Law & Regulation
Law No. 17 of 2020 on Determining the Minimum Wage for Workers and Domestic Workers
The parent Law authorises and establishes a statutory minimum-wage framework covering workers and domestic workers within its terms; the operative wage floor is set by the implementing Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs Decision No. 25 of 2020. The two instruments form a family — this Law supplies legal authority and coverage, the Decision supplies operative monetary content — while retaining separate legal identities.
Legal Significance
What This Instrument Does
The Law authorises and establishes a statutory minimum-wage framework covering workers and domestic workers within its terms, and gives the competent Minister authority to set the operative wage-floor amount and related food/accommodation allowance treatment through implementing decision.
Why It Matters
Minimum wage is a mandatory labour-cost floor, not simply a negotiated employment term. It affects direct employees, manpower supply, facilities management, domestic work where covered, tender pricing and subcontractor monitoring. Food and accommodation arrangements may affect compliance but should not be reduced to a generic cash-offset assumption; the current official requirements and facts control.
Key Provisions
- Statutory authority
The Law’s establishment of the minimum-wage framework and authority for the competent Minister to set the operative amount and related treatment.
- Covered worker population
Coverage extending to workers and domestic workers as specified, requiring coordination with their respective underlying employment regimes.
- Relationship to more favourable terms
A statutory minimum does not displace a higher contractual wage or more favourable legally enforceable entitlement.
- Administration and enforcement
Competent-authority oversight and statutory consequences, read with the Labour Law and any special regime applicable to the worker.
When You Would Use This
Tender and workforce pricing
Establish the mandatory floor before adding overtime, leave, benefits, recruitment, accommodation and margin.
Drafting employment or manpower agreements
Prevent a commercial rate or pass-through structure from obscuring the employer’s statutory payment duty.
Project-finance ESG review
Verify workforce cost and compliance assumptions without treating minimum-wage compliance as the whole labour-rights analysis.
InfraLex Relevance
This family translates a high-profile labour reform into a project-cost and compliance control. InfraLex should preserve the parent/implementing distinction and date-stamp any numeric presentation. The record belongs to Labour / Immigration only; procurement and investment relevance are use cases, not topic functions.
Legal Framework Position
- Labour / ImmigrationPrimary / Framework Instrument
Instrument Overview
- Official Citation
- Law No. 17 of 2020
- Instrument Type
- Law / Act
- Source Language
- Arabic
- Last Verified
- 4 September 2026