Most UAE gratuity calculators are still using the old law

We checked five of the pages ranking for “UAE gratuity calculator” in September 2026 against Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021. Three of them still reduce your gratuity for resigning — a rule that was repealed on 2 February 2022 and applies to nobody.

What we found

Three pages in five applied the repealed one-third and two-thirds scale. One dated the change to 2023, a year late. Two described “limited and unlimited contracts” as a live distinction when the category was abolished. On a two-year settlement, the difference between the stale answer and the correct one is two thirds of the money.

The survey

Method: search for the obvious terms, open what ranks, read what the page says the rules are. We are reporting what each page states in its own words, not what we think of it, and we have not named the pages — the point is the pattern, not a pillory. Anyone can repeat this in ten minutes and should.

Five pages ranking for UAE gratuity queries, read on 19 September 2026. “Applies the old scale” means the page reduces gratuity for an employee who resigns before five years.
Page	Treats limited/unlimited as current	Applies the old scale	Cites the decree-law
A — general expat portal, page titled “2026”	Yes	Yes	No
B — HR software vendor	Yes	Yes	No
C — dedicated calculator site	Partly	Yes, for “older unlimited contracts”	No — dates the change to 2023
D — dedicated calculator site	Mentions, says it makes no difference	No	Yes
E — labour law guide	No — explains it is historical	No	Yes

Why the wrong ones sound so confident

None of these pages are dishonest. The 1980 law ran for forty-one years, and a very large body of writing describes it accurately — accurately for 2021. That writing still ranks, still gets copied, and still gets refreshed with a new year in the title and no change to the substance.

Page A is the clearest case: the title carries the current year, the content describes the repealed scale, and there is no mention anywhere of the law that replaced it. Page C is subtler and in some ways worse, because it knows the law changed, dates it wrongly, and then carves out an exception that keeps the old arithmetic alive for people it calls “still on older unlimited contracts”. There is no such carve-out. Existing contracts were transitioned; the repealed scale applies to no one.

Two tells, both quick

You do not need to know the law to catch this. Open any gratuity calculator and look for either of these:

It asks whether your contract is limited or unlimited. That distinction was abolished in 2022. All contracts under the federal law became fixed-term. A tool still asking is working from the old framework, whatever its title says.
Your figure drops when you say you resigned. Under Article 51 it must not move at all. Change that one answer, leave everything else alone, and watch the number.

Our own calculator asks how the employment ended for exactly one reason: so it can show you what the repealed scale would have taken, and demonstrate that it no longer does. The payable figure is identical either way. Why that changed.

What it costs to get this wrong

Take someone on 10,000 AED basic who resigns after two years of service.

The same facts under the repealed scale and under the current law.
Basis	Gratuity	Status
21 days × 2 years, reduced to one third (1980 law)	4,666.67 AED	Repealed February 2022
21 days × 2 years, no reduction (Article 51)	14,000.00 AED	Current
Difference	9,333.33 AED	Two thirds of the entitlement

That is a settlement someone might accept as correct because a calculator with the current year in its title told them it was. The error runs in one direction only, and it is never in the employee's favour.

If you were paid on the old scale

A settlement already accepted is harder to reopen than one still being negotiated, but it is not automatically closed — particularly if you were given no written calculation. Ask for the workings in writing, compare them against Article 51, and take advice before signing anything described as full and final. MOHRE is the route for a complaint.

How we will keep this honest

This page is dated and we re-run the survey rather than quietly editing it. If a page in the sample corrects itself, that is worth recording too — the useful finding would be that the problem is shrinking. If our own figures are ever wrong, tell us and the correction is published here with its date, not slipped in.

Survey conducted 19 September 2026. Reviewed 2026-09-19 against Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021. General guidance, not legal advice — see the disclaimer.