Aqid ERPWhen wages are due (article 56)
The contract sets the due date within these limits. Most monthly payrolls fall due at the end of the month, so the seven days run into the first week of the next.
- Wages are paid on a working day, in Kuwaiti currency.
- A worker on a monthly wage is paid at least once a month.
- Other workers are paid at least once every two weeks.
- Payment may not be delayed beyond the seventh day after the wage falls due.
Into the worker's bank account (article 57)
The 2016 amendment to the Labour Law, passed by the National Assembly in June 2016, rewrote article 57: an employer with five or more workers must pay what they are owed into their accounts at local financial institutions. The Council of Ministers may name the institutions and exempt some activities.
The same amendment lets a court award a worker compensation of up to 1 % of the dues for each month of delay where the employer holds back wages without cause. Below five workers article 57 does not oblige a transfer, but paying by bank is still the simplest way to prove that wages were paid in full and on time.
A payroll calendar
A monthly wage that the contract makes due on the last day of the month:
| Wage period | 1–30 September |
|---|---|
| Due date under the contract | 30 September |
| Latest lawful payment: seven days later | 7 October |
| How it is paid (five or more workers) | Transfer to the worker's local bank account |
| Kept with the payroll | The bank's transfer statement |
How it is checked
PAM suspends, automatically, the file of an employer that has not transferred the salaries of the workers registered on it; rejected transfers are reviewed through PAM's Ashal system. In September 2025 PAM and the Kuwait Banking Association agreed that salary files go through the banks only, with suspension of a non-compliant employer's transactions to follow.
On 28 September 2026 the Central Bank of Kuwait launched the Kuwait Wage Payment System (KWPS), a national platform that processes and monitors private-sector salary transfers through local banks in real time, so that unpaid wages show early. The Central Bank runs it; PAM supervises employers' compliance. The steps each employer must take have not all been published: check with your bank and with PAM before your next payroll.
What the transfer carries
The amount transferred is the net wage. For Kuwaiti staff that is after their PIFSS share, which has its own article on this blog; expatriates pay no PIFSS. The end-of-service indemnity is paid when the worker leaves, not with the monthly wage.
How Aqid ERP helps
Aqid ERP runs monthly payroll in three-decimal dinars, with PIFSS contributions for Kuwaiti employees, the indemnity accrued every month and payslips in Arabic and English. Each run posts salaries, PIFSS and accruals to the ledger by cost centre or branch, and employees see their own payslips.
A salary file for Kuwait's banks is not yet produced: net pay is posted and exported, and you pay it from your bank. The bank file is on the roadmap.