Marketing Saudization: 60% Rate, Covered Roles and SAR 5,500 Salary Rule

What is the Saudization rate for marketing and sales jobs?

Marketing Saudization is a 60% localization requirement for 10 marketing, advertising and public relations professions in the private sector. It applies to establishments with three or more workers in those roles and took effect on 19 April 2026.

MHRSD issued the decision on 19 January 2026 (30/07/1447 AH) as Ministerial Decision No. 101319, with a three-month grace period. It was announced together with a parallel decision for sales professions, also at 60%. The two have different coverage and one key difference: marketing has a SAR 5,500 salary floor, and sales does not.

Sales professions carry the same 60% rate across eight occupations, with no minimum salary named in MHRSD's announcement. See the sales Saudization page for the list.

Which professions does it cover?

MHRSD's procedural guide lists 10 occupations with their codes in the Saudi classification of occupations. Coverage follows the registered occupation code.

Creative roles are included, not just managers. In-house designers and photographers count, as do agency-side staff employed by a private establishment in Saudi Arabia. Public relations titles can also appear in press coverage of the administrative support decision, so confirm which decision applies to the code registered for each person. See our job title mapping guide.

Which employers must comply?

The rule applies to private-sector establishments with three or more workers in the 10 targeted professions. The trigger is the headcount in covered roles, not total staff. A company with 200 employees and two marketers is outside the rule. A company with three designers and a photographer is inside it.

The guide says the rule applies across the market regardless of where in Saudi Arabia the establishment is located.

How do you calculate the 60% requirement?

Saudis required = workers in the 10 covered professions x 60%, rounded to the nearest whole number. Only Saudis registered at SAR 5,500 or more a month count toward the rate. A Saudi earning less is not counted, but the person still counts in the total headcount.

MHRSD's guide gives this example: an establishment has 16 marketing employees and 3 are Saudi. Required: (16 x 60%) minus 3 = 6.6, which rounds to 7 additional Saudi employees. The guide's rounding rule is that values of 0.5 and above round up and values below 0.5 round down. The table applies the same method to other team sizes.

These are totals after hiring, not hires to add. The table shows the Saudi share of the whole covered team. If you keep your existing non-Saudi staff and hire Saudis on top, the team grows and so does the requirement. For example, a team of 5 non-Saudis needs 7 Saudi hires to reach 60% if nobody leaves (7 of 12), not 3. Plan replacements and additions separately.

Treat the salary floor carefully. If you have 10 marketing staff and 6 Saudis but two earn SAR 5,000, only four count, and you are two short. Our guide to salary thresholds explains the separate Nitaqat pay rules.

How does this rule relate to Nitaqat?

They are separate tests and an employer must pass both. Nitaqat places the entire establishment in a band based on its overall Saudi share. The marketing rule looks only at the 10 covered occupations and requires 60% of them to be Saudi at the SAR 5,500 floor.

The two salary regimes differ. Nitaqat counts a Saudi earning SAR 4,000 or more as one, SAR 3,000 to 3,999 as half, and below SAR 3,000 as zero. For the marketing rule, a Saudi must reach SAR 5,500. A Saudi marketer earning SAR 5,000 counts fully for Nitaqat but not for this rule. MHRSD's marketing guide itself states that the rule applies regardless of the establishment's Nitaqat band. See Saudization vs Nitaqat. The Saudization certificate page explains what the certificate is and who gets one, and the Nitaqat overview covers the bands.

Key dates

See every upcoming effective date in the Saudization calendar.

What happens if an establishment does not comply?

MHRSD's guide refers to the penalties set under Ministerial Decision No. 75913 dated 19/05/1445 AH and Ministerial Decision No. 44558 dated 03/04/1446 AH. The announcement does not publish fine amounts. Our guide to Saudization penalties and inspections explains how enforcement works.

What should employers do now?

1. List everyone registered under the ten codes, including agency, design and PR staff, across all branches.
2. Check each Saudi's registered salary against SAR 5,500.
3. Calculate the gap using the formula and table above.
4. Plan the hires or pay changes needed, and by when.
5. Check titles against actual duties. Correct genuine errors; do not reclassify roles to avoid the rule.
6. Use available support. MHRSD lists recruitment support, training, employment support, job stability programs and priority access to Hadaf (HRDF) programs. See Saudization support programs.
7. Keep contracts on Qiwa so records match what you report.

Use the 90-day readiness checklist to schedule the work.

What does it mean for Saudi professionals?

Employers now need Saudi marketing managers, specialists, designers, PR professionals and photographers, and the pay floor means roles at SAR 5,500 or more are the ones that count. Digital marketing, brand, content and PR skills are in demand, and recognized credentials such as Google and Meta certificates help candidates stand out. Our marketing careers guide sets out roles and pathways. The rule increases demand but does not guarantee any individual a role.

What does it mean for expat marketing professionals?

The rule does not ban non-Saudis from marketing. It caps their share of the covered roles at what remains after the 60% Saudi share, for example up to four of ten. Establishments with fewer than three covered workers are outside it, as are roles registered under other codes. Our expat guide explains how to check whether a profession is affected.

What support is available?

MHRSD's announcement lists recruitment support, training and upskilling, employment assistance, job stability programs, and priority access to Saudization support programs provided by the Human Resources Development Fund (Hadaf). See Hadaf wage support and the rates database for how marketing compares with other rules.