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All Businesses in Saudi Arabia Now Obliged to Employ Saudi Nationals

Client Alert | 1 min read | 03.12.13

The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Labor's Nitaqat program obliges businesses in Saudi Arabia to ensure that a certain percentage of their workforce is comprised of Saudi nationals (the Saudization Obligation) and ranks businesses on the basis of the businesses' compliance with the Saudization Obligation.

Under the Nitaqat program, the specific percentage (or range of percentages) of a business’s workforce that must be comprised of Saudi nationals is determined by reference to (a) the business activity that the business undertakes and (b) the total size of the business’s workforce. Since the implementation of the Nitaqat program in 2011, businesses with fewer than 10 employees have been exempt from the application of the Nitaqat program, so that businesses with fewer than 10 employees could in principle have no Saudi employees at all. However, this exemption will expire as of 30 March 2013, at which time every business in Saudi Arabia regardless of its area of business or number of employees, will become subject to the Nitaqat program and will be required to employ at least one Saudi national.

Depending on the extent of a business's compliance with its Saudization Obligation, the Ministry of Labor will rank a business as red (non-compliant), yellow (poor compliance), green (compliant), or premium (more than compliant). Businesses that are classified as red or yellow are subject to penalties, while businesses that are classified as green or premium are awarded incentives.

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Client Alert | 3 min read | 06.12.26

DOJ Guidance Backs Away From Disparate Impact Liability

On June 9, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a formal opinion concluding that the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission’s (EEOC) existing interpretations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) disparate-impact liability, including the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP), are unconstitutional. According to the opinion, EEOC’s prior interpretations contemplate liability based on disproportionately adverse effects alone, without regard to an employer’s likely intent, rather than treating disparate impact as an evidentiary mechanism to “smoke out” intentional discrimination. DOJ found that this approach functions as a “qualified racial-proportionality mandate” that places “a racial thumb on the scales, often requiring employers to evaluate the racial outcomes of their policies, and to make decisions based on (because of) those racial outcomes.” The opinion fulfills one mandate of Executive Order 14281, which rejected disparate-impact liability insofar as it “creates a near insurmountable presumption that unlawful discrimination exists wherever there are any differences in outcomes among different [demographic groups].”...

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