Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM)
The Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) is Abu Dhabi’s financial free zone, operating its own common law legal system and its own employment regulations independently of the federal UAE Labour Law.
Like the DIFC, the ADGM is a distinct jurisdiction rather than simply a tax or licensing zone: it has its own courts, its own regulator for financial services firms, and its own employment regulations covering contracts, leave and termination, separate from both the federal law and from DIFC’s own rules.
Employers should not assume DIFC and ADGM employment rules are interchangeable just because both sit outside the federal system. Each maintains its own regulations, and a policy or contract template built for the DIFC should be checked properly before being reused in the ADGM, or the other way round.
ADGM has followed the DIFC’s lead in offering its own funded workplace savings arrangement as an alternative to traditional end of service gratuity, reinforcing the wider shift toward workplace savings schemes across the UAE’s financial free zones.
Allowances
The additional, regularly paid components of a UAE salary on top of the basic wage, most commonly for housing and transport, that together with the basic wage make up gross pay.
Allowances are agreed in the employment contract and paid alongside salary each pay period. Common ones cover housing and transport, and many employers also provide or fund an annual flight allowance so employees can travel home, a long standing regional custom that in some contracts is a formal entitlement rather than a discretionary perk.
Because statutory calculations such as end of service gratuity are typically based on the basic wage rather than total pay, how a package is split between basic wage and allowances is a real design choice for employers, not just a presentation preference, and it shapes what an employee is actually owed later on.
Annual leave
The paid holiday entitlement UAE employees build up under the Labour Law once they have completed a qualifying period of service.
Entitlement generally accrues from the start of employment, though the right to actually take the full annual amount typically only crystallises after a qualifying period has been completed, with a smaller pro-rata entitlement available before that point. Unused leave is normally something an employer must pay out, not simply forfeit, when employment ends.
Employers commonly go beyond the statutory minimum as part of a competitive package, and many contracts add an annual flight allowance on top of leave itself, reflecting how much of the UAE’s private sector workforce lives away from their home country and needs to travel back to see family.
Basic wage
The fixed core component of an employee’s salary before allowances are added, and the figure most UAE statutory calculations, including end of service gratuity, are based on.
A UAE pay package is usually split into a basic wage plus a set of allowances such as housing and transport. The split matters because the law generally calculates gratuity and certain other entitlements from the basic wage alone, not the full gross salary, so employees on the same total pay can end up with different statutory entitlements if their basic-to-allowance split differs.
Because of this, the basic wage is among the first things to check when reviewing an offer, a contract or a leaver’s final settlement, and it is a figure MOHRE-registered contracts and WPS files both record explicitly rather than folding into an undifferentiated total.
DIFC Employee Workplace Savings (DEWS)
DIFC Employee Workplace Savings (DEWS) is a mandatory workplace savings plan for employers in the Dubai International Financial Centre, replacing the traditional end of service gratuity calculation with regular funded contributions.
Instead of accruing a lump sum promise that is only calculated and paid out when someone leaves, DEWS requires the employer to make regular contributions into a real, invested account from the start of employment. The employee can typically choose how the contributions are invested and can see the balance grow over time, much like a workplace pension.
The scheme was introduced because a funded, portable savings account is generally seen as a safer promise to an employee than an unfunded end of service gratuity liability sitting on the employer’s books, and it removes the disputes that can arise over gratuity calculations at exit.
DEWS applies specifically to DIFC-registered employers rather than the wider UAE mainland, but it has influenced the market: other free zones and, more recently, parts of the wider federal system have introduced or proposed their own optional funded savings alternatives to traditional gratuity, so workplace savings schemes are becoming a genuine alternative across the UAE rather than a DIFC curiosity.
Domestic workers
Household staff such as housekeepers, nannies and drivers employed directly by a household rather than a business, covered in the UAE by a separate law from the main Labour Law.
Domestic work sits outside the standard MOHRE-administered Labour Law and is regulated instead under its own domestic workers law, with its own rules on contracts, leave, notice and end of service benefits tailored to household rather than commercial employment, and oversight that sits with a different government authority than mainstream private sector employment.
Recruitment and placement is generally expected to run through licensed domestic worker service centres, commonly known as Tadbeer centres, which handle recruitment, contracts and dispute support between households and domestic workers rather than leaving the relationship entirely informal.
Because the sponsoring party is a household rather than a company, obligations that would normally sit with an employer’s HR function, such as visa sponsorship, contract registration and end of service payment, fall directly on the individual sponsor instead.
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)
The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is a financial free zone with its own independent, common law based legal system and its own employment law, entirely separate from the federal UAE Labour Law.
Companies registered in the DIFC follow DIFC Employment Law rather than the federal statute, with their own rules on matters such as contracts, leave and termination, and disputes are heard in the DIFC’s own courts rather than the onshore UAE court system. For a multinational used to common law concepts, this can feel more familiar than the civil law framework that applies onshore.
The DIFC is also where DIFC Employee Workplace Savings (DEWS) applies, replacing the traditional end of service gratuity calculation with funded contributions, a clear practical difference an HR team notices when comparing a DIFC role to a mainland one.
Because the DIFC operates its own regulator for the financial and professional services companies based there, an employer’s obligations extend beyond employment law into sector specific compliance that has no direct mainland equivalent.
Emirates ID
The mandatory national identity card issued to every UAE resident, citizen and expatriate alike, used to verify identity across government, banking and employment processes.
Employers cannot complete most MOHRE and immigration processes, including contract registration and visa applications, without a valid Emirates ID reference for the employee, which makes it an early document an onboarding checklist has to chase after a new hire arrives.
Because it is genuinely universal, an Emirates ID also does duty well beyond HR: opening a bank account, signing a tenancy contract or accessing many digital government services all depend on it, so an expired card can quietly block far more than employment paperwork alone.
Emiratisation (Tawteen)
Emiratisation, also known by its Arabic name Tawteen, is UAE government policy requiring private sector companies to employ a set share of Emirati nationals, with penalties for companies that fall short.
Quotas apply to companies above a defined size and typically rise over time, so a workforce plan that meets the quota today can fall short later purely because the bar has moved, not because the company changed anything. Companies that miss their quota face financial penalties, while companies that exceed it can access incentives and preferential treatment on government services.
Emiratisation reaches beyond headcount alone. It touches skills development, succession into senior roles, and how roles are advertised, and it is increasingly linked to the Nafis programme, which supports Emirati jobseekers and subsidises part of their private sector pay to make hiring and retaining them more attractive to employers.
Because the quota is checked against live MOHRE records, Emiratisation is not a once a year compliance exercise. It moves every time a company hires, promotes or loses an Emirati employee, which makes it a genuine, ongoing input into workforce planning rather than a box ticked at renewal time.
In HarmoniHRM: Payroll tracks Emiratisation quota progress against the live headcount, and Recruit shows the quota impact of a hire at the offer stage.
End of Service Gratuity (EOSB)
End of service gratuity, often referred to as end of service benefits (EOSB), is the lump sum a UAE employer owes an employee when their employment ends, calculated from final basic wage and length of service.
It is the region’s main statutory severance benefit, particularly for expatriate employees who are not part of a national pension scheme. The calculation is generally based on the basic wage rather than total salary, and it typically scales with completed years of service, with the accrual rate commonly increasing the longer someone stays.
Certain circumstances can reduce or forfeit the entitlement, such as dismissal for serious misconduct, so gratuity is not an unconditional payment simply for having worked somewhere. Employers are expected to accrue for it throughout employment rather than treat it as a bill that only appears at the moment someone resigns.
A newer alternative is emerging alongside it: some employers now offer a workplace savings scheme, such as the DIFC Employee Workplace Savings (DEWS) plan for DIFC employers, where regular contributions are invested on the employee’s behalf instead of relying on an end of service lump sum calculation.
In HarmoniHRM: Payroll accrues end of service gratuity automatically as part of UAE payroll runs, and calculates the final entitlement as part of every leaver’s settlement.
Fixed-term contract (limited contract)
A UAE employment contract, officially called a limited contract, that runs for a defined and renewable term rather than indefinitely, now the only contract type the law allows for new private sector hires.
Historically UAE employers could choose between a limited, fixed-term contract and an unlimited, indefinite one, with different notice and termination consequences attached to each. A reform of the law phased out the unlimited contract entirely, moving every private sector employee onto the fixed-term model and giving termination, notice and end of service calculations a consistent basis to work from, rather than different rules depending on which contract type someone happened to hold.
A fixed-term contract still allows genuine flexibility: it can be renewed at the end of its term, extended, or ended early by either side following the correct notice, so a fixed-term contract describes the structure of the agreement rather than a promise that employment will definitely stop on a given date.
The move to a unified contract type also simplified MOHRE’s own systems, since every mainland contract is now registered against the same standard template, which makes it easier to check that an individual agreement has not quietly stripped out a right the law guarantees.
Free zone employment
Employment by a company licensed within one of the UAE’s many designated free zones, each regulated by its own free zone authority alongside, or in a small number of cases instead of, the federal Labour Law.
Most free zones handle company licensing, visa quotas and work permit processing through their own authority rather than MOHRE directly, even though the underlying employment relationship is still generally governed by the UAE Labour Law. This gives free zone companies a more contained, sometimes faster, administrative path while keeping the same statutory floor on pay, leave and termination.
A small number of free zones are the exception rather than the rule: the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) are independent legal jurisdictions with their own employment law, so a company inside either of them is not simply following a lighter version of the federal rules, it is following an entirely different set of rules.
Because free zone companies are typically restricted to certain business activities and, in some zones, to operating from within the zone itself, the choice between mainland and free zone is usually driven by the underlying business model first, with employment administration following from that decision rather than the other way round.
Golden Visa
A long term UAE residence visa available to categories such as investors, entrepreneurs, specialised professionals and outstanding students, which does not depend on an employer’s sponsorship.
Unlike a standard employment visa, a Golden Visa holder sponsors their own residence and can move between employers, or stop working altogether, without their immigration status collapsing with the job. For employers competing for senior or highly specialised talent, this removes a major personal risk a candidate weighs before relocating.
From an HR perspective, a Golden Visa changes what the company needs to manage: there is no work permit tied to the visa itself for the employer to sponsor or cancel, though the person may still need a separate work permit or licence to actually work, depending on their role and structure.
Hijri calendar
The Islamic lunar calendar used across the UAE, alongside the Gregorian calendar, to set the dates of religious observances and several public holidays.
Because the Hijri calendar is lunar, its year is shorter than the Gregorian solar year, so Hijri dates drift earlier relative to the Gregorian calendar over time rather than falling on a fixed Gregorian date. A holiday tied to the Hijri calendar will land on a different Gregorian date most years.
Several UAE public holidays, along with Ramadan working hours, follow the Hijri calendar and are typically confirmed only once the relevant moon sighting is announced, often close to the date itself. This is a genuine planning constraint for HR and workforce scheduling, because the exact day cannot always be fixed as far in advance as a Gregorian holiday can.
Involuntary Loss of Employment insurance (ILOE)
Involuntary Loss of Employment insurance (ILOE) is the UAE’s unemployment insurance scheme, paying eligible employees a temporary income if they lose their job for reasons beyond their control.
Coverage is compulsory for most private and some public sector employees, with the premium typically collected as a small regular contribution rather than funded entirely by the employer. It pays out for a limited period following an involuntary job loss, such as redundancy or company closure.
The scheme does not cover every kind of exit. Resignation and dismissal for cause are generally excluded, because the insurance is designed to soften the shock of losing a job through no fault of the employee, not to cushion every kind of departure.
For employers, ILOE sits alongside, and separate from, end of service gratuity: gratuity is an employer-funded severance benefit tied to service, while ILOE is an insurance payout funded through contributions and administered independently of the employer.
Labour dispute resolution
The process for resolving employment disagreements in the UAE, which generally starts with MOHRE conciliation before escalating to specialised labour courts if it cannot be settled.
An employee or employer can file a complaint with MOHRE, which typically attempts to mediate a settlement between the parties within a set window. Many disputes, particularly over unpaid wages, notice or end of service gratuity, resolve at this stage without ever reaching a courtroom.
Where conciliation does not resolve the matter, MOHRE refers the case to the labour courts for a binding judgment. Free zones with their own legal systems, such as the DIFC and ADGM, run their own separate dispute processes and courts rather than routing cases through MOHRE and the onshore courts at all.
Because wage related disputes are cross checked against WPS records, a company with clean, consistent WPS filings usually has a much easier time defending its position than one whose payroll records do not match what was actually paid.
Mainland employment
Employment by a company licensed directly by a UAE emirate rather than by a free zone authority, governed by the federal UAE Labour Law and regulated day to day by MOHRE.
A mainland company can generally trade anywhere in the UAE and internationally without the restrictions some free zones place on operating outside their zone, and it hires under the standard MOHRE contract, work permit and WPS processes described throughout this glossary.
For most employees, mainland employment is the default reference point against which free zone employment is compared, precisely because it follows the federal Labour Law without the local variations, exemptions or independent legal systems that some free zones introduce.
Maternity leave
Paid leave for an employee around the birth of a child under the UAE Labour Law, alongside protections against dismissal connected to the pregnancy.
The entitlement covers a defined period around the birth at full or partial pay depending on length of service, and the law also protects the employee from being dismissed during pregnancy or maternity leave, other than for reasons entirely unconnected to it. A doctor’s note is generally needed if leave needs to extend beyond the standard entitlement for pregnancy or birth related complications.
On return to work, the law also provides for nursing breaks for a defined period, recognising that maternity protection does not end the moment leave itself finishes. Many employers layer additional support on top of the statutory minimum, alongside parental leave, as part of their broader family friendly policies.
Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE)
The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) is the UAE federal government body that regulates private sector employment, from work permits and contracts through to Emiratisation quotas and labour disputes.
Almost every piece of mainland UAE employment paperwork passes through MOHRE in some form: registering an employment contract, applying for a work permit, reporting wage payments through the Wage Protection System (WPS), or opening a case when an employment relationship breaks down. Its systems are the practical, day to day face of the UAE Labour Law for most employers.
MOHRE also owns the Emiratisation agenda, setting the private sector quotas companies must meet and the penalties that follow when they do not, and it runs the first stage of most labour disputes through conciliation before a case is escalated to the courts.
Free zone companies typically deal with their own free zone authority for licensing and visas rather than MOHRE directly, except where that authority’s rules incorporate MOHRE processes, and financial free zones such as the DIFC and ADGM sit outside MOHRE’s jurisdiction entirely because they run their own employment law.
Nafis programme
A UAE federal programme that supports Emirati nationals into private sector careers, combining training, job matching and wage support to make Emiratisation a genuine talent pipeline rather than only a quota to satisfy.
For employers, Nafis functions as both a recruitment channel and a cost offset: it helps source qualified Emirati candidates, and it can subsidise part of an eligible employee’s pay and pension contributions, narrowing the gap between the cost of hiring a national employee and a comparable expatriate hire.
It also underwrites part of the wider Emiratisation push, funding training places and short term income support for Emirati jobseekers between roles, so the programme sits at the intersection of workforce policy and welfare rather than being a pure recruitment scheme.
Because eligibility and benefits are tied to registration on the platform, HR teams hiring Emirati nationals typically need to check Nafis status as a routine part of the offer process, alongside the usual contract and visa steps.
Non-compete clause
A contract term restricting a UAE employee from working for a competitor, or starting a competing business, for a period after leaving, provided the restriction is reasonable in scope.
UAE law explicitly allows non-compete clauses, but only within limits: the restriction must be reasonable in its duration, the geographic area it covers and the type of work or business it restricts, and it generally only applies where the employee’s role gave them access to clients or confidential information worth protecting.
A clause that reaches further than necessary, in time, place or scope, risks being narrowed or struck out entirely if challenged, so employers who rely on non-competes as a serious retention or protection tool tend to keep them tightly scoped to the specific risk rather than writing the broadest restriction they can imagine.
Notice period
The period of continued work, or pay instead of it, that a UAE employee or employer must give the other side before ending employment once probation has passed.
The length is agreed in the contract within limits set by law, and it typically applies once the probation period has passed, whichever side is doing the terminating, whether that is a resignation or a dismissal without cause. Either party can generally choose to pay the other in lieu of the notice period rather than working or requiring it to be worked.
Ending employment without proper notice, or without a lawful reason for skipping it such as serious misconduct, can expose the party at fault to a claim for compensation, which is why notice is treated as a contractual obligation to manage carefully rather than a formality to wave through.
Parental leave
Additional paid leave available to UAE parents following the birth of a child, separate from and on top of maternity leave.
Unlike maternity leave, parental leave is generally available to fathers as well as mothers, reflecting a broader shift in the law toward recognising caregiving responsibilities beyond the birth mother alone. It can typically be taken within a defined window following the birth rather than only immediately around it.
Because it sits alongside maternity leave rather than replacing it, employers need to track parental leave and maternity leave as separate entitlements, particularly in a blended family or multiple employer situation where a parent could qualify for support under either type of leave depending on their circumstances.
Probation period
An initial period at the start of UAE employment during which either party can end the contract more easily while they confirm the role is the right fit.
UAE law sets a maximum length for probation and specific, shorter notice period rules for ending employment during it, which differ depending on whether the employee is leaving to join another employer within the country or leaving the UAE altogether. It cannot usually be extended simply by agreement once the maximum has been used.
A dismissal during probation still has to follow the law’s basic requirements around notice and any final payments due, so probation reduces the process an employer must follow, it does not remove the process entirely.
Public holidays
The days each year when UAE employers close for national or religious observance, made up of a mix of fixed Gregorian dated holidays and moveable Hijri dated ones.
Employers can pencil the Gregorian dated national holidays into next year’s calendar with confidence, but the Hijri calendar dated religious holidays stay provisional until much closer to the time, once officially confirmed.
When a public holiday falls on an employee’s weekly rest day, the law generally expects the employer to substitute another day off, or provide pay in lieu, rather than the employee simply losing the benefit. Requiring someone to work on a public holiday typically also comes with a premium rather than standard pay.
Ramadan working hours
A reduction in daily working hours across the UAE private sector during the holy month of Ramadan, applying to every employee regardless of whether they are fasting.
The reduction is set in law rather than left to employer discretion, so it applies uniformly across mainland and, in practice, most free zone employers too. Shift patterns, coverage and scheduling typically need adjusting for the month, since a shorter working day does not mean less work needs to get done.
Because the timing of Ramadan follows the Hijri calendar, the exact dates it falls on move earlier relative to the Gregorian calendar as time passes, so the reduced hours land on different weeks of the working calendar, which is exactly why HR and workforce planning teams need to check the dates afresh rather than assume they repeat.
Residence visa
The immigration permission that allows a foreign national to live in the UAE, most commonly obtained through an employer’s sponsorship and linked to a valid work permit.
For most private sector employees, the residence visa and the work permit are processed together and depend on each other: a permit without a visa leaves someone unable to legally reside, and a visa without a valid permit leaves them unable to legally work. Both are typically valid for a fixed, renewable period and need active management rather than being arranged once and forgotten.
Not every residence visa depends on an employer. Long term categories such as the Golden Visa let certain individuals sponsor their own residence, and family members can be sponsored independently of a job, so HR teams increasingly need to know which category an employee actually holds rather than assuming every visa is employment based.
In HarmoniHRM: Employee Management tracks residence visa and work permit expiries per jurisdiction, so renewals surface before they are due.
Salary Information File (SIF)
The Salary Information File (SIF) is the structured data file employers submit to their bank or exchange house to pay wages through the Wage Protection System.
The file lists each employee, their wage components and the amount due for the period, in the fixed format the banking system and MOHRE expect. It is generated from the payroll run rather than typed by hand, because even a small error or missing record can cause the whole submission to fail validation.
Because the SIF is what the government actually checks, it is the point where payroll errors become visible outside the company. A wage dispute, an incorrect leaver date or an unrecorded salary change will usually surface here before anywhere else.
Sick leave
Paid time off for illness or injury under the UAE Labour Law, structured in tiers so that pay steps down the longer a period of sickness continues.
An employee typically needs to complete a probation period before statutory sick leave becomes available, and once it does, the law generally provides an initial stretch at full pay, a further stretch at reduced pay, and then a stretch without pay if the absence continues beyond that. A medical certificate from a recognised source is normally required to support the absence.
Because pay steps down in stages rather than stopping abruptly, both the employer and the employee have a shared interest in tracking exactly how much of each tier has been used, particularly for a longer term illness that spans several of the pay tiers.
UAE Labour Law
The federal law that sets the baseline rules for private sector employment across the United Arab Emirates, covering contracts, working hours, leave, discipline, termination and end of service pay.
The law applies to mainland companies and to the great majority of free zones, and it is enforced by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE). It sets minimum standards employers cannot contract below: an employment contract can improve on what the law offers an employee, but it cannot take away from it, and any clause that tries to is generally unenforceable regardless of what the parties signed.
A wide reform modernised much of the law in recent years, most visibly the move to a unified fixed-term contract model and clearer rules on remote and flexible working, part time work and secondment between employers. The reform also tightened the rules around notice, probation and non-compete clauses, and introduced the unemployment insurance scheme that now sits alongside end of service gratuity as a safety net for people who lose their job.
Notable exceptions sit outside the federal law altogether: the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) are financial free zones with their own independent employment regulations, so a company operating inside either is not governed by the UAE Labour Law in the same way a mainland company is.
Wage Protection System (WPS)
The Wage Protection System (WPS) is the UAE’s electronic salary transfer system, through which private sector employers must pay wages so the government can verify that people are paid correctly and on time.
Employers pay salaries through an approved bank, exchange house or financial institution, which submits a Salary Information File (SIF) confirming who was paid, how much and when. The system flags late, partial or missing payments automatically, without anyone needing to complain.
The consequences of falling behind are more than reputational. Persistent WPS non-compliance can lead to a suspension on registering new work permits and other MOHRE services, which quietly stalls hiring and visa renewals until the company puts things right.
Because the file has to reconcile exactly with what payroll actually calculated, WPS turns payroll accuracy into a hiring and compliance issue, not just a finance one.
In HarmoniHRM: Payroll prepares WPS files automatically for UAE pay runs, ready to submit through the employer’s bank.
Work permit (labour card)
The authorisation, sometimes still called a labour card from its earlier paper form, that a UAE employer must obtain from MOHRE before a foreign national can legally work for it.
A work permit is tied to a specific employer and a specific role, so a person changing jobs needs a new permit even if their residence visa is still valid, and an employer must hold the right quota and approvals before it can apply on an employee’s behalf.
Employing someone without a valid permit, or beyond what a company’s approvals allow, exposes the employer to fines and can jeopardise its standing with MOHRE more broadly, which is why work permit status is tracked as carefully as the residence visa it usually sits alongside.
In HarmoniHRM: Employee Management tracks work permit and visa expiries by jurisdiction, surfacing renewals before they lapse.
Working hours
The standard daily and weekly hours a UAE employee may be required to work under the Labour Law, along with the rest breaks and weekly rest day that go with them.
The law sets a maximum ordinary working week, with any additional hours generally treated as overtime attracting extra pay, and it requires a rest break during longer working days along with a rest day each week. Certain sectors and roles, such as those involving continuous shift operations, work under adapted arrangements recognised by the law.
The UAE’s standard working week itself has shifted over time, moving the private sector weekend toward a structure that overlaps more closely with international markets, with Friday commonly treated as a shorter working day for many organisations. Employers set their own working week within the law’s limits, so the exact pattern still varies by company and sector.
Working hours are also where Ramadan working hours cut across the normal rules: during the holy month, daily hours are reduced across the private sector regardless of an individual employee’s religion, which is a rare example of a UAE employment rule that applies uniformly to everyone rather than varying by nationality or role.
Workplace savings scheme
A funded, retirement-style savings plan into which a UAE employer pays regular contributions on an employee’s behalf, offered as an alternative to the traditional end of service gratuity lump sum.
Rather than promising a lump sum calculated only when someone leaves, a workplace savings scheme invests contributions throughout employment into an account the employee can usually track and, depending on the scheme, help direct. The DIFC Employee Workplace Savings (DEWS) plan was the first mandatory example of this model in the region, and the ADGM later introduced a similar scheme of its own for employers registered there.
The approach has since spread beyond the financial free zones that pioneered it. Optional funded savings alternatives to gratuity have been introduced more widely across the private sector, giving employers a genuine choice between the traditional accrual model and a funded scheme, rather than gratuity being the only option on the table.
For an employee, the practical difference is real: a funded scheme is generally considered a safer promise than an unfunded gratuity liability sitting on an employer’s books, because the money already exists in an account rather than being owed contingently at the point someone resigns.