From Coins to Clicks: Saudi Arabia’s Payroll Shift

For much of the 20th century, salaries in Saudi Arabia were a tangible affair—literally. Workers at Aramco, the oil giant that reshaped the kingdom’s economy, were once paid in sacks of silver riyals. Before digital transactions and automated payrolls, wages were counted by hand, a process now documented in the Aramco Community Heritage Exhibition.

Archival photographs from the 1930s and 1940s reveal an era when financial institutions were scarce, corporate employment was a novelty, and the economy functioned largely on cash. Paying salaries was not just a logistical challenge but a reflection of a society in transition, where economic modernization had yet to take root.

Beyond Aramco: How Salaries Were Paid in Saudi Arabia and the Region

Aramco, with its American expertise and capital, was pioneering for its time. Yet across Saudi Arabia, trade, construction, and government sectors also relied on cash transactions. Many workers were paid daily or weekly in silver or paper riyals. In smaller towns where currency was less accessible, wages could take the form of store credit or essential goods.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, salary payments followed a similar trajectory. In the early years of Kuwait’s oil industry, workers were often paid in Indian rupees or British gold sovereigns before the introduction of the Kuwaiti dinar in 1961. In the UAE, before the dirham’s adoption in 1973, many wages were distributed in Gulf rupees or in cash bundles of Saudi riyals. Bahrain, home to the region’s first modern banking sector, saw a quicker shift to formal payroll systems, aided by the establishment of the Bahrain Monetary Agency (now the Central Bank of Bahrain) in 1973.

Across the wider Middle East, the cash-based economy persisted well into the late 20th century. In Egypt, salaries were often distributed in cash-filled envelopes, with government employees queueing at state banks on payday. In Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, salary payments were tightly controlled by the state, often delayed due to economic crises or war.

Financial modernization in Saudi Arabia gathered pace in 1952 with the creation of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), the precursor to today’s central bank. The formalization of payroll systems followed, aided by institutions such as the National Commercial Bank (NCB), which helped transition wage payments into the banking sector. By the 1990s, the Saudi Payments Network (SPAN) linked ATMs and electronic terminals, heralding the shift to bank transfers. Today, cashless payments dominate, with salaries disbursed at the tap of a screen.

A Global Phenomenon

Saudi Arabia’s payroll transformation mirrors trends seen elsewhere. In the 19th century, miners in America’s company towns were paid in proprietary tokens, redeemable only at employer-run stores. In Edo-era Japan, some workers were compensated in rice. The Soviet Union, ever wary of private wealth, distributed wages via ration cards. The pattern is familiar: as financial systems mature, salaries follow suit, moving from physical payments to digital transactions.

More Than Nostalgia

The photographs from Aramco’s exhibition do more than evoke nostalgia. They illustrate a fundamental shift in Saudi Arabia’s economic landscape—from a fragmented, cash-based system to an integrated financial infrastructure. The kingdom’s rapid modernization has made such transitions seem inevitable. Yet these images serve as a reminder: financial evolution is not just about technology, but about the institutions and policies that make progress possible.

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