Wage protection (WPS) in Kuwait

What Kuwaiti employers file, and where

KWPS: the Kuwait Wage Payment System

On 28 September 2026 the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) launched the Kuwait Wage Payment System (KWPS), one of the projects in phase II of the Kuwait National Payment System (KNPS2). CBK runs the system technically and operationally, and the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) oversees and monitors employers' compliance.

• It is built on ISO 20022, the international standard for electronic data exchange between financial institutions.
• It allows real-time monitoring and early detection of non-compliance with wage payment.
• It applies to private-sector employers of all sizes, with no minimum establishment size.

PAM's 90% rule

Under PAM's electronic linkage with the system, reported on 22 October 2026, a company must meet both of these:

1. transfer monthly salaries through the system for at least 90% of its total registered workforce, and
2. pay salaries to all registered workers for the most recent month.

If either requirement is missed, PAM restricts these services for the company:

• issuing work permits and authorisations (renewals are excluded)
• registering government contracts
• labour-requirement assessments
• certificates for official approvals and tenders
• registering company-owned vehicles

KWPS readiness checker

How a salary run flows

1. The employer submits the salary file to its bank.
2. The bank sends the data to PAM through the WPS.
3. The data is checked against the company's registered employees.
4. Once verified, the payment is approved and the bank executes it.
5. The results go back to PAM electronically.

Register once with your bank

Before your first KWPS salary run, complete your bank's one-time WPS registration:

• KFH: complete WPS Registration, then pay through the WPS Salary Payment service in KFH Corporate Online Banking (eCorp).
• ABK: complete the one-time WPS employer registration in ABKNet. Each employer (MOSAL) number is onboarded separately.
• Other banks run their own registration, so ask your relationship manager.

What AhlanHamad does here: the salary file is generated from each approved payroll run, ready to upload through your bank's corporate banking, and your bank transmits it through KWPS to PAM. AhlanHamad does not submit anything to PAM. Confirm your bank's WPS layout before your first upload. Uploading to your bank and explaining any shortfalls PAM flags on AS'HAL stays with you.

The earlier framework

Before KWPS, Kuwait's wage protection rested on Ministerial Decision No. 18 of 2010, and that framework still sits underneath it. PAM monitors salary transfers made through local banks against the employer's own file, and issues a fulfilment certificate from that bank-verified data.

• Salaries are paid through a local bank and reported to PAM against the employer's file.
• Labour Law No. 6 of 2010, article 56: monthly-paid workers are paid at least once a month, other workers at least once a fortnight — and payment may not be delayed more than seven days past the due date.
• AS'HAL, PAM's e-portal, carries the related labour services, including a salary-shortfalls inspection service.
• A salary-transfer fulfilment certificate is issued through the Sahel Business app, drawn from bank-verified transfer data under Decision 18/2010.

A separate obligation: electronic working-hours records

Resolution No. 15 of 2025 — published in the Official Gazette on 14 September 2025, effective 1 November 2025 — is not a wage-protection rule. It is a working-hours rule, and it is on this page because it is the same employer, the same platform and the same failure mode: a spreadsheet that cannot produce a record an inspector will accept.

• Daily working hours, rest periods, weekly days off and official holidays are entered on PAM's electronic platform, and updated promptly when they change.
• The regulations are printed and displayed at the workplace, for employees and inspectors.
• The recorded data is the official reference for an inspection.
• Non-compliance can lead to partial or complete suspension of the employer's file under Law No. 6 of 2010.

What AhlanHamad does here: hours, rest days, leave and public holidays are recorded against each employee as they happen, so the record an inspector asks for is the record the system already holds — not one rebuilt from a spreadsheet afterwards.

Sources

• Central Bank of Kuwait: CBK launches the Kuwait Wage Payment System (KWPS), 28 September 2026
• Fragomen: Kuwait: New Wage Payment and Protection System Launched, 14 October 2026
• Arab Times / Al-Seyassah: PAM launches e-system to disburse pay on time, 22 October 2026
• KFH: Wages Protection System
• ABK: Wages Protection System FAQ

The 90% rule and the list of restricted services come from press reports of PAM's announcement (Arab Times / Al-Seyassah, 22 October 2026), not from a PAM circular we have read. Confirm your own position with PAM before relying on them.

Requirements change. Confirm the current position with PAM before you rely on it — this page is a summary, not legal advice.