Saudi King orders SR500 monthly allowance and raises the Nitaqat wage floor

25 October 2026

King Salman has ordered a monthly allowance of SR500 for named groups of civilian and military employees, for retirees and for eligible beneficiaries of social insurance subscribers and retirees who have died. The order followed a proposal by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Social security recipients who qualify will also receive SR500 a month to help meet higher electricity and water charges, which change at the start of the next year. The same package raises the wage floor used under the Nitaqat programme. A Saudi employee must earn at least that amount for the employer to count the worker fully towards its Saudization target. The floor goes up from the present level after a transition of six months, and rises again twelve months later. Saudi Arabia's earlier Nitaqat wage floor had itself replaced a lower threshold set more than a decade ago.