Single female offered role in Riyadh - is this salary acceptable

[sunmoonandmars]

The head of the Saudi office of my organisation has approached me about an open role in his team, offering to meet a counter offer of a role I have been offered at another rival organisation in London.

The Saudi role would pay Saudi equivalent of £200k, with and additional £50k accommodation allowance and approx £8k travel allowance. Relocation costs havent been discussed (yet). This sounds like an awful lot of money given that it will be tax free!

The role is a ‘back office’ financial services role and I know the business well.

please could someone let me know how this salary may compare with the Riyadh expat average?

Im single with no dependants so would need only a one bedroom apartment. Thank you!

There isn't enough money in the world to persuade me to go and work/live there. But you do you.

I totally agree. If you haven’t done already, I suggest you do plenty of research about the culture there before making a decision.

Look very carefully at whether it will be tax free. There are very strict rules now about world wide income being taxed depending on the length of time you have been resident in the UK in the preceeding years and your ties to the UK (owning property etc). I'd be speaking to a very good tax adviser who specialises in overseas contracts first. It may not be such an attractive offer.

FWIW my DF worked in Riyadh for years when it was all tax free, but my DM would never let us move out there with him. It was much worse back then for women than it is now, and the bar is still pretty low.

How much more is it than you're on now (or than the job you've been offered) and include everything in that i.e. take account of pension contributions etc?

It's really hard to say whether this is a good offer because back office for financial could be the head of risk for a major bank, or someone junior in credit control (it would be an amazing offer for the latter). You're not going to be struggling to buy groceries, but I would need at three times my current take home to move to Riyadh. Partly because it's KSA, but majorly because Riyadh specifically isn't somewhere I would choose to live long term and so I'd be there only to save. This doesn't come close to the amount of money I'd need to move to Riyadh, but that's me not you.

Research thoroughly and make sure you really want to do it. The money may be good (and probably tax free) but it will be very difficult to adapt to the lifestyle I imagine.
Having said that a friend moved there to work in her organisations office (Legal) and she was treated very well. She was given a driver who had to accompany her at all times and it was a huge cultural shift. She did it for a couple of years to boost her retirement income and while she said it was fine she was glad to leave

This is very outdated. You don't need to be accompanied by a driver (or any man). I just got back from Riyadh. Every time I visit it has opened up more, but needing to be accompanied by a man hasn't been the case for years (maybe even over 10 years!).

I'm not going to advise you to "do research" before you accept or decline this job, because it doesn't really matter what other people think of Riyadh, nor are you helping yourself in listening to prejudiced, ignorant, fear-mongering opinions of people who've never sat foot near the Middle East - but still somehow deem themselves qualified to tell you how bad, dangerous and woman-oppressing the entire region is.

You need to visit Riyadh yourself and make up your own mind about the place. And find out for yourself, from other expats, what people in your position typically earn there.

FWIW my DF worked in Riyadh for years when it was all tax free, but my DM would never let us move out there with him. It was much worse back then for women than it is now, and the bar is still pretty low.

Same, when I was growing up in the 1980s. Same for DBro and his family 5 years ago.

I don’t think I would want to live anywhere where that in the not too distant past it was considered necessary for a man to accompany a woman, or a woman wasn’t allowed to drive. Great that things have now changed but the idea that those things were necessary recently I would assume many men would still have the idea that women were lesser ingrained

A useful point to consider is the full employment package rather than just the headline salary. I would get the contract details in writing, particularly housing, annual flights, medical cover, relocation costs, bonus structure, leave and what happens to the benefits if you resign.

It is also worth understanding the end-of-service entitlement before making a long-term move. The Saudi calculation depends on your final wage, length of service and the reason the employment ends. I found the End of Service Calculator useful for getting a rough idea of how that benefit could build up over several years at: https://endofservicecalculator.site .

With a package at that level and no dependants, I would also look closely at your expected monthly spending in Riyadh rather than comparing the salary directly with an “expat average”. Rent, transport and the lifestyle you actually want will make a big difference to how much you can save. The tax-free element is attractive, but I would make the decision based on the complete package and how comfortable you would be with the move, not salary alone.