Salaries in the GCC*
Despite an ocean of economic uncertainty and political unrest, the GCC has remained stable. In fact, governments as well as private companies in the region remain bullish about the growth. We live in a phase of continuous investment and diversification. This has led to creating additional jobs. Naturally, this leads to a hike in salary as well as cost of living. This article sheds the light on Salaries in the GCC in 2024. Also, it compares the cost of living across major GCC cities.
Oman-the baseline
The analysis and statistics in this article use salaries in Oman as the baseline. This is because our agency has been extensively publishing research reports on salaries in Oman. Our annual publication Oman Salary Encyclopedia and GCC Cost of Living Comparison covers more than 1,700 job titles in Oman across all sectors.
GCC cities covered
We have chosen the following cities for the analysis:
- Muscat-Oman
- Manama-Bahrain
- Kuwait City-Kuwait
- Riyadh-Saudi
- Jeddah-Saudi
- Dammam-Saudi
- Abu Dhabi-UAE
- Dubai-UAE
- Sharjah-UAE
- Doha-Qatar
Average Salaries in Major Cities in the GCC in 2023
| In RO | In Local Currency | |
| Muscat | 677.30 | 677.30 RO |
| Dubai | 1,576.81 | 15,045.43 AED |
| Abu Dhabi | 1,457.16 | 13,903.33 AED |
| Sharjah | 641.76 | 6,123.46 AED |
| Doha | 1,517.66 | 14,358.29 QR |
| Riyadh | 903.11 | 8,798.95 SAR |
| Jeddah | 752.85 | 7,335.00 SAR |
| Dammam | 788.23 | 7,679.73 SAR |
| Manama | 847.96 | 830.35 BHD |
| Kuwait City | 801.72 | 642.50 KWD |
Salary Purchasing Power in RO
The table below presents how much your salaries in each major GCC cities can buy in Omani Rial.
| City | Average Salary in RO | Salary Purchasing Power in RO |
| Oman | 677.30 | 677 |
| Dubai | 1,576.81 | 906 |
| Abu Dhabi | 1,457.16 | 936 |
| Sharjah | 641.76 | 608 |
| Doha | 1,517.66 | 1,011 |
| Riyadh | 903.11 | 786 |
| Jeddah | 752.85 | 784 |
| Dammam | 788.23 | 888 |
| Manama | 847.96 | 708 |
| Kuwait City | 801.72 | 730 |
For example, the average salary in Manama is 847.96 Bahraini Dinar. That it is equivalent to what you can buy with 708 Omani Rials if you are living in Muscat. Similarly, the average salary in Dubai is 1,576.81 and if you are in Oman you would need 906 Omani Rial to maintain the same standard of living of a person who earns the average salary in Dubai.
Long-term salary growth
Evidently, GCC combined economy grew by an annual rate of 5.2% from 1998 to 2022. Salaries should have obviously grown at a similar rate. However, it has not been the case in several countries in the GCC. The average salaries between 2013 to 2023 in Kuwait City, Muscat and Sharjah declined by 11.6%, 21.3% and 27.8% respectively. In Doha, salaries grew by a modest percentage of 4.3%. The following table presents how the average salaries in major GCC cities moved in the past decade.
| Year | Growth during 11 Years | |||||||||||
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | ||
| Muscat | 860 | 783 | 880 | 812 | 629 | 554 | 741 | 749 | 634 | 753 | 677 | -21.3% |
| Dubai | 12,409 | 11,499 | 11,967 | 12,241 | 13,021 | 11,255 | 11,178 | 10,996 | 11,855 | 15,815 | 15,045 | 21.2% |
| Abu Dhabi | 11,665 | 11,732 | 12,999 | 13,485 | 12,897 | 10,130 | 10,400 | 10,356 | 13,395 | 12,471 | 13,903 | 19.2% |
| Sharjah | 8,480 | 8,000 | 7,909 | 7,625 | 9,264 | 6,090 | 6,986 | 6,769 | 6,092 | 6,142 | 6,123 | -27.8% |
| Doha | 13,768 | 12,653 | 13,026 | 11,131 | 11,647 | 11,859 | 11,800 | 11,405 | 11,059 | 12,318 | 14,358 | 4.3% |
| Riyadh | 7,033 | 8,133 | 7,950 | 7,552 | 6,566 | 6,197 | 5,618 | 6,961 | 7,071 | 8,587 | 8,799 | 25.1% |
| Jeddah | 6,478 | 6,683 | 5,722 | 5,597 | 5,741 | 5,400 | 6,123 | 5,305 | 5,757 | 6,802 | 7,335 | 13.2% |
| Dammam | 5,286 | 5,317 | 6,960 | 7,214 | 5,840 | 6,955 | 6,250 | 5,458 | 7,167 | 6,460 | 7,680 | 45.3% |
| Manama | 416 | 505 | 591 | 700 | 474 | 525 | 418 | 614 | 508 | 904 | 830 | 99.7% |
| Kuwait City | 727 | 689 | 806 | 666 | 606 | 588 | 463 | 514 | 472 | 667 | 643 | -11.6% |
Our interpretation for the discrepancy between economic growth and average salaries revolves a single fact. There has been a rapid growth in GCC population. The growth has manifested in importing more labor that earn lower salaries. Construction workers, housemaids, ancillary service providers and expat residents with no jobs. Some expats would work on freelance basis with no income records. This makes sense as the average salaries in the above statistics are calculated by dividing total salaries paid out by the size of population.
Oman Salary Encyclopedia and GCC Cost of Living Comparison
The 2024 edition of “Oman Salary Encyclopedia and GCC Cost of Living Comparison” is out. This publication has been tracking salaries in Oman across all sectors since 2019. It covers more than 1,700 job titles in 21 sectors. In addition, it compares the cost of living in Muscat to other GCC capitals and key cities. The Encyclopedia is available in PDF format and you can buy your copy online here.
You can also place an order offline by writing to [email protected].
