Average salaries in Singapore

[emmawatson8855]

Does the Expected package usually include Provident fund or is it usually a flat salary?

[Jennyfer]

Is anyone knows what's the average salary to get a maid for an office and do we need to apply working permit for her? Was looking for one who can be in the office from 9am to 6pm daily to help upkeeping the general cleanliness and maybe some plants maintenance.

[mikew]

Does anyone know what an experienced and very hard working Australian primary school teacher could earn in Singapore?

[MarkTaylorCa]

I was invited to Singapore last year to take the post of Marketing Director for a company 500+ employees. I was offered $7000 per month which wasn't very high, so I refused. I expected at least $13000 as that was an average salary for this position.

[PerrytheImp]

Does anyone know what an experienced and very hard working Australian primary school teacher could earn in Singapore?

I found a primary school teach with 5 years experience could earn between $41 and $59k in Singapore using a salary estimator I found on https://futurework.sg/salary-offer-good-enough/ Hope that help!

[mikew]

Wow ok, so SG salaries aren't what they used to be!

[duluoz1]

Wow ok, so SG salaries aren't what they used to be!

No, that quote above is woefully low. International School teachers get way more than that, and the ones I know get accommodation allowance thrown in as well.

[cutehobbes]

I have the same question as one of the user above

The salary surveys of 2 or 3 recruitment firms state that these are base salaries and do not include superannuation which is cpf

Does that mean the actual salary is the base salary plus 17% contributed by employer?

And your take home would be base salary minus 20% cpf deduction minus tax?

Is that accurate?

[sundaymorningstaple]

Base Salary is always without the CPF deduction. However, unless you are a Permanent Resident or a Sg Citizen, you have no CPF deductions at all as you cannot contribute to CPF. Work pass holders (EP, S, WP, LoC, etc) do not contribute to the CPF fund.

If you are PR or SGC you should already know about the CPF and need not ask that question.

[cutehobbes]

So basically if base salary is say 5000 as per the recruitment survey and you are a PR then you get 5000 plus 17%. And from that 5000 you need to deduct 20% as cpf deduction.

And if you are on EP or whatever the other passes are and you are on 5000. Then you get 5000.

[sundaymorningstaple]

No, your basic salary is $5000. You would get $4000 in your pay packet at the end of the month. (less your 20% contribution). The 17% contributed by the employer is an employers employment cost, and is not considered part or parcel of your salary. (Unless you are an American Citizen and are also required by the IRS to file a US 1040. Then you have to report that 17% as additional income and it is not subject to be excluded on the Income Earned Abroad Abroad Exclusion.) But for other than US Citizens. the 17% has nothing to do with your base salary or any survey. Full Stop.

If you do not have any deduction for housing furnished, group medical insurance, etc., then yes. You salary received at the end of the month would be the Basic Salary quoted. Bear in mind that in Singapore they do not use PAYG with regard to your taxes, so you need to be prepared for a tax bill the following July or August after the year ends. There are tax calculators on the IRAS website for your convenience of calculation. www.IRAS.gov.sg

[cutehobbes]

Yes we are on the same page, that's what i thought. It includes the deduction but not the contribution.

The employers contribution is still your money though and is necessary for comparison, especially when you are comparing incomes from two different countries.

Some recruiters like Michael Page are really careless, they do not even have a footnote as to what the salary entails. I think one other has stated that it's base salary without any explanation about the CPF.

[sundaymorningstaple]

That is because for international recruiters, it is immaterial. Foreign talents can only work here on a work pass, (as noted earlier). Work Pass holders are not subject to CPF so no need to bring it up just to confuse people. The only way is if the potential employee makes the comment that eventually they would like to obtain PR. This process will take a minimum of 4 years and most probably 5+ before you could get PR assuming you are the right flavour for the government's ideal demographic makeup.

Then, if they know their client (the future employer of the candidate) well enough, They might tell you that if you take up PR, your contract may have a clause in it specifying that by taking up PR, your salary contract may be renegotiated (downwards) to allow for the employer's additional costs for their portion of CPF contributions (17%). This would be a double whammy as you would go from $5000 basic & take home to $3320 take home. Additionally, by becoming a PR, you also would lose any housing allowance, school allowances, etc that you might be getting in addition to the previous basic allowances. You also would need to include all allowances in calculation of your income taxes both here and at home, depending on whether you have a tax treaty between your country and Singapore - the US doesn't - there you need to use the Income Earned Abroad exclusion and/or Tax credits. Hope that helps clear some of the fog.

[cutehobbes]

It did cross my mind that the salary guide is for expats and would the salary be reduced for residents ? But it doesn't seem like that. It doesn't specifically say this is the salary guide for expats and it also has very junior salary scales as well which might not be filled by expats.

Looking at the salary guides for 3-4 recruiters, it does seem that it is the general salary guide meant for Singaporeans. I could be wrong, i do not know how these recruiters work.

[Marcus33]

Hello,

I'm hardware / electronic engineer with 3 years of experience. I have been Master post-graduated from France.

Which salary can I get if work with this job in Singapore?

Thanks.