The last year brought the biggest shake-up to domestic work rules in Oman in a decade, and families still hiring on old assumptions are the ones most likely to get caught out. A new regulation, a new fee schedule and a new starting date for end-of-service pay all arrived within months of each other. The current rules are explained here, and this article summarises what actually changed — so you can check your own arrangement against the rules as they stand now.

The New Regulation: MD 574/2025

The centrepiece is the domestic workers regulation, Ministerial Decision 574/2025, which took effect on 13 October 2025. It covers housemaids, nannies, private drivers, home carers and home health assistants under one set of rules. Every contract must now be in writing — in Arabic, or in another language with an approved Arabic copy — and must state the monthly wage, the pay date, the working hours, rest and duties, with the requirements listed here in full. The regulation sets no minimum wage, so the wage itself remains a negotiated term, but everything around it is now fixed: pay within 7 days of the due date, deductions limited to listed cases and never more than a quarter of the wage, at least one paid rest day a week, and at least 21 days of annual leave on full pay.

End-of-Service: The Clock Started in October 2025

One change deserves special attention because it is easy to misread. End-of-service gratuity builds at half a month's wage per year — but only service from 13 October 2025 counts, and nothing is due until service reaches two years. That means the first gratuities under the new counting method fall due from October 2027 onwards, not before. The worked example here makes it concrete: three full years of service after that date earns one and a half months' wage. Families who hired before October 2025 should note the cut-off carefully, because service before that date does not count towards this particular entitlement.

A New Fee Schedule: MD 602/2025

The second new instrument is the fees regulation, MD 602/2025, published in the Official Gazette on 26 October 2025 and effective three months later. Issuing or renewing a work licence and registering the worker now costs OMR 101 per worker for the first three workers, and OMR 141 per worker from the fourth onwards. Registering or amending the contract costs OMR 1, as does amending wage details, while transferring a worker already in Oman costs OMR 5. Late renewal or late registration runs OMR 10 a month, capped at OMR 500 per worker. The fee table here is worth checking before you budget, because the old fee assumptions no longer hold.

What Has Not Changed

Some things did not change at all, and the old myths survive precisely because people assume everything changed. There is still no minimum wage for expatriate domestic workers — the OMR 325 figure still belongs to Omani nationals in the private sector under a different rule. Home-country rules still matter just as much: many embassies set conditions before approving a contract, and those rules change often, so the embassy checks described here should be repeated directly with the relevant embassy in Muscat before every new hire, noting the date you checked. And hiring costs still stay with the employer — workers never pay for recruitment, employment or transfer on any route.

What to Check Before Your Next Hire

Start here: confirm the contract is written, registered and states the wage and pay date; confirm the licence fee for your situation; confirm whether any home-country minimum applies; and confirm that food, accommodation, health insurance and transport are all provided as required. One more thing to watch is payment systems — individual household employers are not currently required to use the Wage Protection System, but there is a plan to include them in future, so the way you prove payment may change. Rules in this area now move yearly rather than rarely, so a guide checked last year is not enough. For the current rules, the fee tables and the yearly cost breakdown, everything you need is here — and remember this article is general information, not legal advice.