What is the Wage Protection System (WPS)?
The Wage Protection System (WPS – نظام حماية الأجور) is a Saudi programme overseen by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD). Employers upload a monthly wage file, and the programme checks what was actually paid against what was contractually agreed, to detect underpayment, late payment or non-payment. The underlying duty to pay wages into workers’ bank accounts comes from Article 90 of the Labour Law.
How It Works
- The establishment prepares a digitally sealed wage file containing employee salary and settlement data.
- It uploads the file through the Mudad platform (mudad.com.sa), selecting the wage month and the wage type the file covers.
- Processing is immediate and free, with automatic data validation.
- MHRSD checks the timeliness of the deposit against the due date, the amount paid against documented employment contracts, and the declared data against actual payment records and social-insurance data.
- Prerequisites include registration with MHRSD and with GOSI, a documented main branch and authorised representative, and bank accounts for both the establishment and the registered employees.
Saudi Context
The rollout finished on 1 December 2020: since then there is no private-sector establishment small enough to sit outside WPS, so any headcount threshold describes a phase that ended, not a current test. The cadence is monthly.
Ministerial Decision 112377 of 21/8/1447H (9 February 2026) classes “not uploading the wage-protection file monthly, or uploading it below the compliance percentage the Ministry sets” as a serious (جسيمة) violation, fined by establishment size:
| Establishment size | ≤20 workers | 21–49 | ≥50 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fine (SAR) | 500 | 1,000 | 2,000 |
The fine is per violation, not per worker, and under the same decision an objection does not suspend enforcement. A separate row in the same schedule fines failure to pay wages in the official currency, on their due dates, into approved bank accounts at SAR 300 per worker across all three size bands.
Example
A trading company with 25 employees runs December payroll on 31 December and uploads its wage file through Mudad for wage month December, selecting the wage type. The upload is validated immediately, and MHRSD compares the paid amounts against the documented contracts and the company’s GOSI data. Because the company is in the 21–49 band, missing a monthly upload would expose it to a SAR 1,000 fine under decision 112377.
WPS and payroll records
Qoyod’s payroll feature runs the payroll cycle, links each component to the correct accounting account, and produces payroll reports and payslips — keeping wage data consistent inside the books. The wage file itself is uploaded through Mudad and remains the establishment’s responsibility.