Minimum Wage & Wage Protection System (WPS) in Oman

Oman has no statutory minimum wage for expatriate workers — the OMR 325 basic plus OMR 100 allowance floor applies only to Omani nationals. What has changed dramatically for everyone else is the Wage Protection System (WPS) under Ministerial Decision No. 729/2024, which came into force on 16 December 2024 and replaced the earlier MD 299/2023. The new framework was developed jointly by the Ministry of Labour and the Central Bank of Oman.

Core WPS rules under MD 729/2024:

• Wages must be transferred electronically to workers' bank or financial institution accounts through Central Bank of Oman–regulated banks.
• 3-day payment deadline: wages must be transferred within 3 days from the end of the wage entitlement period — reduced from 7 days under the old MD 299/2023. Some online sources still reference 7 days; the 3-day rule is the operative deadline as of December 2024.
• The salary transferred must match the employment contract registered with the Ministry of Labour — including allowances, overtime, and deductions. Employers must update the contract with the Ministry whenever wages change.
• Employers submit a monthly Salary Information File (SIF) through their bank.

Phased compliance deadlines:

• Wages for September 2025 (payable October 2025): at least 75% of workers must be paid via WPS.
• Wages for November 2025 (payable December 2025): at least 90% via WPS.

Exemptions from WPS: a labour dispute causing the worker to stop work for 30+ days; work suspended for non-employer reasons for 30+ days; an approved absconding report 30+ days old; a new worker who has not completed 30 days of employment; or a worker on unpaid leave.

Penalties: warning → suspension of new work-permit issuance → a fine of OMR 50 per affected worker, doubled for repeat offences. Importantly, verification is at enterprise level, not the individual-worker level as in UAE or Saudi Arabia — which weakens automatic detection of underpayment.

Domestic workers are explicitly excluded from WPS; wage theft in that sector remains an acute risk (see Domestic Worker Rights).

The enforcement gap: as of early 2025, Migrant-Rights.org documented that only approximately 25% of registered private-sector businesses were processing wages through WPS, and 17,000–18,000 wage-related complaints were still being filed annually after WPS introduction. The regulation exists; the compliance reality is patchy. Penalties are framed as discretionary ("may impose") rather than automatic.

Worked example — Carlos, construction worker in Salalah, wage OMR 300/month: under MD 729/2024, his employer must transfer OMR 300 to his registered bank account within 3 days of the end of September 2025. If the employer pays on Day 5 instead, a WPS violation is triggered. Carlos can report this to the Ministry of Labour; the employer faces suspension of new work permits plus an OMR 50 fine for his case. Because enforcement is discretionary rather than automatic, Carlos should simultaneously file a standard wage complaint with the Labour Care Department to trigger the full labour-dispute mechanism — not rely on WPS enforcement alone.

Separately, the Omani-national minimum wage remains OMR 325 basic + OMR 100 minimum allowance = OMR 425/month total under MD 222/2013. Expatriates have no equivalent floor, only the contract amount.