The benefits of applying labour fees differentially across industry sectors or expat skill-levels are far outweighed by the costs of administering and enforcing such a segmented system. The current Bahrainisation regime, for instance, has differential targets not only by industry sector, but in effect by company. The result has been a system that is non-transparent, highly discretionary, hard to understand for the average employer, and open to inappropriate influence. It has also bred a significant amount of black market activity in the form of companies claiming to operate in one sector but using expat labour in another sector. We could expect similar problems if labour fees varied from sector to sector. In addition, if labour fees were lower for medium and high skill expatriates, we could expect expats entering the country on the pretense of being medium or high skilled in order to pay lower fees, but actually work in low wage jobs.

A system that treats everyone equally and has very little room for discretion is most likely to be enforced and will be least costly to administer. The policy package has been designed accordingly. To avoid as much black market activity as possible and to ensure that equal treatment prevails, the policy package does not make any differentiation between industry segments or expat skill levels. The effect of the proposed reforms has been analysed for each industry and have been deemed manageable. Furthermore, the effect of the reforms on medium and high skill expats will diminish as wages increase since the fees are absolute amounts rather than a percentage of wages. Employers seeking high skill expats will, therefore, see their costs rise by only a marginal amount and therefore will not be discouraged from bringing international talent to Bahrain.

Finally, law-abiding employers will benefit from this approach since they will no have to compete with those companies who abuse the system and therefore benefit from lower costs. This system will ensure a level-playing field for all.