Qatari employees' average pay is 1.7 to 12.3 times non-Qatari pay, by sector

Seven sectors have at least 1,000 Qatari employees. In all seven, Qatari employees' average monthly compensation is higher than non-Qatari employees'.

The narrowest is in banks: Qatari employees' average compensation is 1.7 times non-Qatari employees' (2022). The widest is in business services: 12.3 times (2022).

The other five, from narrow to wide:

• Electricity, gas and cooling: 3.0 times (2022)
• Wholesale and retail trade: 3.3 times (2022)
• Oil, gas and mining: 3.7 times (2022)
• Transport and communication: 4.0 times (2021)
• Manufacturing: 11.1 times (2022)

Each gap compares all Qatari employees in a sector with all non-Qatari employees in the same sector, whatever their jobs. The data has no split by job, education or experience, so the multiples do not describe pay for the same work. They also give no cause for the gaps. Compensation here is an estimated total per employee, so these are gaps in average pay, not in basic or take-home pay.

The multiples sit on very different pay levels. Average monthly compensation per employee, Qatari against non-Qatari:

• Oil, gas and mining: QR 82,899 a month against QR 22,137 a month (2022)
• Business services: QR 65,587 a month against QR 5,332 a month (2022)
• Banks: QR 56,494 a month against QR 32,795 a month (2022)
• Manufacturing: QR 55,199 a month against QR 4,966 a month (2022)
• Transport and communication: QR 53,606 a month against QR 13,274 a month (2021)
• Electricity, gas and cooling: QR 47,513 a month against QR 16,089 a month (2022)
• Wholesale and retail trade: QR 16,130 a month against QR 4,844 a month (2022)

Banks have the highest non-Qatari average of the seven, QR 32,795 a month, and the narrowest gap. Business services and manufacturing have the two widest gaps, with non-Qatari averages of QR 5,332 a month and QR 4,966 a month.

Across the 11 sectors with 2022 data, there are 18,816 Qatari employees out of 1.46 million employees in total. That is a Qatari share of 1.3%.

The share is highest in electricity, gas and cooling (38.8%) and banks (36.9%), both for 2022. The sector shares, from high to low:

• Oil, gas and mining: 14.8% (2022)
• Insurance: 9.4% (2022)
• Transport and communication: 2.5% (2021)
• Manufacturing: 2.0% (2022)
• Wholesale and retail trade: 1.2% (2022)
• Business services and social and personal services: 0.8% each (2022)
• Water and waste: 0.3% (2022)
• Construction and hotels and restaurants: 0.1% each (2022)

Construction has 637 Qatari employees and 649,102 non-Qatari employees in 2022. Business services has 2,059 Qatari employees and 250,118 non-Qatari employees. In manufacturing, the figures are 2,331 and 113,867. These shares cover only the sectors in the National Planning Council datasets, not all workers in Qatar.

The table lists all twelve sectors, with employees and average monthly compensation (QR a month) for Qatari and non-Qatari employees. In every one of the twelve, the Qatari average is higher.

Sectors with fewer than 1,000 Qatari employees appear only in the table, since averages over small groups can swing with a few earners. Water and waste has 12 Qatari employees (5.6 times), construction 637 (5.2 times), social and personal services 485 (2.6 times), hotels and restaurants 133 (7.0 times) and insurance 135 (1.7 times), all for 2022.

What the averages measure: compensation is an estimated total per employee. The datasets do not define it. In national accounts it covers wages and salaries in cash and in kind plus employer social contributions, so it is not basic or take-home pay. There is no split by job, education, experience or other nationality, so each gap compares all Qatari with all non-Qatari employees in a sector.

The figures come from nine National Planning Council sector datasets, for 2022 except transport and communication (2021). Public administration, agriculture and domestic work in households are not among the sectors.