Dubai - salaries and cost of living

[Gotothewinchester]

Hi all

I was looking for some advice!

DH and I would like to look for work in dubai and live there for a couple of years to have a change of scene, have an adventure and to be honest to make some money.

I was looking to see if anyone had any information on salaries for our respective roles as the "averages" online are all so different.

DH is a cyber security analyst with 7/8 years experience and I'm a marketing manager with 6 years experience. In the UK (in the north west) I earn £35k and he earns £30k but is underpaid for his role currently compared to other companies.

Most jobs dont seem to have a salary on them but the odd one we've seen seem have a monthly salary stated that is equivalent to only £1200 a month which surely can't be right?

Does anyone have any knowledge of IT or marketing salaries over there? Or what we'd need to be earning to pay for a 1 bedroom flat with enough money to live a decent lifestyle of exploring the area and also saving a chunk each month?

Does anyone know also whether it's likely that we would both be able to work over there or is it more likely that DH will be able to work and I'll be sponsored as his wife to live there with him without working?

I also have questions around whether housing allowances are usually on top of salaries or whether we'd be expected to pay for an apartment out of our salaries.

I've read lots online but seem to be getting conflicting info so even if you could send me links to resources online that answer these questions I'd really appreciate it!

I'm not in those fields, and neither is DH, but in some fields/companies the salaries reflect the nationality of the employee rather than their expertise - so if they can pay an Indian IT person, for example, 6000AED per month, they are not going to employ a British IT person, who is equally qualified, and pay him/her 20000AED.

You can both work in the UAE, usually the husband is sponsored by his employer and then he sponsors his wife. You can work providing that your DH doesn't object (literally). Some roles offer housing, many do not, and when interviewing for a post you need to ask all of the right questions about flights, health insurance, travel/relocation costs, school fees, rent allowance etc.

You can both work but limited demand for marketing positions at the moment and generally companies want people who understand the UAE. Best option would be international companies who work in the sector you have experience in in the UK as they may value industry experience over UAE experience. You will be at a disadvantage not speaking Arabic but this isn't insurmountable.

I would expect IT security to be paid decently (but not sure on amount) but he should be targeting the major companies eg the banks to find somewhere that would value his experience. As a previous poster has mentioned, the IT sector is flooded with (well qualified) people from India who are often paid poorly on the basis of passport.

Job market in general in Dubai is very weak at the moment - I wouldn't be giving up secure jobs in the UK to move out there 'for an adventure'. The days of people with UK experience being paid well just because they have UK experience are long gone.

In terms of what you'd need to be earning, it really depends on what you mean by a decent lifestyle and how much you want to save. Incomes in Dubai vary widely - you get people supporting families on 10k a month and singles saying they couldn't live on less than 40k a month.

I don't think you'll find you make a lot of money but if he finds a company that care about cyber security then he could be paid around AED 20-30k a month. I think you'll struggle to find work unless you get lucky. You can live a decent life off that in Dubai but you will need to watch spending if you want to save. Dubai isn't somewhere that you get paid an uplift to come to anymore - increasingly it's a place people choose - and salaries reflect that. A large proportion of the people I know are in debt rather than saving, certainly at the two year point.

Thanks for the insight both!

My DHs family spent years and years in middle east across the 80s, 90s and 00s, and I have university friends who have been out there in the last 5 years or so and seem to have been living the high life. Obviously the golden years my ILs experienced are gone and my friends that have been more recently are perhaps not actually able to afford the lifestyle they portray.

The insight into the demand for IT professionals that they pay less from other countries is interesting so thank you for that.

Since I posted my OP my DH actually applied for a role in Dubai at a global financial company and heard back pretty quickly - they said there was an error on the job ad and that the role was actually elsewhere but that means we're on to the trail of a different opportunity at the moment which is great.

Re the adventure side I mentioned, we dont have kids and we own our own house that we could rent out and come back to, and dubai seemed easy to get a visa compared to other countries. There are other countries I'd prefer to move to if it were easier to get a visa if I'm being honest!

Again thanks for your replies I appreciate it!

That's good news and that's exactly the sort of company I'd advise he targets in Dubai.

Your university friends have 5 years of Dubai experience, which puts them more in demand. In addition, whilst some might have gotten lucky on jobs / be in highly paid sectors, from my experience the group of people in their 20s in Dubai going to brunch every weekend and showing off designer handbags and posh cars are usually not saving (certainly not significantly) or actually in debt. Teaching couples without kids can be an exception to that but even then they won't be saving much with that lifestyle. Remember also that nothing is ever as it seems on social media. To be fair the group of people spending like that in the UK are in the same position!

I don't think Dubai would be a terrible move but go in with eyes open. Dubai can be a great experience but it is an expensive place to live (for example our phone and internet is over £200 a month and that's with us buying the phones separately) and it is very easy to get caught up in keeping up with the Joneses. Most people aren't paid significantly more (cost of living adjusted) in Dubai than they would take home in the UK.

I did two years in Dubai, before moving onto Australia and agree with much of the above. More generally,living abroad is certainly an adventure and I don't regret it at all. But it's an expensive decision if you decide to go anywhere outside Europe (which is less possible now any way). You are unlikely these days to get much financial help with relocating from the UK, and when /if you decide to return that's also on you. Returning to the UK from Australia cost us the best part of 15k and we had to find new jobs as well. That wiped out most of the money we had saved during our time abroad and I met quite a few people in Aus especially, who actually couldn't afford to come home, even though they no longer wanted to stay.

Hi, I lived in any dhabi for several years. We saved and had a decent deposit for a house back here. My husband's job was obtained by work contacts in his industry. As others have said people's lifestyles vary over there, We lived in a cheaper but still nice area, saving half our housing allowance, husbands friend and his family also moved over at the same time, they used the housing allowance to the max, had a nanny, really nice cars etc, they moved back at the same time and couldn't afford to buy a house and still rent. We had our pay as you go phones from UK that we just got a SIM card for. Only went out for a few brunches, maybe one a month. It's depends on what you want how you want to live our plan was a big house deposit. Try gulftalent for jobs and linked in

I'm impressed on saving 50% of your housing allowance @Toasty280 - we've always had to top up ours but then we have a family so a one bed flat isn't really workable. I am always amazed by people who see their housing allowance as an amount that has to be spent rather than just another pot of income that you choose how much to spend from. I remember that someone once complained to me her husband didn't get a housing allowance and I had to explain that the jobs that did give housing paid a lower base salary rather than just giving their employees more money.

I still think you'd struggle to get internet and two phones for under AED 1,000 though unless you were willing not to have data.

I think you would both struggle to find work here at the moment. As previous posters said, for a marketing position at your level they will want regional experience and an Arabic speaker. You'd be lucky to get around 8,000 AED a month. Probably less.

For your husband, he's in the same boat really. Loads of people with his skills from India and South Africa who are looking for less money for the same skills. The days of just getting hired for your passport are gone.

Depending on the company you would either get a housing allowance or a lump sum salary, but they're really interchangeable. If you get a housing allowance they will undercut you in your basic salary.

@Nomaigai he had a housing allowance of 180 thousand dirhams we go a three bed flat in al reef for 90k.We had two kids. It wasn't like we were living in a one bed flat. Some people don't want to live in all reef and want to live in al raha or al zeina but that would have cost all of our housing allowance and having a nice home back here which was more important.So so reef was fine for us, We moved in when the apartments were still under construction, used the pools in the villa areas so still had access to outside areas.

180k is a very generous housing allowance though. OP/her DH won't be getting anything like that. You must have been high earners (even if it didn't feel like that because I know there are the lot living on Sadiyaat).

Your husbands best chance is either going on secondment with a multi National firm or finding a job through the contacts you/he currently have out there. At the moment, most firms would rather hire locally and there’s a lot of Indians who are in Dubai already and willing to accept much lower salaries. It’s a great place to live but the expat packages aren’t what they once were apart from in a few fields. Every man and his dog has marketing qualifications so unless you have something special to offer and some good contacts I can’t see you’d be paid highly in the current situation.