Kuwait WPS Guide: What the AS'HAL Salary Portal and Nov’25 Changes Mean for HR Teams

On November 1, 2025, Kuwait's Public Authority for Manpower moved its wage compliance framework onto real-time digital infrastructure. For HR and payroll teams in Kuwait's private sector, that means new requirements around salary transfers, working hours reporting, and portal integration - all in effect now.

This guide covers:

• What changed when Resolution No. 15 of 2025 came into effect
• What the AS'HAL Salary Portal requires of employers
• How Kuwait's WPS enforcement logic works
• What your team needs to do to stay compliant

Where relevant, we have drawn comparisons with other GCC frameworks, as they add useful context to Kuwait's specific requirements.

Kuwait WPS: Quick Summary

• Salary deadline: Wages must be transferred by the 5th of each month. PAM's enforcement directive treats payment delayed beyond 7 days from the contractual due date as a legal offence.
• AS'HAL Salary Portal is mandatory from November 1, 2025: All salary approvals, transactions, and working hours data must now flow through this portal.
• Compliance is assessed per employee: Kuwait's WPS flags violations at the individual worker level, not as a company-wide aggregate threshold.
• Working hours go electronic: Resolution No. 15 of 2025 replaces paper-based records with mandatory electronic submission of schedules, rest periods, and public holiday data through AS'HAL.
• Scope: Private sector employers with five or more employees. Transfers must go through a local Kuwaiti bank, clearly marked as salary, matched to each employee's work permit.
• Justification letters are mandatory: Any salary reduction, including for unpaid leave or tardiness, requires a formal written justification submitted to PAM. Unexplained shortfalls are treated as violations.
• Penalties: Non-compliance or unjustified discrepancies may result in suspension of the company's PAM file. Fines range from KD 100 to KD 1,000 per violation, with work permit suspension and criminal referral possible for repeated offences.
• greytHR is built for GCC payroll compliance: SIF generation, EOSB and gratuity calculations, working hours tracking, and full audit records across GCC jurisdictions on one platform.

How Kuwait's WPS Framework Works

Kuwait introduced its Wage Protection System in 2015 under the framework of Private Sector Labour Law No. 6 of 2010. All six GCC countries now operate WPS frameworks. The first launched in the UAE in 2009; Oman, the most recent, launched in 2023. While they share the same underlying purpose of ensuring timely electronic payment of private sector wages, the way each country has designed its system reflects distinct regulatory priorities.

In Kuwait, the WPS is administered by the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) in coordination with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour. Private sector employers with five or more employees are required to pay wages electronically through a local Kuwaiti bank, directly into each worker's accredited bank account. The transferred amount must match the employee's registered work permit record, and the full trail must be visible through PAM's systems.

A structural feature that sets Kuwait apart from some of its GCC neighbours is how compliance is measured. In Saudi Arabia, for example, a company is considered compliant if a threshold percentage of its total workforce, between 90 and 95 percent depending on company size, receives wages correctly. This gives employers some aggregate buffer. Kuwait does not work this way. Compliance in Kuwait is assessed at the individual worker level, meaning a violation is triggered for each employee whose salary is not paid correctly and on time. There is no company-wide percentage that absorbs individual shortfalls. Qatar uses a similar per-employee logic. For HR teams managing large headcounts in Kuwait, this means the accuracy of every individual's payroll record matters at month-end, not just the aggregate outcome.

The Sahel app, Kuwait's national digital labour platform, adds another dimension to this. It sends automatic notifications to individual employees when a salary shortfall is recorded, along with the employer's stated reason. Workers have a direct channel to contest that reason without going through the HR team first. This makes the quality of PAM justification letters consequential in a way that purely system-level WPS monitoring does not.

What the AS'HAL Salary Portal Mandate Requires

From November 1, 2025, PAM requires full integration of all salary approvals and transactions with the AS'HAL Salary Portal. This is the primary mechanism through which PAM monitors wage compliance in real time. Across the GCC, countries have built equivalent digital infrastructure for this purpose. Saudi Arabia uses the Mudad platform, Qatar operates a centrally administered WPS portal through the Ministry of Labour, and the UAE upgraded its system in June 2026 to include real-time monitoring through Al Etihad Payments. AS'HAL is Kuwait's equivalent, and it now extends beyond salary tracking to include working hours and employment data.

The specific requirements under the mandate are as such:

• Salary must be transferred through a local Kuwaiti bank, clearly designated as salary in the transfer.
• The transferred amount must match the employee's registered work permit record.
• Transfers must be completed by the 5th of each month, with the 7th acting as PAM's outer enforcement threshold.
• Employers must monitor the AS'HAL portal; salary records should appear within 24 hours of transfer, and any discrepancy must be addressed promptly rather than left for PAM to raise.
• If any employee's salary is reduced for any reason, a formal written justification letter must be submitted to PAM, specifying the reason and supported by documentation.

Failure to comply, or to provide acceptable justifications for discrepancies, may result in suspension of the company's PAM file. A suspended PAM file affects work permit renewals and new hire approvals across the entire company, not just for the employees whose salary triggered the issue.

Electronic Working Hours Reporting Under Resolution No. 15 of 2025

Published in Kuwait's Official Gazette on September 14, 2025 and effective from November 1, Resolution No. 15 of 2025 ends the paper-based system for recording working hours in Kuwait's private sector. This is part of a broader regional trend. Qatar's WPS already flags violations where submitted overtime hours exceed statutory limits. Bahrain's enhanced WPS, rolled out from early 2026, similarly centralises payroll and working hours data into a single portal. Kuwait's Resolution No. 15 moves in the same direction, replacing manual records with mandatory electronic submission through AS'HAL.

Employers must now submit the following electronically:

• Work schedules, including shift start and end times
• Rest and break periods
• Weekly days off
• Official public holiday schedules

These records must be kept current. PAM can take legal action against employers who do not comply, up to and including partial or full suspension of the employer's labour file.

The working hours requirement is also directly connected to wage compliance. Kuwait's WPS can flag violations where submitted overtime hours are inconsistent with what Labour Law permits. Employers who submit working hours data that does not reconcile with what they are paying create a compliance exposure on two fronts at once. The data going into AS'HAL needs to be accurate, not just filed on time.

Salary Payment Deadlines and the 7-Day Enforcement Rule

Kuwait Labour Law No. 6 of 2010 requires monthly-paid workers to receive wages at least once a month, and workers paid on a daily, hourly, or weekly basis to be paid fortnightly. PAM has built a specific deadline structure on top of this:

• Salary transfers must be completed by the 5th of each month for the preceding month's wages.
• PAM's enforcement directive treats payment delayed beyond 7 days from the contractual due date as a legal offence under Kuwait Labour Law.
• Repeated violations escalate to work permit suspension and, in persistent non-payment cases, criminal referral.

To put this in regional context:

• Oman's updated WPS rules require wage transfers within 3 days of the end of the wage entitlement period, one of the tightest windows in the GCC.
• Qatar requires monthly payment for employees on monthly contracts, with enforcement kicking in quickly after the due date.
• Kuwait's 5th-of-month deadline with a 7-day outer limit sits in the middle of the GCC range but leaves less room than many HR teams currently budget for.

For employers currently processing payroll on the 8th or 10th of the month, the 5th deadline is a genuine process change. Attendance cutoffs, deduction approvals, variance reviews, and bank submission all need to fit into a shorter window. The buffer needs to be built into the process itself, not into the calendar intention.

PAM's enforcement campaigns have specifically targeted companies operating under government contracts. If your workforce falls into this category, treat the 5th as firm with no working margin.

The Enforcement Sequence After Non-Compliance

Kuwait's enforcement framework under PAM escalates in stages. The following reflects the current published sequence:

One consequence worth flagging specifically: a suspended PAM file does not just affect the employees whose salary triggered the issue. It affects the company's ability to process work permits and approvals across its entire workforce. The operational exposure is broader than the individual violation.

When a Delayed or Reduced Payment Is Not a Violation

Kuwait's WPS framework recognises that salary will not always match the registered amount in a given month. Employers can justify discrepancies in these circumstances:

1. Employees on unpaid leave: Salary for the period of unpaid leave is excluded from the transfer obligation.
2. Workers who have separated from the company: Final settlements are handled separately and treated accordingly in WPS records.
3. Reduced hours or a mid-month joining date: A proportionally lower transfer is acceptable where the employee worked fewer days, provided the reason is documented and formally submitted.

In every case, the justification must be submitted to PAM in writing. This applies even for reasons as routine as a day of unpaid leave. It is worth noting how this compares across the GCC: Saudi Arabia's Mudad platform goes further than most, asking employers to justify discrepancies and then seeking the affected workers' approval through an SMS link before closing the matter. In Kuwait, the process is employer-side, but the Sahel app's direct notification to employees means workers see the shortfall and the stated reason independently. A vague or insufficiently documented justification creates the conditions for a formal dispute even when the underlying reason is entirely legitimate.

Scope: Who Falls Under Kuwait's WPS?

The mandatory WPS requirement covers all private sector employers with five or more employees registered under Kuwait Labour Law No. 6 of 2010, for both Kuwaiti nationals and expatriate workers.

Some categories require additional attention:

• Expatriate workers make up the significant majority of Kuwait's private sector workforce. Their transfers must go through a WPS-compliant Kuwaiti bank, matched to each individual's work permit.
• Workers on short-term mission permits: Specific rules apply to those on mission permits not exceeding three months. Verify current PAM guidance on how these are treated in WPS submissions.
• Domestic workers: A separate framework applies, though this is increasingly being brought into alignment with the broader WPS rules.
• Companies on government contracts: PAM's enforcement campaigns have specifically and repeatedly targeted this group, particularly around the 5th-of-month deadline.

Employers operating across Kuwait's free economic zones should separately confirm applicability with their zone authority. The relationship between PAM's requirements and zone-specific regulations is not always automatically aligned.

8-Step HR Checklist for Kuwait WPS Compliance

1. Set payroll cycle cutoffs so that salary transfers clear and credit by the 5th, not just reach the bank on the 5th.
2. Ensure all transfers go through a local Kuwaiti bank, marked as salary, matched to each employee's work permit number.
3. Register and configure access to the AS'HAL Salary Portal; verify salary records appear within 24 hours of each transfer.
4. Submit working hours, rest periods, weekly days off, and holiday schedules electronically through AS'HAL per Resolution No. 15 of 2025.
5. Prepare and file a PAM justification letter for any salary reduction in a given month, regardless of how routine the reason.
6. Flag and document employees on unpaid leave, in active disputes, or with absconding reports filed, so their records are handled correctly in the WPS run.
7. Retain transfer receipts, payslip records, and SIF submissions; PAM can request documentation at any point without advance notice.
8. If you use a third-party payroll provider, confirm that AS'HAL reporting and bank submission are being handled correctly. Legal responsibility for timely payment stays with the employer, not the provider.

How greytHR Handles Kuwait and GCC Payroll Compliance

greytHR is a full-suite HRMS used across Kuwait, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the wider GCC, with its payroll engine built around the compliance architecture of each country rather than adapted from a global template. For Kuwait specifically:

• Salary Transfer file generation: greytHR produces Kuwait's WPS complaint bank transfer formats for the Central Bank Of Kuwait approved local banks like CBK, NBK, KFH, Gulf Bank,... reducing the risk of file rejection due to formatting or field-level errors.
• Configurable payroll cutoff dates: Attendance cycles and processing dates can be set so the run completes with enough lead time before the 5th, giving teams a window to resolve errors before bank submission.
• Deduction management and justification records: Every deduction type, including unpaid leave, salary advances, and authorised penalties, is logged per employee with the audit trail needed to support a PAM justification letter.
• End-of-service benefit and gratuity calculations: Kuwait's gratuity entitlements differ by contract type and years of service. greytHR calculates these correctly for both fixed-term and unlimited contracts without manual cross-referencing against the Labour Law.
• Working hours tracking: With AS'HAL now requiring electronic working hours data, having attendance and shift records captured in the HRMS is the foundation of accurate portal submissions. Spreadsheet-based records create reconciliation risk that the system eliminates.
• Audit-ready records: Every payroll run, payslip, SIF submission, and statutory calculation is timestamped and retrievable for PAM review.
• GCC-wide compliance on one platform: EOSB and DEWS for the UAE, GPSSA and pension contributions, Mudad-aligned payroll for Saudi Arabia, Emiratisation reporting, and Kuwait-specific configurations, all managed within greytHR without requiring separate tools or manual reconciliation across jurisdictions.

Whether you are closing an immediate compliance gap with the AS'HAL mandate or reviewing your broader GCC payroll infrastructure, greytHR is worth a close look.

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FAQs

Does Kuwait's WPS apply to companies with fewer than five employees?

No. The mandatory requirement covers private sector employers with five or more employees under Labour Law No. 6 of 2010. Smaller employers are not subject to the same enforcement framework.

What is the difference between the 5th-of-month deadline and the 7-day rule?

The 5th is PAM's operational deadline for transfers. The 7-day rule is the enforcement threshold: payment delayed beyond seven days from the contractual due date becomes a legal offence under Kuwait Labour Law.

An employee took unpaid leave for part of the month. Do we still need to submit a justification letter?

Yes. Any salary reduction, including for unpaid leave, requires a formal justification letter to PAM. The reason does not need to be complex, but the submission is mandatory.

How does the Sahel app affect our exposure to employee disputes?

Sahel notifies employees directly of any shortfall and the stated reason. A vague or unsupported justification is visible to the employee and can prompt a formal complaint immediately.

Our company operates under a government contract. Are the WPS rules stricter for us?

The same rules apply, but PAM's enforcement campaigns have repeatedly targeted government contract employers. Treat the 5th-of-month deadline as firm with no working margin.

We use a third-party payroll provider. Who is responsible if the deadline is missed?

The employer. Kuwait places full legal responsibility for timely payment and WPS compliance on the employer, regardless of who prepares the payroll.

Does greytHR handle Kuwait-specific gratuity calculations?

Yes. Kuwait's gratuity entitlements differ by contract type and service duration. greytHR calculates end-of-service benefits for both fixed-term and unlimited contracts without manual intervention.

How quickly should salary records appear in AS'HAL after transfer?

Within 24 hours of the bank transfer completing. Employers should monitor this proactively rather than waiting for PAM to flag a discrepancy.

About greytHR

greytHR is a full-suite HR and payroll software trusted by 30,000+ businesses and 3.25 million users across 25+ countries, including in the GCC. Carrying a 3-decade legacy, greytHR brings the entire employee lifecycle - from onboarding attendance and payroll to compliance, performance, and exit - into a single system. With built-in compliance automation, AI-powered capabilities, dedicated customer support and a mobile-first experience, greytHR helps modern HR teams move away from administrative work into strategic work, keeping HR functions scale and future-ready, always.