When it comes to attracting and retaining skilled workers, the city of Dubai has a considerable advantage over its peers in Europe, Asia and the Americas. It’s called Tax, or the absence of it. A quick snapshot of take-home salaries of high-earners reveals that a Dubai worker earning an equivalent of 2 million sterling pounds a year gets to take home all 100 per cent of their earnings while their counterparts in New York, London, Dublin, Paris or Rome get only about half of that amount in their pockets.

The remaining amount, depending on the jurisdiction, goes away in tax and social security obligations, according to data calculated by PwC UK, the UK arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, for Bloomberg News. The firm generated data for an individual professional (married but with no children) who pays social security in the country where s/he is a tax resident.

Dubai is a much more affordable city to live in compared with the others listed above. In terms of disposable income and the ability to save for the future, a professional will be much better off living in the UAE’s commercial capital than they would be anywhere else in the world.

Numbeo’s Cost of Living Index ranked Dubai as the world’s 284^th most expensive city in the mid-year 2021 index among the 563 cities it ranked. In comparison, New York stood at No. 15, Tel-Aviv at No. 21, followed by Paris (No. 25), London (No. 29), Dublin (No. 52) and Rome (No. 111).

Dubai’s no-income-tax regime coupled with a world-class quality of life has been a talent magnet for global professionals over the past decades. Numbeo’s mid-year 2021 Quality of Life Index ranked Dubai at No. 86 out of the 241 cities it analysed. New York, by comparison, is ranked at No. 129, Dublin at No. 139, London at No. 149, Paris at No. 165, and Rome at No. 193.

Dubai now offers long-term Golden and Silver Residency Visas to foreign professionals, businessmen and students. Such long-term visas are offered as part of the UAE’s ongoing efforts to support the country’s move towards a globally competitive knowledge economy. One of the most densely migrant-populated countries in the world, about 90 per cent of the UAE’s approximately 10-million population is foreign-born. Offering long-term visas is part of the country’s strategy to retain the cream of this transient talent.

Earlier this year, Dubai announced the introduction of a residence permit for people hired in another country to come to the UAE and work for their employer remotely from here. The UAE’s Remote Work Visa allows foreigners to live and work in the UAE under self-sponsorship.