Salary.sg – Your Salary in Singapore

Household incomes practically decreased across the board in 2009, according to a recently released publication on income statistics from the Singapore Department of Statistics.

The average monthly household income of all households decreased to $7,549 in 2009 from $7,752 in 2008.

The corresponding median income also decreased to $5,398 from $5,475.

If you split the households into 10 decile groups by income, only 1 group – the third-lowest group – had a small increase in average income.

So, how does your family stack up against the rest? Enter your monthly household income:

Is your ranking better than last year?

You may also find these other Salary.sg tools useful:

• Benchmark your annual pay
• Benchmark your pay by age and gender

Civil servants are set to receive a bonus of half a month and a cash quantum of $300 in July.

This is considered good news, compared to just 6 months ago when public servants received a pittance as year end bonus. The Public Service Division explained that the Singapore economy, which grew by 15.5% in Q1, has been “stronger than expected“.

The 0.5 month bonus will be given as the mid-year Annual Variable Component (AVC), while the $300 quantum is a one-off payment to all officers.

National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) welcomed the news and its deputy secretary-general Mdm Halimah Yacob said that civil servants “suffered a reduction” in their total annual take-home pay last year. All public servants did not get a mid-year bonus last year.

How much bonus are you getting this mid-year?

In a recently concluded Salary.sg poll, 62% of the respondents think property prices will correct within 2 years. However, 22% believe there will never be a correction.

By the way, the article that accompanied that poll was republished by CPF at their IM$avvy site.

If the current downward pressure on stock markets is to persist, there’s a good chance that condo prices and transaction volume will follow suit. The STI index ended 2.4% lower today, hitting a new low since 4 Mar. European and US stock indices are also in negative territory as we speak.

Invest wisely. Save up cash and wait for the right time to buy.

The prevailing CPF Minimum Sum will be increased to $123,000 effective 1 July 2010 (source: Straits Times). This is a $6k increase from the previous $117,000.
If you are thinking of using CPF to pay for a second property, you will need to set aside half of the prevailing Minimum Sum. This amount is currently $58,500, [...]

Did you have enough cash when the stock market plunged to its lowest points between late 2008 and early 2009? If you did, and you were confident enough to buy stocks, you would have made good money using the market cycle investing strategy.
Someone told me he had very much wanted to buy some cheap shares [...]

The government has announced that the employer CPF contribution rate will be increased by 1%.
From 1st September this year, your employer will pay an additional 0.5% to your Medisave Account. If you earn more than $4,500, you will get exactly $22.50 more. This is because CPF contributions are calculated based on the cap of $4,500.
However, [...]

Overheard 2 comments on radio.
The first is about some Singaporeans unable to speak either English or Chinese well. Despite years of studying both languages as “first languages”, many so-called “effectively bilingual” Singaporeans still struggle when communicating with native speakers of either language.
Mainlanders and Taiwanese laugh at our limited Chinese vocabulary, while the English-speaking foreigners mock [...]

According to this Bloomberg news article, a Singapore-based senior risk manager with a foreign bank earns between $300k and $400k annually.
“Aldabe’s agreed annual salary was $220,000, an additional target bonus of $170,000 and $30,000 in restricted shares. On Nov. 6, 2008, Standard Chartered informed Aldabe that his annual wage was S$323,400, based on an exchange [...]

If you think property prices are too high, you are not alone.
The URA indexes for rest of central region and outside central region are at an all-time high.
According to the new NUS Singapore Residential Price Index (SRPI), its index for non-central region has also surpassed way beyond the 2007 peak.
A little advice for those looking [...]

The latest graduate employment survey reports are out.
The 2009 batch of graduates from NUS, NTU and SMU were asked about their starting pay and whether they were employed on a permanent basis.
The highest starting salaries come from the 4-year Information Systems Management programme at Singapore Management University. Those who graduated from this course with at [...]