Low cost of living, high salary and no income tax.
My sister works as an attorney for a global law firm in Dubai, and the attitude that westerners have there is like they're exploiting a rainforest for its goods. You move there for 4 or 5 years, rack up a huge sum and head back to your country of origin with a huge chunk of change.
Although I imagine for Americans this will be more difficult now with FACTA laws.
Yeah. My cousin works in Qatar and while his salary is around $50,000, he lives in a 4-bedroom condo on the top floor that overlooks the ocean and his company pays for it.
It really depends. I have always lived on the cheap side, but others go out to expensive bars (almost all in 5-stat hotels) and waste incredibly dumb amounts of money on everything.
Granted, I can drive a SUV at 1.00QR per litre. at 90 octane gasoline, that is basically 20-30 US cents a litre. However, inflation is a dirty word. Last inflation bump came because gov't sector pentions for Qatari citizens were close to doubled, and almost all grocer products increased by at least 1QR (0.20-0.30 USD) overnight. Many went up a lot more. And people were upset, but that is top-down economics.
Don't really think that guy was getting a 50K package.
The salary I can imagine for an American engineer working in Abu Dhabi would be a minimum of 100,000 - 180,000+ USD , and it is tax free (usually comes with additional benefits).
Abu Dhabi is a rich city (they got oil) and they usually pay more than Dubai.
Source: I live here, and run a startup and work with multiple companies and consultants.
Although I imagine for Americans this will be more difficult now with FACTA laws.