Every year, a few days before Ramadan, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development publishes a reminder that private-sector working hours are six a day, and establishments rush to rebuild their rosters in the final week. But the rule is neither new nor waiting on an announcement. It has sat in Article 98 of the Labour Law since the law was issued, alongside three other articles that decide how a Ramadan working day is actually built.
Ramadan 1448 is expected, on astronomical calculation, in the first or second week of February 2027, about three months from today. That is the right time to set up the attendance system and the payroll run, not the night of the moon sighting. This guide is for whoever runs rosters and payroll in a Saudi establishment: what the text says word for word, where the recurring mistakes sit, and what they cost.
What Article 98 says, word for word
The text as the Ministry publishes it in its copy of the Labour Law (our translation):
"A worker may not be actually employed for more than eight hours a day, if the employer adopts the daily standard, or more than forty-eight hours a week, if the employer adopts the weekly standard. During the month of Ramadan, actual working hours shall be reduced for Muslims so as not to exceed six hours a day or thirty-six hours a week."
Three words in that text carry all the weight:
- "Actual": the limit applies to hours actually worked, not hours spent on the premises. Breaks fall outside it under Article 102.
- "For Muslims": the reduction is the Muslim worker's right. The law does not grant it to non-Muslims, and does not stop the employer from granting it to them.
- "A day, or ... a week": the limit follows the standard the establishment adopted. On the daily standard the cap is six hours every day; on the weekly standard it is thirty-six hours a week, even if one day runs past six. That standard is not a verbal choice: it is the field you registered in your work regulation on Qiwa.
Non-Muslim staff: the law is silent, your policy decides
Article 98 does not reduce a non-Muslim worker's hours, so their cap stays at eight hours a day or forty-eight a week. Many establishments apply the reduced day to everyone for operational reasons; a team where one person works six hours and the colleague on the same shift works eight makes little sense. That is a legitimate decision, but it is the establishment's decision, not the law's, and it should be written down.
The difference is not cosmetic. If the establishment sets six hours for everyone and then asks a non-Muslim employee to stay two more hours, are those two hours paid overtime? Under the law, no: they sit inside the eight-hour cap. Under what the establishment promised its staff in writing, the answer may differ. Write the policy before Ramadan: who it covers, from which date to which date, and how hours beyond it are treated.
Article 101: why a straight six-hour shift does not comply
This is the point most establishments miss. Article 101 requires working hours to be arranged "so that a worker does not work more than five consecutive hours without a break for rest, prayer and meals of not less than half an hour each time", and so that no worker stays at the workplace more than twelve hours a day.
The text makes no exception for Ramadan, and we found none in the material we read. The arithmetic is simple: six consecutive hours exceed five. The common "10 a.m. to 4 p.m. without a break" roster breaches Article 101 literally, even while respecting Article 98 in full.
Article 102 completes the picture: rest, prayer and meal periods "are not counted as actual working hours", and the worker is not under the employer's authority during them. So a compliant Ramadan day looks like this:
| Item | Duration |
|---|---|
| Actual work (first block) | up to 5 hours |
| Rest and prayer break | at least 30 minutes, outside working hours |
| Actual work (second block) | the remainder, up to 6 hours in total |
| Time on the premises | at least 6.5 hours |
An attendance system that counts presence from the first fingerprint to the last will count the break as work. That is wrong in both directions: it inflates actual hours, and it hides the fact that the break was never given.
The seventh hour: overtime from the first minute past six
Every hour of actual work a Muslim worker performs past six hours a day (or past thirty-six a week, on the weekly standard) is an overtime hour paid under Article 107: the actual hourly wage plus 50% of the basic hourly wage. The shift that is ordinary all year, eight hours, carries two overtime hours a day in Ramadan. The formula and its two different bases are covered in the overtime calculation guide.
The question the text does not settle: what divisor?
The monthly salary does not change in Ramadan, but the hours do. So what divisor gives the Ramadan hourly wage? There are two readings, and the law states neither:
- Divisor 240 (30 days × 8 hours): the hourly wage is the same in Ramadan as the rest of the year.
- Divisor 180 (30 days × 6 hours): the same salary buys fewer hours, so each hour is worth more, and so is each overtime hour.
In numbers: a basic salary of SAR 6,000 with no allowances. On divisor 240, the hourly wage is SAR 25 and the overtime hour SAR 37.50. On divisor 180, the hourly wage is SAR 33.33 and the overtime hour SAR 50. A third more.
The free overtime calculator has a "Ramadan — 180 hours" option for those who take the second reading; leave it off for the first. What matters is not which reading you pick but that you pick one before Ramadan, write it into the roster policy and apply it the same way to everyone. A divisor that changes from one employee to the next is what produces complaints.
Eid season: Article 106 and the ten-hour ceiling
Retail needs longer hours in the last ten nights and the run-up to Eid. Article 106 lets the employer set aside Articles 98 and 101 in defined cases, including "preparation for seasons", provided the number of days does not exceed thirty a year, and "holidays, seasons, occasions and seasonal work specified by decision of the Minister".
But the exception has a ceiling nothing overrides: "in none of the above cases may actual working hours exceed ten hours a day or sixty hours a week." The exception raises the cap; it does not cancel the pay. Hours beyond the ordinary limit remain paid overtime. And the thirty days are one annual allowance: an establishment that spent them on year-end stocktaking has none left for Eid.
What a breach costs: item 41 of Decision 112377
The schedule of violations and penalties issued by Ministerial Decision 112377 groups three violations under item 41, all of which happen in Ramadan specifically: no weekly rest, employment beyond the Article 98 hours without overtime pay, and daily rest breaks not respected. The fine is SAR 1,000 for a Category C establishment, SAR 2,000 for Category B and SAR 3,000 for Category A, multiplied by the number of workers. The categories and how they are counted are explained in the guide to the violations schedule.
Example: a shop with thirty workers
A retail establishment has 30 workers under its unified number, so it is Category B. Twenty-two of them are Muslim. It kept the eight-hour shift unchanged through Ramadan and paid no overtime for it, because "the hours didn't change".
The fine: 22 workers × SAR 2,000 = SAR 44,000 for a single item-41 violation, before any reduction.
Overtime owed: two hours a day over roughly 25 working days = 50 hours per worker. On a basic salary of SAR 4,000 with no allowances:
| Divisor | Overtime hour | Per worker | For the 22 workers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 240 | SAR 25.00 | SAR 1,250 | SAR 27,500 |
| 180 | SAR 33.33 | SAR 1,666.67 | SAR 36,667 |
The total lands between SAR 71,500 and SAR 80,667, and that assumes the establishment did not also breach Article 101. The 80% reduction under Decision 93442 can bring the fine down if its six conditions are met, but it does not touch the wages owed to the worker.
Ramadan in payroll and the Wage Protection System
Ramadan overtime is not a side calculation. When an establishment pays extra amounts through Mudad with no documented hours record behind them, they show up as variances in the Wage Protection System, exactly as a shortfall does. And an establishment that does not pay them at all leaves Ramadan with an item-41 violation and dozens of small claims on file.
What prevents this is not a new Excel sheet every Ramadan but three settings in the attendance system, made once: a Ramadan calendar with a six-hour cap for Muslim staff, a mandatory break after five hours that does not count as work, and a written divisor for the hourly wage. The hours then move from fingerprint to payroll to the Wage Protection file with no manual step.
Pre-Ramadan checklist
- Confirm the standard in your work regulation (daily or weekly); it decides when overtime starts.
- Write the Ramadan policy: who it covers (Muslim staff by law, everyone if you decide so), and its start and end dates.
- Rebuild rosters so no block runs past five consecutive hours, with a half-hour break outside working hours.
- Choose the Ramadan hourly divisor (240 or 180) and write it down.
- If you will extend hours before Eid, count what is left of the thirty Article 106 days and check the ten-hour ceiling.
- Re-run last Ramadan's payroll through the calculator: were the seventh and eighth hours paid?
What we did not confirm
- The text of Articles 98, 101, 102 and 106 is taken from the Labour Law as published on the Ministry of Human Resources website (page last updated 7 September 2025). We did not read the Bureau of Experts text, and did not confirm whether the recent Labour Law amendments touched these articles specifically.
- The date of Ramadan 1448 is an astronomical estimate. The official start follows the moon sighting, and the Ministry's annual working-hours announcement has not been issued yet.
- The Ramadan hourly divisor is not set by the law, and we found no decision that settles it. We have set out both readings without choosing.
Does your attendance system know Ramadan is coming? We review the whole working-time chain with you, from rosters and breaks to the overtime calculation and the Wage Protection file, and find where the violation will show before an inspector does. Book a free diagnostic session.