Paul Wilson your explanation of why people working under a contractor get paid more is correct based on your knowledge and experience of your field of work where you work in the supply of TEMPORARY staff. The situation where I am at is anything but temporary. As I mentioned in a reply above that has been going on for the past 4+ decades. Non locals that are working here with their high contract salaries have been here for 10 plus years, some of them even lasted 15 years. When those guys are brought here they do not stay here for the length of a tourist vacation and then just leave. Hell even some local bahrainis they don't stay that long in this job. There were some of them that got frustrated with the situation and left to work in ATC in other countries and others left the aviation field for something else. If this is a temporary situation so what's the time frame for this? How long will this last? Something that has been around for too long does not look to end soon.