Saudi Arabia aims to complete a study on setting a minimum wage for private sector workers within four months, local media quoted the labor minister as saying, part of a government drive to make jobs more appealing to nationals and cut unemployment. The jobless rate in the world's top oil exporter is now running at 10 percent and is a potential source of discontent as private companies prefer to hire foreigners, mainly from Asian countries such as Pakistan, who agree to work for wages as low as SR1,800 ($480) a month. That is less than the monthly unemployment benefit of SR2,000. Saudis have favored government jobs, which offer security and higher salaries. "There was a royal order for the labor ministry to study this issue in collaboration with the private sector," Labor Minister Adel Faqih was quoted as saying in daily Okaz newspaper Monday. "We are now in the final stages of this study, which will be announced within the next four months," he said. Media reports have suggested the government could set a minimum wage of SR2,000-3,000. Last year the government tightened rules introduced in the mid-1990s to try to increase the employment of locals through a "Saudization" scheme that set quotas for the number of Saudis each company must hire. Foreign workers, including laborers and expatriate professionals, account for a third of the desert kingdom's population of 27 million and Saudi nationals account for only 10 percent of the private sector workforce. King Abdullah promised last year to spend about SR400 billion ($110 billion), or more than 18 percent of gross domestic product, on housing, new jobs, health care, salary bonuses and other benefits. The Kingdom's deputy labor minister said last week the largest Arab economy would start licensing expatriate labor companies within a month in a first move away from a sponsorship system, whereby employers bring in foreigners on a work visa for a certain job only. Authorities hope that shifting from the sponsorship system will help more Saudi citizens fill jobs previously filled by foreigners. Saudi Arabia's yearly minimum wage is $7.00 in international currency. International currency is a measure of currency based on the value of the United States dollar in 2009. – Reuters There are countries with a higher minimum wage then Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia is in the top 0 percent of all countries based on the yearly minimum wage rate.
