Ramadan Working Hours in the Saudi Private Sector

During Ramadan, Article 98 of the Saudi Labor Law caps actual working hours at six a day, or 36 a week, for Muslim employees in the private sector. Salary does not change. Any hour beyond that ceiling is overtime under Article 107, paid at the hourly wage plus 50% of the basic wage.

That is the rights half. The career half matters just as much: Ramadan compresses the working day across the entire Saudi market, which slows hiring decisions, pushes offers past Eid, and produces a resignation wave in the two weeks after. If you are job hunting, negotiating, or planning an exit, the month changes your timing, not just your schedule. This guide covers both, and sits inside our Saudi labor law guide for employees.

Quick answer

• The cap: 6 actual working hours a day, or 36 a week, for Muslim employees (Article 98).
• Pay: unchanged. Fewer hours, same salary, same allowances.
• Overtime: starts at hour seven on the daily standard, or hour 37 on the weekly standard.
• Non-Muslim employees: the statutory reduction is written for Muslim workers; many employers extend it as policy.
• Career timing: hiring slows mid-month, decisions cluster in the last week, and offers close after Eid.

What are the legal working hours in Ramadan?

Article 98 sets the general ceiling at eight hours a day or 48 a week, then states that actual working hours are reduced during Ramadan for Muslims so that they do not exceed six hours a day or 36 hours a week. Two things follow that people get wrong every year.

It is a ceiling on actual work, not a suggested schedule. Rest and prayer breaks are not counted inside those six hours, so a company running a 10:00–16:00 day with a break inside it is not delivering six working hours.

Salary does not move. The reduction is on hours, not on wages. Your monthly salary, housing allowance, transport allowance, and benefits stay exactly as they were in Shaban. A pay cut framed as “you’re only working six hours” is not a thing the law contemplates.

Companies implement the ceiling in different ways, and all of these can be compliant:

Model	What it looks like	Watch for
Straight shift	10:00–16:00, one break	Break time being counted inside the six hours
Split shift	10:00–14:00, then 21:00–23:00	Total actual hours creeping past six
Remote or hybrid days	Two office days, three remote	”Available” hours quietly exceeding six
Staggered teams	Some at 09:00, some at 12:00	Handover meetings scheduled outside your window

If part of the month is remote, the working-hours rules still attach to the work, not to the location.

Do the reduced hours apply to non-Muslim employees?

The text of Article 98 frames the Ramadan reduction for Muslim workers. In practice, a large share of Saudi private-sector employers apply the shortened day to the whole workforce, for the obvious operational reason that running two different schedules in one team is a mess.

Read that correctly in both directions. If your employer extends the six-hour day to everyone, that is a company policy that is genuinely better than the minimum — and policies can change year to year. If your employer does not extend it, a non-Muslim employee working eight hours in Ramadan is not being denied a statutory right.

What you can do is ask early, in writing, before the schedule is announced:

Weak: “Is it true we all get six hours in Ramadan?”

Strong: “For planning, will the Ramadan schedule this year apply to the whole team or only to Muslim colleagues, and what are the confirmed start and end times?”

The strong version gets a schedule. The weak version gets a rumour confirmed by a colleague who also does not know.

How is overtime calculated during Ramadan?

The threshold moves with the shortened day, and that is the whole point. For a Muslim employee under the daily standard, hour seven is an overtime hour. Article 107 pays overtime at the hourly wage plus 50% of the basic wage — the same formula and the same base debate as the rest of the year, explained fully in working hours and overtime pay.

The divisor does not shrink. Your hourly rate is still derived from your monthly salary using the company’s standard divisor (most Saudi payrolls use 240). Ramadan does not make your hour more expensive; it makes overtime start two hours earlier.

Worked example

An employee on a 12,000 SAR monthly package: basic 7,200, housing 3,000, transport 1,800. The company runs a 10:00–16:00 Ramadan schedule but the team stays until 18:00 for eight days during a delivery crunch.

Standard Ramadan day  = 6 hours
Actual day worked     = 8 hours
Overtime per day      = 2 hours
Days                  = 8   ->  16 overtime hours

Basic hourly     7,200 / 240        = 30.00 SAR
Overtime hourly  30.00 x 1.5        = 45.00 SAR
16 hours                             = 720.00 SAR

Same 8 days outside Ramadan (8-hour day):
  0 overtime hours, 0 SAR.

Same effort, same clock time, entirely different entitlement — because the legal day was six hours, not eight. This is why “we stayed late a few days in Ramadan” is worth logging by date at the time, not remembering in Shawwal.

One more trap: Eid al-Fitr is an official holiday, and Article 107 treats every hour worked on official holidays as an overtime hour, from the first one. If you are on a skeleton crew during Eid, that is not the same as a normal day.

Does hiring stop during Ramadan?

No, but the rhythm changes, and misreading it costs candidates weeks. Here is the pattern to plan against rather than a promise about any particular company.

Week 1 — schedules reset, interview slots thin out, recruiters are still responsive but calendars are tight.

Weeks 2–3 — the slowest stretch. Decision-makers are hard to assemble, panels get postponed, and approval chains stall because one signature is always on leave.

Last week and Eid — near-total pause. Nothing moves, and nothing is a signal.

The two weeks after Eid — the sharpest hiring and resignation window of the Saudi year. Offers that stalled get signed, budgets that were approved get spent, and employees who spent a quiet month thinking hand in their notice.

That last point is the career insight most Ramadan articles miss. A slow month with short days is when people finally have the mental space to conclude they want out. If you are one of them, use the quiet weeks to prepare rather than to send: refresh your CV, rewrite your headline, and line up conversations for the week after Eid. Practical starting points are the 30-day job search plan and job searching while employed.

And if you know you are leaving, model the notice period before you write anything, because the calendar around Eid and annual leave interacts with it — see notice periods in Saudi Arabia and the resignation letter template.

How to use the month if you are searching

• Apply anyway. Applications keep landing even when responses are slow; you want to be in the pile that gets reviewed in the post-Eid burst.
• Ask for realistic timelines. “Is the panel likely to convene before Eid, or should I plan for the week after?” is a question recruiters answer honestly.
• Do not read silence as rejection. A two-week gap in Ramadan means far less than a two-week gap in October.
• Schedule interviews in the first half of the day. Late-afternoon interviews on a fasting day are worse for everyone, including your interviewer.
• Send a short, specific follow-up before Eid. One message that re-anchors your file for the return, not three chasing ones.

Rights and timing, in one place

Two questions decide most Ramadan complaints: what are the exact start and end times, and does the company count the break inside the six hours. Ask both in writing in the week before the month starts, and you will not be reconstructing a case in Shawwal.

If the month also turns into the point where you decide to move, TrueSira is built for exactly that transition: one Master Profile holding your real experience, then paste the job description of the role you actually want and get a tailored, ATS-ready CV — with you approving every line before it goes anywhere. Get started free and be ready the week after Eid instead of starting then.

FAQ

How many hours is the working day in Ramadan?

Article 98 of the Labor Law reduces actual working hours during Ramadan to a maximum of six hours a day, or 36 hours a week, for Muslim employees in the private sector. That is a ceiling on actual work, so rest and prayer breaks sit outside it — a 10:00 to 16:00 schedule with a break inside is delivering less than six working hours, which is fine, but the reverse is not.

Do reduced Ramadan hours apply to non-Muslim employees?

The reduction in Article 98 is written for Muslim workers. In practice many private-sector employers apply the shortened day to the entire workforce, because running two schedules inside one team is operationally painful. That is a company policy rather than a statutory entitlement, and it can change from year to year, so ask for the confirmed schedule in writing before the month starts.

How is overtime calculated during Ramadan?

The overtime threshold moves with the shortened day. For a Muslim employee on the daily standard, hour seven is an overtime hour, paid under Article 107 at the hourly wage plus 50% of the basic wage. The hourly divisor does not shrink — your rate still comes from your monthly salary and the company’s standard divisor, commonly 240. Hours worked on Eid, as an official holiday, count as overtime from the first hour.

Do companies hire during Ramadan?

Yes, but the cycle stretches. Interview slots compress into a six-hour day, panels are hard to assemble in the middle weeks, and approval chains stall when one signature is on leave. The last week and Eid are close to a full pause. The two weeks after Eid are one of the busiest hiring windows of the Saudi year, so keep applying through the month and aim to be in the pile that gets reviewed then.

Are Ramadan hours mandatory for the private sector?

Yes for employees covered by Article 98. The six-hour ceiling is a legal maximum on actual working hours, not a goodwill gesture, and it applies to private-sector establishments. The exclusions are the same ones that apply year-round, notably senior management roles carrying the employer’s authority under Article 108. Hours worked above the ceiling are overtime, not volunteering.

Is my salary reduced because Ramadan hours are shorter?

No. The reduction applies to working hours, not to wages. Your monthly salary, housing and transport allowances, and other benefits stay exactly as they are in any other month. If an employer proposes a pro-rata cut because the day is shorter, ask for it in writing, then raise it with HR — and if it is applied, it becomes a wage claim you can file through Qiwa.