In offshore and energy assignments, few concepts cause more confusion than NET vs. Gross salary — especially when the role involves a foreign expert working in Israel on a B-1 visa and a rotation schedule. What starts as a simple request for a “NET daily rate” often unravels once Israeli visa requirements, labour law, and monthly salary thresholds come into play. This case study walks through a real offshore hiring scenario to show why NET and Gross are not interchangeable — and why context is everything when structuring compliant offshore assignments in Israel.
Every few months, we receive a request that looks simple on the surface — and anything but once you look under the hood. This one started with a single line in an email from a British staffing agency:
“Please provide a quotation based on a NET daily rate of USD 1,476.”
No job description yet.
No country context.
Just a number, and one very loaded word: NET.
This is a real example of why net vs gross salary is one of the most misunderstood concepts in global employment.
The Role (Once the Details Emerged)
As the conversation unfolded, the picture became clearer.
The role was for:
- A foreign expert
- Working on an offshore drilling rig
- Entering Israel on a B-1 work visa
- Employed on a rotation schedule (28 days on / 28 days off, or similar)
The commercial logic, from the agency’s perspective, was straightforward:
Daily rate × days worked = cost.
But immigration, payroll, and labour law don’t work that way.
What is the difference between NET vs. Gross salary in offshore assignments?
Here’s where the net vs gross salary question immediately changed shape.
For B-1 visas, the Israeli authorities do not assess income on a daily basis.
They assess it monthly, averaged across the entire duration of the visa.
In other words:
- It doesn’t matter that the expert works only half the year
- It doesn’t matter that the rate is “daily”
- What matters is the average gross monthly salary across 12 months
And that monthly salary must meet a clear threshold:
At least 2× the average wage in Israel, every month
In today’s terms, that means ~27,000+ NIS gross per month, averaged across the year.
Suddenly, the daily NET rate wasn’t the starting point anymore — it was the end of a long calculation.
How is salary calculated for rotation schedules under a B-1 visa?
On paper, a 28/28 rotation sounds clean:
- 28 days working
- 28 days resting
- Balanced, predictable
But from a compliance perspective, it creates friction.
If the expert only works roughly six months per year, the salary still has to be:
- Spread evenly across 12 months
- High enough every month to meet visa requirements
That means the working months must effectively subsidise the non-working months.
The daily rate now had to:
- Cover the actual worked days
- Average out to the required monthly gross salary
- Hold up under visa scrutiny
This is where net vs gross salary stops being academic and becomes structural.
Do Israeli work and rest laws apply to offshore and expat workers?
Then came the next piece of the puzzle: work and rest laws.
Even for offshore and expat roles, Israeli labour law still applies.
That means payroll calculations are anchored to:
- A 22-day working month
- Defined daily and weekly hour limits
- Overtime thresholds and penalty rates
A flat daily rate doesn’t magically bypass this.
To be compliant, the daily rate had to be translated into:
- A monthly gross salary
- With assumed working hours
- With overtime properly accounted for
Once again, NET without context wasn’t just unclear — it was unusable.
The Moment of Realisation
At this point, we paused the pricing discussion and went back to the agency with a simple question:
“When you say NET, what exactly do you mean?”
Because at this stage, NET could have meant any of the following:
- Net salary paid into the expert’s bank account
- Net employment cost, excluding agency fees
- Net salary before employer costs and benefits
Each interpretation produced a completely different outcome:
- Different gross salary
- Different employer cost
- Different visa viability
Same role. Same person. Same daily rate.
Three very different realities.
Reframing the Conversation
Instead of debating numbers, we reframed the discussion around structure:
- What does the visa require, monthly and annually?
- What does labour law require, in terms of hours and rest?
- What does the agency need, commercially?
- And what does the expert expect, in take-home pay?
Only once those pieces were aligned did net vs gross salary start to make sense.
The daily rate stopped being the anchor.
Compliance became the anchor.
The Takeaway: NET Is Not a Starting Point
This case is not unusual. We see versions of it regularly — especially in energy, drilling, and engineering roles.
The lesson is simple:
In expat and rotational employment, net vs gross salary only works when it’s anchored to context.
A NET daily rate:
- Does not reflect visa requirements
- Does not reflect labour law
- Does not reflect employer risk
It’s a shorthand — and shorthand is dangerous in cross-border employment.
Frequently Asked Questions
NET salary refers to an amount after deductions, while Gross salary is the contractual salary before tax and social charges. In offshore assignments, the difference is critical because Israeli visa and labour authorities assess salary on a gross monthly basis, not on daily NET rates.
Offshore roles often use daily rates and rotation schedules, but Israel calculates compliance, taxation, and visa eligibility based on monthly gross salary averaged across the entire year, regardless of time actually worked.
No. The Israeli Ministry of Interior does not assess NET daily rates. For B-1 foreign expert visas, salary must meet the minimum gross monthly threshold (2× the average wage in Israel) averaged across all 12 months.
Even with rotations such as 28/28 or 26/26, Israeli authorities require the salary to be annualised and averaged monthly. Working fewer months does not reduce the required monthly gross salary.
The minimum requirement is 2× the average wage in Israel, which in 2026 equates to approximately 27,000+ NIS gross per month, averaged across the full visa duration.
Yes. Israeli work and rest laws apply regardless of offshore location, expat status, or daily rate structures. Payroll calculations must account for working hours, rest days, overtime, and penalty rates.
Because “NET” can mean:
- Net salary paid to the employee
- Net employer cost excluding agency fees
- Salary before employer costs and benefits
Each interpretation produces a different gross salary, visa outcome, and compliance risk.
No. A NET daily rate is a commercial reference only. A compliant structure must start with visa requirements, labour law, and monthly gross salary, then work backwards to a daily or billable rate.
Always clarify:
- NET of what (take-home, employer cost, or pre-cost salary)
- Averaged over how many months
- Assessed under which visa and labour laws
Without this, pricing and compliance assumptions are unreliable.
