GOSI Deductions Explained: What Leaves Your Salary and What You Get
Every Saudi employee sees a GOSI line on the payslip and very few know what it is buying. It is not a tax. It is a contribution to a record in your name that pays out in three specific situations: retirement, work injury, and involuntary unemployment. Understanding which part of your salary it applies to also explains why two colleagues on the same total package can have different deductions.
Quick answer
- GOSI is calculated on basic salary plus cash housing allowance, capped at SAR 45,000 a month. Transport, phone, commission and overtime are excluded.
- For Saudi employees the deduction has historically been 9% for the pension branch plus 0.75% for SANED unemployment insurance.
- A new social insurance system applies to Saudis first registered from July 2024 onward, with a pension rate that steps up in annual increments. Check which system you are on.
- Non-Saudis pay nothing. They are covered only for occupational hazards, funded entirely by the employer.
- The employer also pays a share on top of yours — occupational hazards, pension and SANED — which is why your total cost to the company is higher than your salary.
For how the rest of your pay is structured, read this with basic salary vs total package and the Saudi salary guide.
What exactly is deducted from my salary?
Definition first: your contributory wage is not your total package. It is basic salary plus the cash housing allowance, up to a monthly ceiling of SAR 45,000. Everything above the ceiling, and every allowance outside those two components, is invisible to GOSI.
The Saudi employee deduction is made of two parts:
| Branch | Who it covers | Paid by |
|---|---|---|
| Annuities (pension) | Saudi employees | Employee and employer |
| Unemployment insurance (SANED) | Saudi employees | Employee and employer, historically 0.75% each |
| Occupational hazards | All employees, including non-Saudis | Employer only |
Historically the Saudi employee share has been 9% for the pension branch plus 0.75% for SANED, with the employer paying 9% pension, 0.75% SANED and 2% occupational hazards.
Since July 2024 a new social insurance system applies to Saudis registering for the first time. Its pension contribution rises in small annual steps each July rather than sitting at a flat rate, which means two people doing the same job can be on different percentages depending on when their first GOSI registration happened. Because the number moves on a schedule, do not trust a figure in any article — open the GOSI app and read your own.
How do I calculate my own deduction?
Take a package of SAR 15,000 structured as basic 9,000, housing 3,750, transport and other 2,250.
- Contributory wage = 9,000 + 3,750 = SAR 12,750. The 2,250 is ignored.
- Pension share at 9% = SAR 1,147.50.
- SANED share at 0.75% = SAR 95.63.
- Total employee deduction = SAR 1,243.13, roughly 8.3% of the headline package.
Notice what happened: the deduction is 9.75% of the contributory wage but only about 8.3% of the total package, because a third of the package sits outside the calculation. That gap is exactly why a low basic looks attractive on the payslip and costs you later.
If the same SAR 15,000 were structured with a basic of 12,000 and housing of 2,000, the contributory wage would be 14,000 and the deduction around SAR 1,365 — about 122 riyals more per month, in exchange for a permanently higher pension base.
What does the record actually buy me?
Three things, and they are worth naming separately because most people only know about the first.
Pension. Your contribution months and your average contributory wage determine your eventual pension entitlement. This is why the wage your employer registers matters more than the wage they advertise. An employer who registers a low basic is reducing your lifetime entitlement, not just your monthly deduction.
Occupational hazards. Coverage for work injuries, occupational disease, resulting disability and death benefits. This branch applies to non-Saudi employees too, and it is funded entirely by the employer — which is why nothing should appear as a GOSI deduction on an expat payslip.
SANED unemployment insurance. If you lose your job involuntarily and meet the contribution conditions, SANED pays a temporary monthly benefit calculated from your average contributory wage. It is not severance and it is not automatic — there is an application, a waiting behaviour, and eligibility rules around how the employment ended. The mechanics are covered in SANED unemployment insurance.
One thing GOSI does not cover: your end-of-service award. That is an employer obligation under the Labor Law, calculated separately from your last wage, and it is paid by the company, not by GOSI. People routinely confuse the two. See end-of-service calculation.
How do I read my own GOSI record before a job move?
Do this before you resign, not after.
- Open the GOSI app or gosi.gov.sa and log in with your national ID through Absher verification.
- Open the contributor page. It lists every employer that has ever registered you, with start and end dates.
- Check the registered wage for your current employer. Compare it to your basic plus housing. If it is lower than it should be, that is a live problem, not a clerical one.
- Read your total contribution months. This number drives pension eligibility and SANED eligibility.
- Look for gaps. Months where no employer registered you do not count, and a gap you did not know about is easier to investigate now than in fifteen years.
- Download the contribution-periods certificate before you leave. It is the cleanest proof of service you will ever have, and it does not depend on a former employer answering your calls.
Step 3 is the one that catches people. If your registered wage is below basic plus housing, raise it in writing with HR first and escalate through the proper channel if it is not corrected. Related employment records — contract, wage details, service data — are visible to you on Qiwa, covered in Qiwa for employees.
What should I ask before signing a new contract?
Weak: “Do you register employees with GOSI?”
Strong: “Which figure will you register as the contributory wage — basic only, or basic plus the housing allowance? And will the housing be paid monthly in cash or annually?”
The second question matters more than it looks. A housing allowance paid as a lump sum once a year, or provided as accommodation rather than cash, is treated differently from a monthly cash allowance, and that changes your contributory wage. Get the answer in writing before you sign.
Contribution rates, the wage ceiling and the rules of each branch are set by regulation and are updated periodically. The figures here describe the mechanism as commonly applied; confirm current rates and your own status on gosi.gov.sa. This is general professional guidance, not legal or financial advice.
Most people never model what a pay structure does to them over ten years because the arithmetic is annoying. When you compare offers in TrueSira, you enter the components separately, so the comparison surfaces the contributory wage and the long-term entitlements each structure produces rather than just the biggest headline number. Your data stays yours and you approve every figure. Get started free.
FAQ
How much is the GOSI deduction from my salary?
For a Saudi employee the deduction is a percentage of basic salary plus cash housing allowance — historically 9% for the pension branch plus 0.75% for SANED unemployment insurance. Employees first registered under the new system from July 2024 are on a pension rate that steps up annually, so open the GOSI app and read your current rate rather than relying on a published figure.
Do expats pay GOSI in Saudi Arabia?
No. Non-Saudi employees are covered only under the occupational hazards branch, and that contribution is paid entirely by the employer. Nothing should be deducted from a non-Saudi employee’s salary for GOSI. If you see such a deduction on your payslip, ask payroll to explain the line in writing.
Is the housing allowance subject to GOSI?
Yes, when it is paid in cash. The contributory wage is basic salary plus the cash housing allowance, subject to a monthly ceiling of SAR 45,000. Transport allowance, phone allowance, commission, bonuses and overtime sit outside the contributory wage. Housing provided as accommodation rather than cash is treated under a different rule, so confirm your specific case.
How do I check my GOSI record?
Log in to the GOSI app or gosi.gov.sa with your national ID and Absher verification, then open the contributor page. It shows every employer that registered you, the wage each one filed, your start and end dates, and your total contribution months. Download the contribution-periods certificate before you change jobs.
What happens to my contributions if I leave the country?
Non-Saudi employees have no pension contributions to reclaim, because only the employer-funded occupational hazards branch applied to them. Saudi contributors keep their record regardless of where they live, and specific rules govern lump-sum settlement when pension conditions are not met. Confirm your own case directly with GOSI rather than relying on general summaries.
Why is my deduction different from my colleague’s on the same salary?
Two reasons. First, the deduction is calculated on basic plus housing, not the headline total, so a different pay structure produces a different contributory wage. Second, Saudis registered before and after July 2024 fall under different social insurance systems with different pension rates, so a newer employee can pay a different percentage for identical work.