Top 100 jobs in Singapore

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Ministry of Manpower has released the latest Report on Wages in Singapore 2005. It’s a compilation of surveyed data collected in 2005, and released this year (2006).

Notably, the jobs with the top median starting salaries are: advocate and solicitor ($3,800), semi-conductor engineer ($3,595), financial analyst ($3,167), electronic engineer ($2,850), and aeronautical engineer ($2,600).

Based on the same report, the following are the top 100 jobs in terms of gross monthly pay. The number next to each job is the 75th-percentile gross monthly income for that job.

  1. Specialised surgeon $22,821
  2. Managing director $20,289
  3. General manager $15,300
  4. General physician $14,653
  5. Company director $13,970
  6. Legal officer $10,408
  7. Risk management manager $10,350
  8. Treasury manager $10,155
  9. Financial analyst $10,033
  10. Commodities futures broker $10,000
  11. Financial planner $9,167
  12. Business management consultant $9,039
  13. Foreign exchange dealer and broker $9,000
  14. Hydrographic surveyor $8,900
  15. Industrial relations manager $8,870
  16. Operations manager (Finance) $8,763
  17. Business development manager $8,350
  18. Trade broker $8,334
  19. Computer operations and network manager $8,223
  20. Operations manager (Commerce) $8,129
  21. Legal service manager $8,080
  22. Computer and information systems manager $8,075
  23. Research and development manager $7,808
  24. Budgeting and financial accounting manager $7,800
  25. Marine superintendent engineer $7,650
  26. Engineering manager $7,521
  27. Training manager $7,500
  28. Manufacturing plant and production manager $7,450
  29. Marketing manager $7,327
  30. Personnel / human resource manager $7,300
  31. Logistics manager $7,150
  32. Technical manager $7,064
  33. Sales manager $6,918
  34. Quality assurance manager $6,880
  35. Instrumentation engineer $6,817
  36. Statistician $6,707
  37. Chemical engineer (petroleum) $6,670
  38. Business analyst $6,667
  39. Procurement manager $6,637
  40. Advocate and solicitor $6,500
  41. Advertising and public relations manager $6,495
  42. Corporate planning manager $6,488
  43. Shipping manager $6,440
  44. Industrial health, safety and environment engineer $6,355
  45. Personal banker $6,350
  46. Premises maintenance manager $6,300
  47. Transport operations manager $6,250
  48. Chemical engineering technician (petroleum) $6,245
  49. Editor (newspapers and periodicals) $6,210
  50. Pharmacologist $6,085
  51. Credit analyst $6,084
  52. Chemical engineer (petrochemicals) $6,038
  53. Advertising copywriter $6,000
  54. Securities dealer and broker $6,000
  55. Database administrator $5,996
  56. Sports coach $5,965
  57. Administration manager $5,890
  58. Editor (radio, television and video) $5,843
  59. Geophysicist $5,831
  60. Customer service manager $5,750
  61. Power generation and distribution engineer $5,695
  62. Market research analyst $5,521
  63. Marine superintendent (deck) $5,450
  64. Chemical engineer $5,432
  65. Building architect $5,425
  66. Operations manager (Community) $5,406
  67. Petroleum and natural gas engineer $5,379
  68. Instrumentation technician $5,351
  69. Aeronautical engineer $5,334
  70. Building and construction project manager $5,300
  71. Semi-conductor engineer $5,293
  72. Structural engineer $5,270
  73. Cad cam engineer $5,202
  74. Financial futures dealer and broker $5,145
  75. Naval architect $5,143
  76. Creative director (Advertising) $5,000
  77. Director (stage, film, television and radio) $5,000
  78. Lawyer (except advocate and solicitor) $5,000
  79. Systems designer and analyst $4,997
  80. Ship-master $4,945
  81. Property / estate manager $4,936
  82. Production engineer $4,931
  83. Biomedical engineer $4,928
  84. Telecommunications service supervisor $4,911
  85. Electrical engineer $4,873
  86. Mechanical engineer $4,820
  87. Industrial nurse $4,802
  88. Sewerage and sanitary engineer $4,790
  89. Warehousing manager $4,789
  90. Medical x-ray technician $4,732
  91. Air transport service supervisor $4,713
  92. Network systems and data communication analyst $4,685
  93. Information technology security specialist $4,679
  94. Chemist $4,658
  95. Environment health inspector $4,605
  96. Civil engineer $4,578
  97. Manufacturing engineer $4,568
  98. Electronics engineer $4,534
  99. Materials engineer $4,524
  100. Accountant $4,500

Note that “monthly gross salary/wage” refers to:

the sum of the basic wage, overtime payments, commissions, allowances, service points and other regular cash payments. However, it excludes employer’s CPF contributions, bonuses, stock options, other lump sum payments and payments-in-kind.

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56 Comments

  1. Good and interesting article.

    But if I not wrong, this statistic figures only refer to specifically common jobs title, in details not mention other influence factor like years of working experience or what kind of company and industry specific. Example: salary earnings for job title “engineer” definitely different between fresh grads and person with 10 yrs exp. Or same job title in “big” company can be slightly / much different compare to “small / medium company”. Which I can assume, it’s more on “highest possibly pay you can get based on job title” ???

  2. bonus in different sectors varies from 1 month to as much as 12 months, so looking at monthly salary alone is not conclusive , i believe annual income will be better measurement.

  3. optometrist are paid v well as well. a diploma holder startin pay is abt 3k + comm which add up to abt 3.5k startin pay at age of 19+ ( poly grad). degree holder can draw as high as 7k to 8k per mth at the age of 25-27

  4. Hv taken up a technical training consultant role in ASEAN countries.

    What should be the international rate (range of rates, either monthly or yearly) that I should charge my customers?

    Thanks

  5. and over yrs of experience…salary will increase. so i have doubts on the MOM survey,which states tat the mean basic monthly pay for an optometrist is $2,754. wit a bachelor degree and shortage of optometrist and an increasin demand for optometrist…pay is definetely much higher

  6. Hi,
    How much a fresh graduate gets working as House Officer in Sinapore and as a medical doctor
    How much the doctor will earn after sucessful graduate as a specialist in surgery in government and private hosiptals
    I am a proud parent of a graduating medical student.
    Thank -You.

  7. Dun be silly. optometrist in Singapore are not at all well paid. From what I hear they do not have increments every year like other jobs and its pretty stagnant.And from the wroking hours they contribute, you should calculate thier per hour pay is pretty low actually. From what I know some optometrist leave their job in a few years to go to business or banking where their monthly is much higher and they have much higher increments every year.

  8. Haha this is rubbish. No idea where the private bankers earning 6.5k are from. I work in a private bank. their assistants are already getting 6.5k.

  9. This survey certainly has it’s flaw. From my personal experience, REAL ESTATE BROKER earns the most.

    I made $560,000 in a year.
    Average monthly – $40K to $120K

    Enough said

  10. I think this is misleading as the medicos salary is computed as base pay and medics hardly ever (if ever!) get bonuses. It would be much more meaningful to publish annual income with bonuses included, and to give the 50th rather than 75th percentile.

    Also, why only specify specialist surgeons and what exactly do the mean by “general physicians”? It is a rather vague term which can be variously interpreted as either any internal medicine specialist (e.g. cardiologist, neurologist, endocrinologist etc.), internal medicine specialists specializing in general internal medicine (unlikely since there are only about 30+ in Singapore and they’re not very well paid, and I find it hard to believe they are paid more than anethesiologists, radiologists and other procedurists), GPs, or something else altogether.
    Danny,

    Interns get about $48,000 a year. As for surgeons, it takes a rather long time to actually become one. , since there’s one year internship, typically 2 years residency as an RMO, then 6 years of full time training assuming your offspring passes all his/her exams the first time round, which statistically speaking is unlikely. Note that more popular surgical specialties like cardiothoracic surgery and ophthalmology would usually take 4 years of residency/unaccredited registrar work just to become a registrar.

  11. Capt. Thum Ban Shii on

    Regarding the ship master on the rank 80 of S$ 4945, I am sure this salary is of 1993 (15 years back). Now the salary of ship master for Filipino, my company is paying USD 7,500 per month, equivalent to S$10,875 per month.
    While for Singaporean and Malaysian, we are paying USD 9,500 per month, equivalent to S$13,775. One year work 8 months onboard and rest 4 months. Salary 12 months + 1 month AWS + 3 months bonus. If include bonus and AWS, it will come to S$18,366 per month for Singaporean and Malaysian. This salary is apply to container ship, tankers and AHT. For chemical tanker and LNG, salary will be 30% higher. Further, working onboard Singapore flag ship, all salary is tax exempted. I am welcome more Singaporean to go to sailing.

  12. Is Getting An Accountant Job Without An ACCA Cert Really Impossible? LoL
    And Whats The Difference Between Accountant And Auditor? I’m Having A Misconception..

  13. Yup i agree, it is quite awkward he can’t spell a medical term.

    But i would gauge my doctor’s skills more on his bedside manner and accuracy of diagnosis and treatment rather than merely spelling ability.

    also i don’t think that they earn that much money anyway.. another posting on this site says they earn 4-5k/ mth.

  14. AspiringVeterinarian on

    was kind of hoping the admin would enlighten me on both the starting and gross monthly income of a veterinarian in singapore as well as the salary of vets at the 75th percentile. Thx a million!

  15. I am an optometrist, but here in SG I was given optician license, I want a change of employer since I plan to enroll in October this year to take up diploma in Microbiology. This required 3 times a week of getting off work at 5:30 PM to catch up a class of 6:30PM, will any Optical shop interested? My current salary is SG 2,400.00 never mind if i dont make any increase of salary by now, the important thing is the set-up. thanks!

  16. I am an optometrist, but here in SG I want a change of employer since This required 3 times a week of getting off work at 5:30 PM to catch up a class of 6:30PM, will any Optical shop interested? My current salary is SG 2,400.00 never mind if i dont make any increase of salary by now, the important thing is the set-up. thanks!

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