Dirty Dinar

I’ve been reading a lot of personal finance blogs and saw that many people mention their salary in terms of annual earnings. For example, “I make 40K+”. I’ve never heard that said here in Kuwait.

Companies pay a weekly or monthly salary. I haven’t come across any employer that pays an hourly rate. Employers pay a base fee and sometimes you’re entitled to government allowance or various company allowances (housing, relationship, car, etc.). Not all companies have a bonus scheme and I have never heard of anyone getting a signing bonus. When people ask how much you make they mean per month instead of your annual earnings.

I was curious how I ranked compared to the salaries in the United States so I tried to work out how much I make in US dollars. To calculate my earnings I took today’s currency rate of 1 KWD = 3.663004 USD.

My monthly salary of KWD 923.117 over twelve months comes to KWD 11,076. When I converted that amount to dollars I found out that I make $40,575.

However, I get a government supplement (KWD 240) in addition to my salary each month which bumps my total up to KWD 13,956 annually.

That pushes my total earnings to $51,126. The difference is $10,550! That’s not a bad chunk of change.

Kuwait doesn’t tax individuals (yet!) and the company I work at does not pay out bonuses so that $51,126 is the full amount I get to take home.

Now some problems with my example is that I don’t get taxed and I live under my parent’s roof. That skews my comparison to those living in the United States. I have more disposable income. That’s a good thing but doesn’t make for a tidy comparison.

Of course it doesn’t help my case that I’ve continuously lived beyond my means. I have no idea if I’m making what I should be making in my job position with my experience. I will have to continue my research into that.