Business & Money | Tuesday 24 February, 2015 8:36 am |

Female domestic workers registered the highest recruiting costs on the Ministry of Labor’s Musaned web page, with an increase of more than ten times the costs to recruit men in other professions, according to the latest data posted on the website.

Costs to recruit a Vietnamese female worker stood at SR21,000, while Indian house maids second in the list with SR18,000, followed by Sri Lankans with SR16,000 and Filipino workers standing at SR14,000.

The time frame for a Vietnamese, Sri Lankan and Indian worker to come to the country is generally 5 months, while a Filipino worker takes 6 months to arrive in the Kingdom.
However, prices experience a steep drop when it comes to their male counterparts. According to Musaned, the costs to recruit a male Sri Lankan house worker generally stands at SR2,000, but it costs even less to recruit a male Indian house maid, only SR1,800.

In other trades, worker’s costs vary according to the job. For example recruiting a foreign driver can affect the employer’s budget more or less, depending the country the employee hails from. The costs to recruit an Indian or Sri Lankan driver, with the cheapest prices at Musaned, ranged between SR4,000 to SR5,000, with the time frame to begin work between three and four months respectively.

Recruiting an Egyptian or Sudanese driver will cost somewhere between SR5,000 and SR6,000 with a time frame of arrival estimated at four to six months, while a Yemeni or Moroccan driver amounts to SR6,000 to SR9,000 and a period of six months for the worker to begin his job.


The price lists of the various recruiting firms and companies on Musaned website showed large disparities in recruitment rates of other professions that didn’t include visa fees, which is estimated at SR2,000.
The Labor Ministry recently issued binding directions for recruiting firms and companies to disclose the costs of recruiting foreign workers on its Musaned website. This move is aimed at helping all interested parties by spreading the principle of transparency.