Enrolling a worker in social security
Enrolment of a worker in social security, in the private sector and in the other cases the Law attaches to it, is an administrative path distinct from the retirement of a State employee. The source is the Workers' Retirement and Social Security Law No. 18 of 2023, published in Official Gazette issue 4734 of 28 August 2023. The body that applies it is the Department of Pension and Social Security for Workers at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, not the National Retirement Authority (هيأة التقاعد الوطنية).
The Law Office of Ali Barakat, from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, follows questions of coverage, contributions, the employer's duties and an objection to a decision of the Department. The detail is on the employer's duties, the file for a first hire after a company is formed, and objecting to a decision of the Department. What follows is a reading of the coverage and contribution rules from the official texts in the Iraqi Legislation Database.
To whom does the Law apply?
Article 3 extends the Law to workers in the mixed, private and cooperative sectors, to persons working on their own account, to those covered by the Labour Law, and to persons engaged in State departments and the public sector who have not been confirmed on the permanent complement. The retirement-security branch also applies to Iraqi workers abroad, at their election, without prejudice to labour conventions that organise cases of double coverage. The social-security branches also apply to persons working on their own account and to employers; to persons in informal work; to members of the employer's family who work in the employer's projects (the spouse, the children, and the employer's ascendants and descendants); and to Iraqis working for diplomatic missions, organisations and companies operating in Iraq.
Article 1 treats as an insured person anyone who is working, or who used to work, in a group or sole work venture, or in unorganised work, and who pays the social-security contribution. That definition is read together with the definition of a worker in Labour Law No. 37 of 2015, and it is not extended to a State employee confirmed on the permanent complement, to whom the Unified Retirement Law applies.
The Department's seat is in Baghdad, and it may establish sections in the centre of each governorate not organised in a region, under article 4. It is financed from the Workers' Retirement and Social Security Fund. Internal Regulation No. 3 of 2026 organises the Department's internal work; the duties of the employer and of the worker are read first from the Law itself.
The branches of security, and the wage base
Article 12 lists the branches: retirement and death security; work-injury, sickness and occupational-disease security; unemployment-assistance security; optional retirement security and security for persons in informal work; and health insurance, social services and benefits for the working woman (maternity insurance).
Contributions, under article 15, are calculated as a proportion of the wage and allowances. The wage taken as the base may not fall below the occupational minimum for the insured person or the general minimum, taking the higher of the two, and may not rise above five multiples of that minimum. For someone who joins the employer's service for the first time, the contribution is worked out on the entire monthly wage actually paid, by reference to the pay and allowances received.
The contribution rates in article 14
Article 14 distributes the resources among the branches. Five per cent is taken from the insured person's combined pay and allowances, and is assigned to the retirement-security branch. The employer's share for insured workers is, as a general rule, twelve per cent of that same combined pay, split in the text as follows: eight per cent to the retirement-security branch; one per cent to cover work injury, sickness and occupational disease, and stoppage caused by exceptional circumstances; one per cent to unemployment assistance; and two per cent to health insurance, social services and benefits for the working woman.
For employers in the private and mixed sectors whose commercial work yields profits from the sale of oil and other hydrocarbon materials produced in Iraq and exported from it, or from the sale of rights and interests relating to them, the same article fixes a higher rate of twenty-five per cent, distributed among the branches in the proportions the text sets out. The State contributes eight per cent of the wages and allowances the worker receives, subject to the exceptions in the same paragraph, including that the employer bears the State's contribution for a foreign worker in Iraq in addition to the employer's own contribution. That rule is read from article 14 in the file, and it is not reduced to a single rate for every case.
What is required of the employer in outline?
The employer must cover the workers to whom the Law applies and pay the contributions; must file, early in each year, an annual statement of the project, the workers, the pay and the contributions, under article 23; and must see that those particulars correspond to the employer's records required by the Labour Law, under article 22. Contributions fall due in the month that follows, and what the employer and the workers owe is paid within 30 days of that following month, under articles 16 and 17. The detail, including the late-payment fine, a clearance certificate and a work injury, is on the page about the employer's duties.
The Department issues a document called a "security document" (وثيقة ضمان) confirming the insured person's enrolment, under article 26. Its form, its particulars and the manner of its use are organised by instructions issued by the Minister.
What is distinct from this security
This security is not official discipline of a State employee, and it is not a retirement file before the National Retirement Authority under the Unified Retirement Law No. 9 of 2014. A work permit for a person who is not Iraqi is a separate path before the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, described on a work permit for a non-Iraqi.
The office follows these questions from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, with no branch in another governorate.
Legal basis and sources
- Workers' Retirement and Social Security Law No. 18 of 2023 (Official Gazette No. 4734 of 28/8/2023)
- Internal Regulation No. 3 of 2026 (Official Gazette No. 4860 of 23/2/2026)
- Labour Law No. 37 of 2015
Frequently asked questions
Is workers' social security the same as the retirement of a State employee?
No. Workers' social security is a path before the Department of Pension and Social Security for Workers under Law No. 18 of 2023. The retirement of a public employee is a different path before the National Retirement Authority under the Unified Retirement Law.
To which body is a social-security file presented?
To the Department of Pension and Social Security for Workers at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. Its seat is in Baghdad, and it may open sections in the centres of the governorates not organised in a region, under article 4.
Is the contribution rate the same for every employer?
In principle, article 14 deducts five per cent from the insured person's wage and charges the employer twelve per cent, with a State contribution. For cases connected with the sale of oil and hydrocarbon materials, the same article fixes a higher rate. The type of activity is read from the file.
Topics in this area
- 01The employer's duties in workers' social securityEmployer duties under Law No. 18 of 2023: yearly particulars, payment time limits, clearance, contractors and work injury.
- 02Opening a social-security file at the first hire after a company is formedFirst-hire social-security file after a company is formed: coverage, wage base, particulars and the security document.
- 03Objecting to decisions of the workers' social-security departmentObjecting to a Director General decision before the Fund board (art. 7), and a medical objection within thirty days under article 87.
- 04The reach of Law No. 18 of 2023: which groups fall under Iraq's workers' social securityThe reach of Workers' Pension and Social Security Law No. 18 of 2023: private, mixed and cooperative sector workers, trainees and probationers, the self-employed and employers, informal work, family members in the business, Iraqis at embassies and organisations, Iraqis abroad, and foreign workers.
- 05Social security clearance when closing a business or liquidating a foreign branchWhy closing, selling or liquidating a business or a foreign company branch in Iraq depends on a clearance certificate from the Workers' Pension and Social Security Department under article 20 of Law No. 18 of 2023, what must be paid first, and what applies to foreign workers leaving.
- 06When does an insured worker become entitled to a pension under Law No. 18 of 2023?The six combinations of age and insured service that open the way to a pension for a worker in the private, mixed or cooperative sector, how the pension is calculated, which periods do not count, and the alternatives when the conditions are not met.