Law No. 6 of 2010 Art. 51-53 · Oil sector: Law No. 28 of 1969 Art. 18 · Verified against the Arabic text (2026-08-29)
Kuwait Indemnity Calculator
Estimate your end of service indemnity in seconds. Choose your sector, enter your total wage and employment dates, and see the full calculation breakdown — including how a resignation affects your payout.
Private sector vs oil sector: the complete comparison
Kuwait does not have a single end-of-service indemnity regime. Private-sector employees fall under Labor Law No. 6 of 2010, while oil-sector employees fall under the older, more generous Law No. 28 of 1969. Applying the wrong law is the most common error in generic online calculators — the table below puts every difference side by side.
| Rule | Private sector | Oil sector |
|---|---|---|
| Applicable law | Labor Law No. 6 of 2010, Art. 51-53 | Labor Law No. 28 of 1969, Art. 18 |
| Accrual rate | 15 days' wage per year for the first 5 years, then 30 days' wage (one month) per year | 30 days' wage per year for the first 5 years, then 45 days' wage per year |
| Statutory cap | 18 months' wage (one and a half years) | None |
| Resignation reduction | Under 3 years: nothing · 3-5 years: one half · 5-10 years: two thirds · 10+ years: full (unlimited contracts only) | Under 2 years: nothing · 2-5 years: one half · 5-10 years: three quarters · 10+ years: full |
| Wage basis | Last total wage incl. regularly paid allowances; daily wage = monthly wage ÷ 26 | Same basis; employer regulations (e.g. KOC) prevail where more favorable |
The oil-sector resignation tiers come from Article 18, which addresses resignation after the employer issues notice under Article 17; the ratio for an ordinary voluntary resignation is subject to legal interpretation.
Resigning: how much of your indemnity survives
Resignation does not always wipe out the indemnity — it is scaled down by length of service, on a different schedule in each sector. The examples below use round monthly wages (1,000 KWD for the private sector, 800 KWD for the oil sector) so you can follow every step. The daily wage is the monthly wage divided by 26.
Private sector — Article 53, Law 6/2010 (unlimited contract)
- Less than 3 years — nothing. Example: 2 years at 1,000 KWD accrues 2 × 15 = 30 days' wage, i.e. 30 × (1,000 ÷ 26) = 1,153.85 KWD, but the amount payable is 0 KWD.
- 3 to under 5 years — one half. Example: 4 years at 1,000 KWD accrues 4 × 15 = 60 days' wage = 2,307.69 KWD gross; one half is payable = 1,153.85 KWD.
- 5 to under 10 years — two thirds. Example: 7 years at 1,000 KWD accrues (5 × 15) + (2 × 30) = 135 days' wage = 5,192.31 KWD gross; two thirds is payable = 3,461.54 KWD.
- 10 years or more — the full amount. Example: 12 years at 1,000 KWD accrues (5 × 15) + (7 × 30) = 285 days' wage = 10,961.54 KWD, payable in full.
Oil sector — Article 18, Law 28/1969
- Less than 2 years — nothing. Example: 1.5 years at 800 KWD accrues 1.5 × 30 = 45 days' wage, i.e. 45 × (800 ÷ 26) = 1,384.62 KWD, but the amount payable is 0 KWD.
- 2 to under 5 years — one half. Example: 3 years at 800 KWD accrues 3 × 30 = 90 days' wage = 2,769.23 KWD gross; one half is payable = 1,384.62 KWD.
- 5 to under 10 years — three quarters. Example: 8 years at 800 KWD accrues (5 × 30) + (3 × 45) = 285 days' wage = 8,769.23 KWD gross; three quarters is payable = 6,576.92 KWD.
- 10 years or more — the full amount. Example: 11 years at 800 KWD accrues (5 × 30) + (6 × 45) = 420 days' wage = 12,923.08 KWD, payable in full.
These examples use whole years so the arithmetic is easy to follow. The calculator works from your exact dates (total calendar days ÷ 365), so with real dates its result can run a dinar or two higher — a 4-year span that includes a leap day counts as 1,461 days, i.e. slightly over 4 years.
Keep in mind: the Article 18 tiers address resignation after the employer's notice under Article 17, and if your employer's regulations (e.g. KOC) are more generous, those prevail over the statutory minimums.
Partial years: how proration works
Your service does not have to be a whole number of years — every month counts proportionally. The formula is the same in both sectors; only the accrual rates change:
Indemnity = (total monthly wage ÷ 26) × [15 days × years of the first 5 + 30 days × years after 5] — private sector; the oil sector uses 30 and 45 days. A partial year enters as its fraction, e.g. 7 months = 7/12 of a year.
Example 1 — private sector, 2 years 7 months, terminated, 1,000 KWD
Years of service = 2 + 7/12 = 2.583. Days accrued = 15 × 2.583 = 38.75 days' wage. Indemnity = 38.75 × (1,000 ÷ 26) = 1,490.38 KWD. A terminated worker always receives the full amount (Art. 52-a).
Example 2 — oil sector, 7 years 4 months, resignation, 800 KWD
Days accrued = (5 × 30) + (2 + 4/12) × 45 = 150 + 105 = 255 days' wage. Gross = 255 × (800 ÷ 26) = 7,846.15 KWD. Resigning between 5 and 10 years pays three quarters: 7,846.15 × 3/4 = 5,884.62 KWD.
Example 3 — private sector, 11 years 2 months, resignation, 1,000 KWD
Days accrued = (5 × 15) + (6 + 2/12) × 30 = 75 + 185 = 260 days' wage. Gross = 260 × (1,000 ÷ 26) = 10,000 KWD. Resigning at 10 or more years pays in full: 10,000 KWD. The 18-month cap is far away — at this accrual rate it would only bind after about 20 years 6 months of service.
The calculator works from your exact dates (total days ÷ 365), so its output can differ from these rounded month-fraction examples by a dinar or two.
What counts as your wage (Art. 55/62)
The indemnity is calculated on your last TOTAL wage — not the basic salary printed in the contract. This is one of the most consequential rules, and the one most online calculators get wrong.
Counted
- Your basic wage.
- Regularly paid allowances, bonuses and subsidies — anything the employer pays every month as a fixed part of the wage.
Not counted
- Irregular, one-off bonuses.
- Expense reimbursements and similar payments that are not part of the wage.
This practical line between counted and not-counted payments is the settled approach, but each individual item is ultimately for the court to decide case by case.
The wage-basis rule follows Art. 55/62 of Law No. 6 of 2010 as confirmed by the Court of Cassation (Labor Appeal No. 204/2001 — الطعن 204/2001 عمالي).
One related convention: the daily wage used in every example on this page is the total monthly wage ÷ 26. That divisor follows established Cassation practice and is not written in the statute.
Fixed-term vs unlimited contracts
Your contract type decides when the resignation reduction can apply at all.
Unlimited contract
This is the contract the resignation tiers were written for. In the private sector, resigning from an unlimited contract triggers the Article 53 schedule: nothing below 3 years, one half at 3-5 years, two thirds at 5-10 years, full at 10 or more. In the oil sector the equivalent thresholds are 2, 5 and 10 years.
Fixed-term contract
The Article 53 reduction does not apply to resignation from a fixed-term contract. But the law also contains no explicit provision on what a worker receives when resigning early from a fixed-term contract — this is handled case by case, and the calculator's full-amount figure for that situation is indicative only.
Expiry without renewal
When a fixed-term contract simply runs to its end date and is not renewed, the full indemnity is payable — expiry is not a resignation, so no reduction applies.
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Private sector: Kuwait Labor Law No. 6 of 2010 (Art. 51-53) · Oil sector: Kuwait Labor Law No. 28 of 1969 (Art. 18) — Verified against the Arabic legal text on 2026-08-29 (three-source cross-validation).
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