The margin for error is now smaller. Since 1 June 2026, under Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026, a month's salary is due on the first day of the next month, and MOHRE's monitoring starts the day after. This guide covers who must use WPS, what the salary information file contains, the common rejection causes and fixes, the deadlines and penalties, and a checklist for each payroll run.
What is WPS, and who must use it?
The Wage Protection System is the UAE's electronic salary transfer system, run by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) with the Central Bank. Salaries are paid through a bank or approved exchange house, and MOHRE sees whether each employee was paid, how much and when.
Every private establishment registered with MOHRE must pay through WPS, or another system MOHRE approves, and keep proof of payment. The exceptions are narrow:
- Exempt employers: banks and financial institutions, houses of worship, and fishing boats and public taxis owned by UAE nationals.
- Excluded workers: among others, workers on documented unpaid leave, workers with a wage case referred to the courts, workers reported for absconding, seafarers, and workers on mission permits of three months or less.
- New hires: the old 30-day grace period for new employees no longer applies under the 2026 resolution.
Free zones set their own rules. DMCC, for example, made WPS mandatory for its companies from 2024. Check with your free zone authority. For domestic workers, WPS is mandatory for five professions, such as private tutors and personal trainers, and optional for the others.
What is in a WPS salary information file (SIF)?
A SIF is a plain text file with one employee detail record (EDR) per employee and one salary control record (SCR) at the end. Your bank or exchange house checks it against the WPS database before paying anyone.
| Record | Field | Format |
|---|---|---|
| EDR | Employee personal number (from MOHRE) | 14 characters |
| EDR | Routing code of the employee's bank or exchange house | 9 digits |
| EDR | Employee IBAN or account number | Up to 23 characters |
| EDR | Pay period start and end date | YYYY-MM-DD |
| EDR | Days in the period | End date minus start date, plus one |
| EDR | Fixed salary and variable salary | Amounts with two decimals |
| EDR | Days of unpaid leave | Number |
| SCR | Employer establishment ID (from MOHRE) | 13 characters |
| SCR | Routing code of the employer's bank | 9 digits |
| SCR | File creation date and time | YYYY-MM-DD and HHMM |
| SCR | Salary month | MMYYYY |
| SCR | Number of EDR records and total salary | Must equal the EDR lines and their sum |
| SCR | Currency | AED |
The file name itself usually follows a pattern: the employer ID, then the creation date and time, ending in .SIF. Exact formats vary slightly between banks, so use your bank's current guide.
Why do WPS salary files get rejected?
Because one wrong field can stop the whole file. Banks reject the entire SIF, not just the faulty line, for many of these errors.
| Cause | What happens | How to prevent it |
|---|---|---|
| Wrong employee personal number | Not found in the WPS database | Take it from the MOHRE record, not the passport or Emirates ID |
| Wrong or outdated routing code | Payment can't be routed | Update it when an employee changes bank or exchange house |
| Closed or incorrect IBAN | Payment rejected or returned | Ask employees to confirm bank changes in writing before payroll cut-off |
| Employee not linked to your establishment | Not found under your employer ID | Complete MOHRE work permit steps before the first payroll |
| Employee who has left still in the file | Rejected or flagged | Close departing employees in payroll on their last day |
| SCR total or count doesn't match the EDRs | Whole file rejected | Generate the file from the system; never edit it in Excel |
| Dates don't agree across file name, EDR and SCR | Whole file rejected | Use one salary month and period for the whole run |
| Days in period calculated wrongly | Whole file rejected | Let the system calculate end minus start plus one |
| Negative amounts | Whole file rejected | Recover deductions within the month, never as a negative salary |
| Pay below the registered contract wage | Flagged by MOHRE | Keep contract changes and payroll in step |
The last row is not a bank rejection, but it is the one that leads to complaints and inspections.
When are salaries late, and what are the penalties?
Under Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026, in force since 1 June 2026, salary for each month is due on the first day of the following month. There is no longer a 15-day grace period. An employer counts as compliant if at least 85% of the total wages due are transferred on time.
MOHRE's published steps, counted in days after the due date:
| Day after due date | What MOHRE does |
|---|---|
| 1 | Electronic monitoring starts |
| 2 | Alerts are sent to the employer |
| 5 | New work permits are suspended |
| 11 | For a repeat breach within six months: an administrative fine and downgrade to the third category of establishments |
| 16 | Labour disputes are registered automatically where 25 or more workers are affected in listed sectors, such as construction, transport, security and cleaning |
| 21 | Enforcement action or a collective dispute, with possible asset attachment, a travel ban on the person responsible and, for repeat breaches, referral to the Public Prosecution |
Fines are commonly reported as AED 1,000 per affected employee, up to AED 20,000. Confirm current amounts with MOHRE, because the 2026 resolution refers to the fines schedule in Cabinet Resolution No. 21 of 2020.
In practice, this means the file should reach the bank several working days before the 1st, so a rejection can be fixed in time.
What does a rejection look like in practice? A worked example
A Dubai trading company with 120 employees pays a monthly payroll of AED 780,000. It sends the October file to its bank on 28 October, and the bank rejects the whole file the same afternoon. This example is illustrative.
Two errors caused it. One employee had moved his salary to an exchange house, so his routing code and account were out of date. And someone had corrected an allowance directly in the exported file, so the SCR total no longer matched the sum of the EDRs.
The payroll team updated the employee's details, regenerated the file from the payroll system and resubmitted it on 29 October. Everyone was paid before 1 November.
Had they sent the file on 30 October, the same rejection would have made the whole payroll late. Paying the other 119 employees first would have kept the company compliant on the 85% test, since they make up well over 85% of wages, but that one employee's salary would still have been late.
Checklist before every WPS run
Where does WPS usually go wrong, in HYP's experience?
In the payroll teams HYP works with, most rejections start outside payroll. HR updates a work permit, or an employee changes bank, and the payroll record isn't told. The file is then built from data that was right last month.
The other common cause is the spreadsheet step: payroll is calculated in one system, exported, adjusted by hand and converted to a SIF with a separate tool. Every manual step is a chance for the totals and the records to disagree.
The teams that rarely see rejections generate the SIF directly from payroll, with personal numbers, routing codes and IBANs held in one employee record that HR and payroll share. If you also run payroll in Saudi Arabia, our guide to GOSI contributions and Mudad wage protection covers the Saudi equivalent. See how HYP handles payroll and WPS files on our Payroll, End of Service & Compliance page.
Sources
- UAE Government portal: Payment of wages and the Wage Protection System (updated 14 October 2026)
- Baker McKenzie: UAE new resolution impacting payroll, June 2026
- EY Global Tax News: UAE Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026, May 2026
- MOHRE: Ministerial Resolution No. 675 of 2022 on domestic workers and WPS
- Mashreq: WPS salary information file format
- Dubai Islamic Bank: WPS file format reference guide
- Gulf News: more UAE free zones require WPS, February 2024