- What changes in the Nafis salary support tiers
- How existing Nafis salary support beneficiaries transition
- What the Nafis salary support cut costs an employer
- The pension change employers should verify
- Where the Nafis salary support reform gives back
- What the Nafis programme has achieved
- What founders should do about Nafis salary support now
- The honest reading on Nafis salary support
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Sources
Nafis salary support changes from September 2026, and the reform moves money rather than adding it. The top tier falls from AED 7,000 to AED 6,000 a month, which is AED 12,000 a year per affected employee that the state no longer pays.
That amount does not disappear. It lands on the employer, the employee, or the retention rate.
What changes in the Nafis salary support tiers
The Emirati Talent Competitiveness Council confirmed the revised framework alongside extending Nafis to 2040. Nafis salary support now bands by education level.
Bachelor’s degree holders receive up to AED 6,000 a month, down from up to AED 7,000. Diploma holders receive up to AED 5,000. High school graduates receive up to AED 4,000, and certain beneficiaries below that level receive AED 3,000 to AED 4,000 depending on family circumstances.
The new Nafis salary support eligibility floor
A standardised minimum salary of AED 6,000 a month now applies across all Salary Support categories, aligned with the Cabinet’s minimum wage decision.
Support caps out at a monthly salary of AED 20,000. Child allowance eligibility extends up to AED 50,000, so higher earners keep the family benefit while losing the salary top-up.
How existing Nafis salary support beneficiaries transition
Nobody loses support overnight. That is the humane part of the design, and it also spreads the employer cost over time.
Emiratis registered on or before 14 August 2026 who receive more than the new entitlement see support fall by AED 500 every six months. It keeps falling until it reaches the revised level, so moving from AED 7,000 to AED 6,000 takes twelve months.
The Nafis salary support taper for low earners
Employees earning under AED 6,000 follow a separate glide path while employers correct salaries.
They receive 100 percent of current support for six months from September, then 70 percent for six months, then 30 percent for three months. That is fifteen months of tapering, and it ends whether or not the salary has been fixed.
What the Nafis salary support cut costs an employer
Run the arithmetic on a single hire before deciding how to respond.
An Emirati employee with a bachelor’s degree previously received AED 7,000 in Nafis salary support. Once fully transitioned they receive AED 6,000. Household income falls AED 1,000 a month, or AED 12,000 a year.
Scale it across a payroll
A company with ten Emirati staff on the top tier faces AED 120,000 a year in reduced household income across its workforce.
The employer has three choices. Absorb it through salary increases, which is a real payroll cost. Let employees take the reduction, which is a retention risk in a market where Emirati talent is already scarce. Or split it. Doing nothing is the second option chosen passively.
The pension change employers should verify
Reporting indicates employers now carry their own pension contribution share in full. Part of it had previously been government-supported.
Nafis continues covering pension fund contributions for Emiratis registered under the Eshtirak subscription scheme. The precise percentage shift is described inconsistently across secondary sources, so confirm your specific obligation with MOHRE or the General Pension and Social Security Authority rather than relying on published summaries.
Why the pension detail matters
Pension contributions apply to every Emirati on payroll, not only to Nafis beneficiaries.
Consequently a shift of even a few percentage points compounds across a whole Emirati headcount. It also arrives in the same month as the Nafis salary support reduction, so budget both together.
Where the Nafis salary support reform gives back
The framing so far is one-directional, and that would be incomplete.
Child allowance is now uncapped. Previously limited to four children, eligible employees receive AED 600 per month per child with no maximum. A family with six children gains AED 1,200 a month, or AED 14,400 a year. That more than offsets the AED 12,000 reduction.
Who else gained from the Nafis salary support changes
Eligibility widened to cover children of Emirati mothers and spouses of Emirati men working in the private sector. The Council framed the change around family stability.
So Nafis salary support became less generous per individual and more generous per household, depending entirely on family size. A single graduate loses. A parent of five gains.
What the Nafis programme has achieved
Context matters when assessing whether a reform is a retreat or a recalibration.
Nafis has contributed to the employment of more than 176,000 Emiratis. Roughly 152,000 were working across approximately 32,000 establishments at the end of March 2026. Extending the programme to 2040 signals commitment rather than withdrawal.
The likely reasoning
A subsidy that grows with participation eventually needs rebasing. Otherwise the fiscal cost scales linearly with the programme’s own success.
Therefore Nafis salary support looks like a programme moving from recruitment incentive toward structural support. It tightens per-person amounts, widens family coverage, and extends the horizon by fourteen years.
What founders should do about Nafis salary support now
Four steps, ordered by urgency.
Identify who is affected. Any Emirati employee registered on or before 14 August 2026 receiving above the new tier will see reductions begin this month.
Check every salary against AED 6,000. Staff below that threshold start a fifteen-month taper regardless, so correcting salaries early preserves their full support window.
Model the twelve-month position, not the September one. The AED 500 stepping means the full impact lands next September, which is when retention conversations actually happen.
Talk to affected staff before they notice. The first AED 500 reduction appears in September pay, and an employee who discovers it without warning assumes their employer cut something. A two-line explanation costs nothing and prevents a resignation conversation.
Fold this into quota planning. Reduced Nafis salary support raises the effective cost of each Emirati hire, and that changes the arithmetic behind Emiratisation quota compliance versus paying the penalty.
The honest reading on Nafis salary support
This is a well-designed reform that quietly transfers cost from the state to the private sector.
Tapering protects employees from a cliff. Uncapping child allowance genuinely helps larger families. Extending to 2040 removes uncertainty. None of that changes the direction of travel. Employing an Emirati now costs the employer marginally more than it did in August.
For companies treating Emiratisation as compliance, that is another line item. For companies treating it as recruitment, it is a reason to move before competitors finish their own arithmetic.
Frequently Asked Questions
From September 2026, bachelor’s degree holders receive up to AED 6,000 monthly, down from AED 7,000. Diploma holders receive up to AED 5,000, high school graduates up to AED 4,000, and certain below-secondary beneficiaries AED 3,000 to AED 4,000.
A standardised minimum of AED 6,000 per month now applies across all Salary Support categories, aligned with the Cabinet minimum wage decision. Support eligibility caps at a AED 20,000 monthly salary, while child allowance extends to AED 50,000.
Existing beneficiaries registered on or before 14 August 2026 see support fall by AED 500 every six months until reaching the new level. Employees earning below AED 6,000 receive 100 percent for six months, then 70 percent, then 30 percent.
Yes. The cap of four children has been removed entirely, so eligible employees receive AED 600 per month per child with no maximum. Eligibility now also covers children of Emirati mothers and spouses of Emirati men.
Sources
Sources: Emirati Talent Competitiveness Council, Updates to Nafis Program Following Extension to 2040, 2026; Khaleej Times, UAE’s Nafis Salary Rules to Change in September, August 2026; Dubai Standard, Nafis Salary Support Rules Set for September Overhaul, August 2026; Sharjah24, UAE Enhances Nafis Programme and Extends Support to 2040, April 2026; Business Blog AE, UAE Nafis Program Updates, August 2026; Reap HR, Nafis Programme 2026 Employer Benefits and Eligibility, 2026. Per-employee and payroll cost figures are FOUAE calculations from published tier amounts.
Founders of UAE (FOUAE) is an independent, digital-first business publication covering the founders, companies and economy of the United Arab Emirates. Follow FOUAE on Instagram and LinkedIn.
