Usually yes, but the rules differ more than most people expect. Unpaid leave is one of the most common reasons a gratuity figure you work out yourself doesn't match what HR pays.
Article 51 of Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 calculates gratuity on continuous service and states that days of absence from work without pay are not counted. Unpaid leave days are subtracted from your total service before the formula is applied.
Article 116 of the Saudi Labour Law allows unpaid leave by agreement with the employer, for a length the two sides agree. The contract is treated as suspended for any part of that leave beyond 20 days, unless the two sides agree otherwise. A suspended period is not service, so it doesn't count toward the end of service award. The first 20 days of an unpaid leave still count.
If your employer agreed in writing that the whole leave counts as service, that agreement applies instead, so keep a copy of it.
Both countries calculate gratuity on actual service, and it is widely accepted that genuinely unpaid leave reduces that service in the same way. But neither Qatar's Labour Law No. 14 of 2004 nor Bahrain's Labour Law No. 36 of 2012 has a provision as explicit as the UAE's Article 51 or Saudi Arabia's Article 116, in the sources available to us. If unpaid leave matters to your figure in either country, confirm the treatment with HR or a licensed payroll professional.
In all four countries, paid annual leave, public holidays and paid sick leave count toward service. Long sick leave and maternity leave often move to reduced or unpaid pay after a set period. Whether those unpaid stretches count is not spelled out the same way everywhere, so if one applies to you, ask HR to show how it was treated in your service dates.
The calculator on this site assumes continuous service, as any calculator that takes years and months does. If you took unpaid leave, subtract the excluded days before you enter your service. In the UAE that means every unpaid day. In Saudi Arabia it means the days beyond the first 20 of each unpaid leave, unless you agreed otherwise. In Qatar and Bahrain subtracting the unpaid days is the safer assumption until HR confirms.
Calculate your gratuityChecked against the published labour law text for each country. Where the law is unclear or interpretations differ, we say so. Last verified 5 October 2026.