Kuwait End of Service Gratuity Calculator

How is the indemnity calculated?

Article 51 of Law No. 6 of 2010 on Labour in the Private Sector gives an employee paid by the month an indemnity when the service ends: 15 days’ wage for each of the first five years and one month’s wage for each year after that, with a total of no more than a year and a half’s wage. Part years count pro rata, and there is no minimum length of service. Articles 52 and 53 then say when the full indemnity is paid and when only part of it is. The calculator goes through these steps in the same order and shows them in the breakdown table under the result.

1. Total wage

In Kuwait the indemnity is worked out on the last total wage, not on basic salary alone as in the UAE. It includes basic salary and everything paid regularly: allowances, bonuses, commissions and cash benefits. If your wage changed during your service, use the last one you were paid; the law does not allow an employer to cut your wage while you work for it.

2. Length of service

Service runs from your start date to your last working day, and that day counts. We take whole years, then whole months, then the days left over, and value a month at 1/12 of a year and a day at 1/360, as in our Saudi and UAE calculators. Unpaid leave days are taken out if you enter them.

3. Daily wage and indemnity

The daily wage is the monthly wage divided by 26, or by 30 if you choose. It is multiplied by 15 days for each year up to the end of the fifth year, and a full month’s wage is added for each year after that. An example with a total wage of KWD 1,000 and seven years of service, ended by the employer:

• Daily wage: 1,000 ÷ 26, about KWD 38.462.
• First five years: 1,000 ÷ 26 × 15 × 5 = KWD 2,884.615.
• Next two years: 1,000 × 2 = KWD 2,000.
• Indemnity: 2,884.615 + 2,000 = KWD 4,884.615.

4. The cap

The indemnity may not exceed a year and a half’s wage: 18 × 1,000 = KWD 18,000 for a wage of KWD 1,000. The calculator adds up the amount first, then applies the cap if the total is above it, and shows both lines. Only employees with more than twenty years of service reach it.

5. Why the job ended

The full indemnity is paid in every case listed in Article 52, including the employer ending the contract, a fixed-term contract running out without renewal, death, incapacity and closure of the business. Resigning from an open-ended contract pays a share that depends on your service (Article 53), and dismissal under Article 41(a) pays nothing. The calculator applies the share to the indemnity after the cap and shows it in the breakdown.

6. Rounding

The calculator keeps every fraction as it is — the daily wage stays 1,000 ÷ 26, not 38.462, and two thirds stay 2/3, not 0.67 — and rounds the final amount once to the nearest fils, three decimal places. So service from 1 March 2019 to 31 August 2026 on a wage of KWD 850.500, ending in resignation, gives KWD 3,053.077, two thirds of KWD 4,579.615.

Special cases

Resigning from an open-ended contract

If you resign from an open-ended contract you receive nothing before three years of service, half of the indemnity from three to under five years, two thirds from five to under ten years and the full indemnity after ten years (Article 53). The calculator counts whole years, so 2 years and 11 months gives nothing. An employer may also treat you as having resigned after seven consecutive days, or twenty days in a year, of absence without an acceptable excuse (Article 42); the same shares then apply.

Leaving a fixed-term contract early

Articles 52 and 53 do not cover an employee who leaves a fixed-term contract before it ends. Article 47 makes the party that ends such a contract without a valid reason compensate the other side for the harm, up to the wage for the rest of the term. The calculator therefore does not work out this case; the outcome depends on your contract and on the court. If this is your situation, talk to a lawyer or the Public Authority for Manpower before you resign.

Dividing by 26 or by 30

The law does not say how many days a month has. Courts divide the monthly wage by 26 working days, which is the calculator’s default, and some employers divide by 30. The choice only affects the first five years. For a wage of KWD 1,000 and seven years, dividing by 26 gives KWD 4,884.615 and dividing by 30 gives KWD 4,500.

Years after the fifth, a month or 30 days?

Article 51 grants “a month’s wage” for each year after the fifth, and the calculator uses your monthly wage for it. Some Kuwaiti law offices value those years at 30 days’ wage divided by 26, roughly a month plus four working days, which gives more. For KWD 1,000 and seven years that method gives KWD 5,192.308 instead of 4,884.615. We follow the wording of the law; if you want to claim the other method, take it to a lawyer.

Dismissal under Article 41

Article 41(a) allows dismissal without indemnity in three cases only — an error that caused a serious loss, getting the job by fraud, and disclosing the company’s secrets. The cases in Article 41(b), such as a final conviction for a crime of dishonesty or repeated breaches of instructions, end the contract but keep the full indemnity. You can challenge a dismissal before the labour court; if it is found arbitrary, you receive the indemnity plus damages.

Unpaid leave and the notice period

Days of unpaid special leave usually do not count as service, so enter them in their field and the calculator takes them out. The notice period does count, even if the employer lets you stay at home during it, because Article 44 keeps the service running until the notice ends. Enter the day the notice period ends as your last working day, not the day you stopped going to work.

Debts and loans

Article 51 lets the employer deduct from the indemnity any debts or loans you owe it. The calculator shows the indemnity before any deduction, so ask the employer for a written statement of what was deducted and why.

Kuwaiti nationals, daily workers and the oil sector

The calculator is built for expatriate employees paid by the month in the private sector. Kuwaiti employees are covered by social security, and their indemnity is affected by the employer’s contributions and by the 2017 amendment (Law No. 85 of 2017), so their result may differ. Workers paid by the day, week, hour or piece earn 10 days and then 15 days per year, capped at one year’s wage (Article 51(a)). The oil sector has its own law.