Saudization: Nitaqat Bands, Quotas, and Pay 2026

Saudization is the policy that requires private-sector establishments in Saudi Arabia to employ a minimum share of Saudi nationals, set and enforced by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (HRSD). The mechanism is Nitaqat, a banding system that scores every establishment on its Saudi share and controls what it can do with expatriate labour as a result. On top of it sit profession-level quotas that reserve a percentage of specific jobs, from accounting to engineering, for Saudis.

This guide covers how the bands work, the salary rule that decides whether a Saudi hire counts, the profession quotas in force in 2026, what a red band costs an employer, and what all of it does to pay for Saudis and for expatriates.

What Saudization is

The current framework is Nitaqat Mutawar, which HRSD introduced under a ministerial decision published in 2021 and applied from December that year. It replaced the fixed size-and-sector tables of the older Nitaqat with a single curve: the required Saudi percentage rises smoothly with the total workforce of an establishment, using a gradient set for each economic activity, and the whole curve shifts upward on a published three-year schedule. There are no longer fixed employee bands; the formula applies to an establishment of any size.

The point of the redesign was predictability. An employer can read the required percentage for its activity and headcount today and for each of the next three years, and plan hiring against it. It also removed the yellow band, leaving five: Platinum, High Green, Medium Green, Low Green, and Red.

How the Nitaqat bands work

Every establishment is scored continuously on the ratio of Saudi to total employees registered with the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI), and placed in a band. The band controls access to the services expatriate hiring depends on.

• Platinum, High Green, Medium Green. New expatriate visas, occupation changes, work-permit renewals, and sponsorship transfers all allowed, with new hires counted immediately.
• Low Green. Existing expatriate work permits can be renewed, but new visas and occupation changes are restricted. The establishment is compliant and exposed: a few departures can push it into Red.
• Red. No new visas, no work-permit renewals, no sponsorship transfers in. Under the labour-mobility rules that sit alongside Nitaqat, an expatriate at a non-compliant establishment can also move to a compliant employer without its consent, which is the consequence employers fear most.

The score is calculated on the establishment's live GOSI records through the Qiwa platform, where an employer can see its band and run the ministry's Nitaqat calculator against a planned hire.

The SAR 4,000 rule: which Saudi employees count

A Saudi on the payroll counts as one full employee in the Nitaqat calculation only if their registered monthly wage is at least SAR 4,000. That floor was set by an HRSD ministerial decision in November 2020, in force from 2021, raising it from SAR 3,000. A Saudi paid between SAR 3,000 and SAR 4,000 counts as half an employee. Below SAR 3,000 the hire does not count at all.

Several profession-level decisions set a higher floor for the roles they cover: SAR 5,000 for technical engineering professions and SAR 9,000 for dentistry, for example. The floor is a counting rule, not a statutory minimum wage and not a market rate; the Pay Index block further down this page shows the published envelope by sector, so the gap is there to read.

Profession-level quotas in force in 2026

Alongside the establishment-wide band, HRSD issues decisions that reserve a share of particular professions for Saudis, each with its own threshold, wage floor, and start date. The 2025 round, issued in January 2025 and applied from July and October, is the one in force through 2026. The main decisions:

• Technical engineering professions. 30% Saudization at every establishment employing five or more workers in the covered professions, with a GOSI wage floor of SAR 5,000, under Ministerial Resolution 103105 of 26 January 2025, in force from 27 July 2025.
• Accounting professions. A first stage of 40% at establishments with five or more accounting employees, in force from October 2025, on a published schedule rising toward 70%.
• Pharmacy. 35% in community pharmacies, 55% in other pharmacy establishments, and 65% in hospital pharmacies, from July 2025, at establishments with five or more pharmacy workers.
• Dentistry. 45% from July 2025, rising to 55%, with a SAR 9,000 wage floor, at establishments with three or more dentists.

HRSD publishes a procedural manual for each decision on its knowledge centre, listing the exact profession codes covered. A new decision usually carries a six-month grace period between issue and enforcement, which is the window an affected employer has to reach the percentage or accept the consequences in its band.

What a red band costs

The penalty is not a cash fine on a schedule, as it is in the UAE. It is the loss of the ability to run an expatriate workforce. An establishment in Red cannot bring in new expatriates, cannot renew the permits of the ones it has, cannot move them between professions, and under the labour-mobility rules cannot stop them leaving for a compliant competitor. For a business built on expatriate skills, a Red band is an operating stop, which is why employers pay a great deal to stay Green and why a compliant Saudi hire is worth more to them than the salary on the contract.

What it means if you are Saudi

Pay. In a covered profession at an establishment near its threshold, your hire is worth a quota point and the operating freedom that goes with it. Employers price that in. The wage floors in the profession decisions are the minimum for the hire to count, not a market rate; Tenure's published bands for Saudi Arabia, in the block below, are the verified market figures to read against them.

Role type. The profession decisions tell you where demand is being manufactured: accounting, engineering, pharmacy, dentistry, and the wider list of 269 professions HRSD has attached percentages to. A job in one of those professions at an establishment below its percentage is a seller's market.

What to check. Ask what your registered GOSI wage will be, because that is the figure that decides whether you count, and whether an employer has any incentive to register you at one number and pay you another. Ask which band the establishment is in and where it sits against its profession threshold.

What it means if you are an expatriate

Where roles stay open. Nitaqat sets a share, not a bar. Establishments in Green keep hiring expatriates across the board, and the professions with the deepest expatriate reliance, senior engineering, specialist medicine, technology, and international-facing finance and legal work, remain open where local supply is thin. The percentage applies to the profession group at the establishment, not to each vacancy.

Where they close. The profession decisions with high percentages, and the professions HRSD has reserved fully for Saudis, are where expatriate hiring ends. If your profession is on a decision, the question is which stage the establishment has reached and how far it is above the line.

What it does to your offer. An expatriate hire at an establishment near Low Green costs the employer band position, and a Red band costs it the ability to renew your own permit. That risk sits inside every offer to an expatriate in Saudi Arabia, whether the employer says so or not. It argues for establishments comfortably in Green, for roles where your skills are not yet localised, and for pay anchored to the verified market.

What the market pays in Saudi Arabia

The block below is the public slice of the Tenure Pay Index for Saudi Arabia: the entry, mid, and senior envelope for each professional sector, from the Standard-tier floor to the Exceptional-tier ceiling, in SAR per month, built only from bands with three or more verified sources. It is the same figure on every Pay Index surface.