Singapore Salary- How to compare to current- $75K in mid US

[jmweems]

One thing I am still unclear on is how to understand salary amounts differences moving to another country with a different currency and different cost-of-living. It is somewhat confusing because the dollar conversion is $1 USD to $0.6 SGD (Singapore Dollar), while the only cost-of-living adjustments I can find on the Internet indicate $1 USD is equal to $0.78 SGD from a cost-of-living perspective.

I have been discussing at great length with the management I would be working for in Singapore and they are in the final stages of getting HR approval to make me an offer. I am not sure yet what the offer looks like. Once I receive an offer, I am not sure which number I should be looking at or if there is some combination of the two I should use. I would assume part of the evaluation should be your intent (i.e. living standard in Singapore vs. money saved and intended to bring back to the United States), though it would be nice if there were a standard calculation used for evaluation.

I still don't know yet if I will be getting an expat package; obviously this would weigh in on the equation also.

I have read through several of the posts on salary and it sounds like several people have negotiated some fairly sizeable increases over the initial offer. I'm not sure how much leverage I will have, as I would be moving internally - but it definitely makes me think there could be some wiggle room.

[jmweems]

Sorry, mean to say the dollar conversion is $1 SGD to $0.6 USD (Singapore Dollar), while the only cost-of-living adjustments I can find on the Internet indicate $1 SGD is equal to $0.78 USD from a cost-of-living perspective.

[jhkim]

Even if they don't give you a raise you will still earn a lot because living expense here is much cheaper....I don't know which state you are coming from but I was in NYC for awhile so I will use NYC as an example.

Assuming you still get USD 75K/year...you saving will increase because rent in NYC costed me USD 2000 and rent here cost SGD 2000. Each meal in NYC costed me 6-10 and its same here too. Dinner in applebees costs 20-30 and it cost the same here in comparabale restaurant.

But SGD 2000 is about USD1300? Same goes for the food and other expenses.

So as long as you get same pay, you are saving more.....but of course no body calculate it that way and your company will compensate you for making a unwanted move.

Only you will know how much more you can get......Each individual here gets difference raise.

I know a collegue who came here with a paycut because living expense here was cheaper then where he was from. He still chose to do it cause he could save more than back home.

By the way if you have a kid, you should be more worried about their tuition as it cost about USD 15,000/year.

Hope it helped.

[hellokitty]

I am also at the stage of finalizing an internal transfer from the NYC office to Singapore office. However, it will be a local package. do you know how much of the expat population there really get expat packages? In financial services, do you know the percentage range for end of year bonus for a 3rd year analyst? do people find coming back to the states easy after a couple years spending there? obviously, i'm not there for a temp assignment, it's more for a permanent role. any advise would be much appreciated! thank you!