The Wage Protection System (WPS) is how the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development verifies that every employee in Saudi Arabia is paid on time. Mudad is the platform that submits the file.
What WPS actually checks
- Every worker received their salary into a Saudi bank account.
- The amount matches the registered contract on Qiwa.
- The payment landed within the legally permitted window (usually month-end + a few days).
How Mudad fits in
Mudad is the Ministry-licensed platform that aggregates the monthly wage file and pushes it to the banks. Companies upload (or auto-generate) a monthly WPS file with:
- Employee Iqama / National ID
- Basic salary + housing allowance + other allowances + deductions
- IBAN of the destination bank account
- Payroll month
Common compliance traps
- Mismatch with Qiwa contract. If WPS pays SAR 8,000 but the Qiwa contract says SAR 10,000, the company gets flagged.
- Missing employees. A worker still active on Qiwa but absent from WPS = red flag.
- Late month. Repeated late filings move the company down Nitaqat bands.
- IBAN errors. One wrong character bounces the salary; the worker is treated as unpaid that month.
What the WPS file looks like
The file is XML/CSV with a strict schema: header (CR number, month) + lines (one per employee, with bank, IBAN, gross, net). Banks reject lines that don't match Qiwa.
Tips that save fines
- Reconcile WPS vs Qiwa before submission, not after.
- Treat IBAN updates as a contract change — re-verify after every change.
- Keep the WPS submission and the bank-side confirmation as the audit trail.