Most expat private-sector workers earn under BD200 a month salary

TDT | Manama

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Most expat workers in Bahrain’s private sector are on low pay, with about 336,746 earning under BD200 a month and an average wage of around BD267, new figures from the Social Insurance Organisation show.

The data put the total number of expat employees and workers in the private sector at about 473,323.

Men made up 423,413 of them, or 89.3 per cent, while 49,910 were women, or 11.7 per cent.

Data

Alongside those under BD200, the figures show about 64,036 expat workers on monthly wages between BD200 and BD399, equal to 14 per cent of the expat workforce counted in the data.

The same release also tracked Bahraini pay and headcount across the public and private sectors. It put the average monthly wage for Bahraini employees at about BD919, with an average age of 36.

Bahraini employment across both sectors stood at about 157,213, with the larger share in the private sector at 105,503, or 67 per cent.

The public sector accounted for 51,710, or 33 per cent.

Average Bahraini pay differed by sector, at about BD973 a month in the public sector and around BD892 in the private sector.

Figures

The figures also show the number of Bahraini employees across both sectors rising over the past five years, from about 145,849 in 2021 to 145,894 by the end of 2024, before reaching around 157,000 in the third quarter of 2025.

A year-on-year change of 2 per cent was recorded between the third quarter of 2024 and the same period in 2025.

By gender, the data put Bahraini men at 90,444 employees across the two sectors, or 57.5 per cent, compared with 66,769 women, or 42.5 per cent.

Women

In the public sector, women accounted for about 55 per cent in the third quarter of 2025, up from 54.8 per cent at the end of 2024. That equated to 28,431 women and 23,279 men among the 51,710 employees in ministries and government bodies.

In the private sector, Bahraini men remained the larger group, with 67,165 employees, or 64 per cent, compared with 38,338 women, or 36 per cent.