. The full cross-market write-up is in What an SDR actually costs in 2026. This calculator runs entirely in your browser and stores nothing you type.