Want to know how your family’s combined income stack up against other families?
Use the following form to compare your monthly household income:
The above tool is based on info recently released by Singapore Department of Statistics.
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Reference: Key Household Income Trends, 2008, Singapore Department of Statistics
64 Comments
Yes, it’s low. See Table 4 in the Key Household Income Trend report. The average is $7,750 – meaning the figure you entered (i.e. $2,000) is already below average, and the average for the 11th to 20th percentile is $2,480, so $2,000 at the 10.9th percentile level is about right.
If you’re interested in comparing personal income of an individual, as opposed to combined household income of several individuals, you can use the other Salary.sg tools – just click on the “Benchmark your annual pay” or “Benchmark your pay by age and gender” links.
Daniel, why do you find it so hard to believe? I’m curious, that’s all–no offense.
Here’s my two cents worth. First, there is an underlying skew towards higher income because (a) people near the high income will have such exceeding high income that it pulls up the average figure and (b) median income is skewed towards to the “higher” income because there is no negative income. Still (b) is less skewed and would be more useful as a comparator . I think the age cut-off is about 60, e.g., 60 and above with no income is considered retired, and assuming the median (?) starting work age is 20, then the “average” working age is about 40 years old and on “average”, there is about 2 people working per household, making it about 40 years combined job experience. So with 40 years combined job experience, the median monthly income per household will be around 5k. Like a true statistician, I confess half of the “averages” are gut feels which can have be off from the actuals. I guess the bottomline is that statistics are made for policy makers and it is hard to apply it for the individuals. (And for those who are into surveys and want to factor in my personal bias, my household income is in the top quartile.)
Hmmm, for annual income, doesn’t this only include the tax payers? Those earning 900/month are not included, no? Admin?
Apart from what Kevin said, I don’t have much to add, I think he explained it well.
Just one thing about 900 being a very common wage: “very common” is very subjective actually.
It depends on who you hang out with, your industry, etc. As I moved up the salary ranges, my notion of what salary is “common” changes as well. I used to think that my Director who earned 10k was paid sky high. But now, not anymore.
Hi Daniel, no, I don’t think high salary range is more common–just that what you think as common might be distorted by the salary ranges you hear in your everyday interactions.
In my humble opinion, you can take this as a wake up call and start seeing how you can break through the 30%, 40%, 50%… and so on.
what should be an average income for a family to stay in Singapore? If i am looking at a level of AVP (Asst Vice President), what would be the level of compensation per month?
household expenditure can range from as low as 1000pm to 10000pm depending on whether u eat out, how often u eat out, where u patronise, where u stay (central, suburban), what house type (hdb, condo, landed), size of house.
if u’re an avp in a bank, and if spouse is not working, i think you family can only live slightly above the average of singapore citizens.
correction to my last sentence: “… your family can only live slightly above the average singapore family with both husband and wife working as professionals.”
there are many people who think expats can live like kings in singapore, but they neglect the fact that these expats have to support spouses who aren’t working and kids who go to expensive international schools, and pay for an expensive house or apartment. if you compare materially with singapore families, these expats aren’t much better off.
yes you are right. but i would look at the full package. say the expat gets the equivalent of 200k in all, including all benefits like housing and kids education. given the higher tax bracket he’s in, and the fact that he “loses out” to locals who get many forms of subsidies (eg hdb), i would say his net income is comparable to a local family with husband and wife each getting 80k.
further, given the general lifestyle an expat leads (locals are extremely frugal in comparison), i would expect his savings to be comparable to a local husband & wife each making 60k.
of cos there are expats out there who really live like kings. but these are the ones getting at least 500k. i don’t think there are many of them.
i believe i did clarify that i’m only including working professionals, not blue collar workers. afaik, there isn’t any “average” stats on the typical household of working professionals – ie both husband and wife are grads and working as professionals. 60k for a grad professional is average as far as i can gauge from people around me and from all the info i have read.
60k PER YEAR my dear.
A NUS Master degree holder (Engineering) with 7 years exp, basic monthly pay $3000 , How you rate this ?
$3k is very low for someone with 7 years experience. A cab driver earns more.
You all talking about 100K, 200K…etc., but when we look in to the job websites the pay offer for most of the job is below 4K (not for mangers).
And you check Jobstreet salary report, the salary for most of the engineers are 3K to 3.8 K only. they come out those salary figures from their own data base which is key in by every job seekers, this should be quiet accurate also.
Then how you guys talking about 100K so easily ??
When the job market is better, you should try to jump every 2 years. Jump to MNCs.
3K pm? Isnt that what the Govt is paying fresh grads with a good honours?
This is talking about combined income of all family members under one roof, not about individual income.
As for avp’s package, I think it’s quite different for local and foreign banks.
So to be accurate, we should add all monthly income and bonuses of all members and divide by 12.
Rather than just looking at monthly income, annual household income would be a more accurate gauge because bonuses for industry like banking will be very different from manufacturing.
An AVP in a bank could be getting ~8 to 12k per month. But with bonus of say 9 months (fairly common for front office), the monthly salary will be approx. 14k to 21k. Whereas, in the case of a senior manager in a factory, the monthly salary could be 8 to 10k, but the variable bonus is very minimal if any.
low, if you think 3K is very little for someone with 7 years of experience. How about an engineer who works in a mnc electronic manufacturing with 7 years of experience, first class honours, a Masters degree from NTU and now make $3k+/mth with no variable bonus for the last 2 years.
mimc
u should have at least go to one of those A*star / D*star gahmen agencies.
Yes, my starting pay at DSTA was already 3k+ immediately after graduation. Government agencies are a great way to start off careers. They take good care of you, send you for training, and you get to enjoy life a lot – just look at the canteen during mid-morning and mid-afternoon! 🙂
Of course, after a while, you get tired of the good life and will want to have a more exciting career with a higher pay, better prospects and more pride. That’s when you join an MNC. Then, hop every couple of years, and you are all set. 🙂
come on guys, dont always quote the best examples. not everyone in a bank gets 9mths bonuses. infact, the majority in middle and back office get standard bonuses like 3-4 mths at most. so AVP who earns 8-12k a mth does not necessary mean 14-21k a mth after all bonuses. only the front office guys earn that kind of money.
DSTA: so r u trying to say that u r earning alot now? 🙂
Nah. Not as much as the front office bankers. But I’m happy with what I earn and what I do. Cheers.
hi dsta, may I ask how much was your starting pay? The last I know of dsta engineer’s starting pay was $2.8k for master’s, but that was back in 2003. They should have increased it by now, but i’m just not sure to what.
Z, below $4k like you said, is pay for fresh graduates and those job advertisements are for junior appointments. Like you said those are not managerial positions, so they are considered entry-level. 7 years experience still $4k for engineer is very bad. Is that what they pay to NUS grads? lol
I don’t understand why so many people including dsta who still buy into the myth that foreign company = higher pay and benefits, when there are tons of examples like Mimc who works for MNC and gets very bad pay.
Most of my friends in large GLCs like Singtel, SPH, ST, Keppel earn easily double of what those in ‘MNCs’ here earn.
GLCs also pay freaking good bonuses compared to non oil and banking foreign companies. The people I know who work in foreign, ‘MNC’ FMCG and creative companies like Nestle, Ogilvy, Proctor & Gamble are so poorly paid plus they’re not even entitled to the pathetic 13th month bonus. Same goes for those slogging in the international hotel chains. And the benefits are truly pathetic.
In fact save for oil companies and banks, everyone I know who works in a foreign company is severely underpaid and has no bonus and measly benefits compared to GLC staff.
If those foreign firms pay so poorly, why do people still work for them? My guess is that these are the people who can’t make it into GLCs and govt agencies, and so they are stuck with non-strategic operational divisions in 2nd class MNCs.
Otherwise, there must be certain benefits and certain attractiveness in working for these MNCs, whether tangible or intangible.
I can’t think of another explanation. Maybe the people are just, well, uninformed or misinformed. 🙂
Misguidance is one main reason. It’s a popular urban myth that’s perpetuated by ignorance and statistical outliers. Good bonuses were given out by some foreign companies, such as those in the banking and oil industries before the financial meltdown, and these recipients went to tell their friends, who drew the generalisations that all foreign companies give good bonuses and have good benefits, who in turn told their friends who bought the myth hook, line and sinker.
Of cos, for anyone in the know with friends who work in a wide range of sectors in both MNCs, stat boards and GLCs, we know better.
Besides misguidance, another reason why people still apply and accept offers from foreign companies is because they have no choice.
People generally apply to a large number of companies after they graduate or when they wish to job-hop.
The government has made Singapore prosper by attracting foreign companies to come and make a presence here, no matter how small, so that locals can be hired. The HR landscape is typified by thousands of MNCs here, mostly with a smallish presence each, less than 40 large GLCs and thousands of local SMEs.
Of these large number of companies, a significant portion would be foreign MNCs with a smallish presence in Singapore (less than 200 people is considered an SME by MOM). And look around all the foreign companies here, whether its the German battery company with a sales and marketing outfit here, or the Australian internet travel company with 30 people in a small office in raffles place or renowned MNC names like Ogilvy, McKann and Ericsson, PR companies like Edelman, Citigate, Grayling. How big is their SG presence? All less than 200 or so. There are MNCs who set up shop with at least 1000 staff here eg UBS, DHL, Sony and Seagate, but these are fewer compared to those with a small presence here of less than 200 local staff eg Google.
Jobseekers apply, and generally accept the first offer that comes along that matches their last drawn pay, or in the case of a fresh grad, if the basic pay seems decent enough.
Since “MNCs” with smallish presence make up the bulk of the employers, the chances are the offer would come from one of these companies. So unless you’re an heir/heiress who’s working for fun, you generally take the first ‘decent’ offer.
This phenomenon is compounded by how Singaporeans tend to job-hop after 2 years or so, even if its for an increment of $100. Sooner or later, they run out of companies to apply to in their sector, because they have no long-term view of their careers.
What happens? When they run out of companies, they change fields. These mid-career switchers, who commonly switch in their 30s or 40s, many times as early as their late 20s, have run out of companies to apply to in their sector, because they didn’t do well enough in their former companies, didn’t take a long term view of their careers, or simply can’t cut it in that field.
There are mid-careerists who switch due to genuine personal reasons, but they remain the minority. From what I observe, the majority of mid-career switchers are those who didn’t fare well in their first career and had no choice or didn’t plan properly.
‘come on’ is correct. Only an AVP in the front office can possibly get 7-10 mths bonus. Everyone else in a bank gets 3-4 mths at most. In good years. Most of a bank’s staff work in back and middle office.
Hi wonder,
Very interesting comments. Are you a HR consultant? Or did you based your observations on what you hear from friends and relatives? If it’s the latter, then what I hear is quite totally the opposite- MNCs pay much better than GLCs, TLCs, civil service and government agencies. I’m referring to big MNCs. I wouldn’t call the “smallish” foreign firms MNCs. They should rightfully be called SMEs. And SMEs don’t pay well.
MNC are international companies. As long as they have a presence in many cities outside their founding HQ, they are considered MNC, no? Are you saying that only foreign companies that have a minimum number of staff here are qualified to be MNC?
SME is the term bestowed on companies based on its size (below 200) and locals tend to associate local set-ups with small staff strength to be SMEs.
Let me assure you that staff of the thousands of foreign companies here who set up shop, with less than 500 staff consider themselves thoroughly MNC. if you look through the list of international names employing here, in FMCG, hotels, advertising, PR, internet, manufacturing, engineering names, most of them are foreign names.
There are only a handful of GLCs. In the boom years, ST, Keppel, Singtel, Capland SIA gave out easily 6 to 8 months of bonuses to its average to abv average performing staff haha. These companies, because they’re listed in Singapore have the bulk of their staff based here. This means in Singapore, they hire easily between 7,000 to above 10,000 people. Even SPH, just a newspaper company, not the kind of industry generally associated with huge profits has 4000 staff here, profits $450 mil and give out 3-5 bonus hahah. People take care of their own kind. Just remember that.
You may also like to know that most of these foreign ‘MNCs’ have no bonus. One of my friends who left a small 10-man local SME to join an international PR firm even had to haggle for an extra $250 to make up for the loss she would suffer because the ang moh MD of the SG’s operations that her that their ang moh company does NOT give out even the pathetic AWS to all staff.
Same go for those who work in foreign electronic firms like Fujitsu, and the hotels. Some even have to work Saturdays. LOL.
Those who still harbour MNC fantasies, advise you to apply to only banks, oil companies, and yeah and consultancy firms LOL.
Foreign companies give out good bonuses to the local staff based in their home country, where they’re listed. Eg Google staff in the US.
Do you seriously think that the measly 20 staff in Google’s Singapore office gets anything close to benefits and bonuses given out to the American staff based in its HQ in the US?
Some local staff here working for ‘famous’ foreign names may go around boasting about their slightly higher basic pay, but got no nothing else (Most are so ngeow, don’t even have hp or transport allowance). But add the bonuses typically given out to the most profitable GLCs, hehehe…
People take care of their own kind, like I said. Ask around and you’ll know. 🙂
to wonder, i have no idea what’s TLC. i see you also have been hearing things from your “friends and relatives”. Your phenomenon of how the urban myth propagated, I explained in my post October 20th, 2009 at 1:01 pm. Your experience is exactly a good example of this propagation 🙂
As for the definition of MNC, you may want to double check. The firms are not smallish. These are huge firms. They probably hire up to 20k to 100k people worldwide. I said their LOCAL PRESENCE is smallish. MNC is simply a term to describe a company that has presence in multiple cities world over. It means Multi National Corporation. When I say it has only 20 people, I mean its set-up in Singapore.
Are you saying just because the office in SG is small, it’s no longer an MNC?
If you only consider MNCs with >1000 local staff here to be MNCs, good luck in finding enough to apply to. and also you got the definition wrong.
Don’t know about other MNCs, but I can confirm that these MNCs pay well: most foreign banks like JPM, GS, Barclays and HSBC, most mgmt consulting firms like McKinsey and BCG, and others like Microsoft, Cisco, HP, Accenture, Allianz, and many others. I’m also with the herd as I don’t think GLCs pay their non-mgmt staff well. Like the civil service, only the top people get top dollars, while the rest below get mediocre pay. Maybe ‘wonder’ is a director in a GLC? That explains why he insists GLCs pay reaaaaaaally well. Cheers!
i think we need to align our expectations on and interpretation of a “well-paid” job. For some people, a job paying 5-8k is considered well-paid while some others expect a well-paid job to be around 10-15k. I dont think HP, accenture, cicso, allianz etc are considered well-paid companies if we are looking at 10-15k because only the senior management get this range. Even for big investment banks like JPM, GS etc, not everyone gets 10-15k. Only front office people and a handful of back/middle office people get this range.
mnc2 said “Even for big investment banks like JPM, GS etc, not everyone gets 10-15k.”
You sure about that? 🙂 Though not “everyone”, many many people sometimes including secretaries get that amount. Remember that some time back, GS secretaries were complaining that their bonus was a measly 100 grand usd.
2BS, i dont work in GS but i have friends in GS and JPM. there is a misconception that people who work in these banks are definitely earning alot. Unfortunately, this is not the true. Are you sure GS secretaries are earning 10-15k? 🙂 Maybe only those secretaries who have worked more than 10 yrs there and they are the secretaries for the top senior management.
mnc2 is right. My mom is a damn good example.
2BS, that’s why please don’t compare US pay with Singapore pay. Like someone else said above, if the company is American, it’s simply wishful thinking if you believe that the staff elsewhere are paid as well.
Even at the very top. Do you think the senior management of American and Swiss investment banks in Singapore are paid the same as those in their HQ? That would be a pipe dream.
Anyway logically speaking, the top of the top head honchos are always in the HQ. So working in an MNC’s small offshore outfit in another country, which really could be anywhere else in the world other than its HQ, is never the same as working in the HQ.
The attraction of MNC as a HR opportunity is slowly fading as Singapore progresses from a labour-intensive economy to a skill-based economy. In the olden days when we were just starting out, government attracted lots of manufacturing and electronics MNCs to set up operations here, and these assembly line factories could hire up to 4,000 to 5,000 people like Seagate. Look what happened to Seagate Singapore recently? All these MNCs are moving their manufacturing to low-cost countries like India and Vietnam and Seagate’s factory staff were retrenched and its staff strength here diminished greatly.
The industries of the present and future that require skill, that Singapore government has prepared the new batch of employees to take on include finance, R&D which are generally not labour-intensive.
UBS for example, with its one of largest presence in Singapore for a foreign bank after Citigroup has about only 1,000 people.
I highly doubt also that local back and middle offfice staff of MNCs working in Singapore gets perks like stock options that their US colleagues working in HQ get, and local staff of the giant GLCs listed here get.
The local staff that do get stock options here are front office traders. Of course that’s just the finance sector.
Unless i was a professional trader, which would limit my choices of employment to the finance and oil sectors, (plus the stock value and market capitalisation of foreign banks dwarf the local banks), I would choose to be a part of one of the giant GLCs listed here than work in a small outfit of a giant MNC.
If I was doing one of these jobs like HR, corp comms, marcom, in-house finance, sales, or engineering, the choice to me is obvious as the bonus payout is really very different. It is true that every person I know in one of those MNC hotels, creative and GMCG field don’t get any bonus. Local SMEs many also don’t give at all.
Must see sectors. Sectors in which MNC got bonuses are oil and gas, consultancy, banking, legal. Not sure about auditing, not familiar with whether they have bonus but I know their basic pay is really terrible, even as their pay increases, its not enough to make up for it, and only the few partners at the top make some money at the end.
2BS, GS secretary gets $10k? hahhaha no way. Yes its certainly a misconception.
The fat pay of the front office bankers (esp those in a ‘branded’ bank eg GS) has caused a general misconception about the pay of bank employees (esp those in a ‘branded’ bank eg GS).
Like mentioned before, front office traders’ pay is not in the same league as middle office and back office. I dare say that back office bank staff in operations earn the same as anyone in any other sector, and in fact even less than the starting pay of certain civil service jobs. The starting pay of fresh grad in Operations is about $2.4 to $2.5k.
I don’t understand how people can start believing that ALL employees of a bank, from the teller to the janitor and the secretary are paid above everyone else doing the same thing, in other sectors. This naivete simply defies logic.
Money generators are paid as money generators should be paid. That’s why the traders are handsomely paid. I know a lot of back office ops people working in branded banks who try to hoodwink naive and ignorant civilians and it’s always a pain to watch.
The next time you meet a guy who calls himself a banker, ask him, are you a trader? are you an investment banker? are you in the front office? if he answered no, he’s not earning ‘well’ like you think. he is probably earning even less than you.
MNC: I think wonder made very clear that he was referring to MNCs that are not in the banking and oil sectors. And he was quite clear on which sectors and companies he was talking about. All the names you listed except for HP, Microsoft and Cisco and the consultancies are in the banking sector. Maybe he’s not familiar with the bonuses in IT companies. What are they like?
MNC2: JPM is NOT an investment bank. I can safely say you’re not in the banking sector.
mnc
can we know what idea is your idea of well paid ?
some of the companies that u mention are crap holes le.
low cost- low tech: my idea of well paid means anything above 10k/mth. The companies mentioned might or might not be crap holes but they were quoted by the rest in earlier postings.
wonder is right. I left a fortune 50 company to a GLC and pay is now doubled. Mainly because the bonus for GLC is good
the white shoe firms pay well, but can you make it into one? if you can, you have the skills to be paid well regardless of where you are.
MNC leaver is right, obviously lah duh.
Anyone who’s worked up the ranks or are in the the top most profitable GLCs (which are ALL listed, of course this is one of the criteria of a GLC) knows beyond 3-4 years what i’m talking about.
Like I said earlier, its far easier to get an offer from an “MNC” since they make up the overwhelming majority of employers among companies besides local start-ups. There should be at least hundreds if not thousands of them, thanks to EDB’s tireless efforts, compared to less than 40 large, listed, high-profile GLCs.
That’s why you have such a skewed number, leaning towards MNC employees as voters in this poll. This poll alone is proof that what I said earlier about abundance of MNC employment.
In fact, I highly doubt the veracity of the data entered by the ‘number’ of GLC voters here, other than the few genuine ones who spoke up, considering that there are people who actually think that govt stat boards = GLC (good grief)..I won’t be surprised therefore that there are staff of any two-bit local company, local start-up, local biggish SME with no govt association, staff of govt ministry, staff of stat board, that also thought their employer = GLC.
I recommend admin to start a post just to re-educate the masses on the proper definitions of these various terms.
and the bozo using the nick ‘wonder’ in the doctors’ pay thread is not me. darn.
And it’s correct. I’d say more than half, if not more like 70 to 80% of “MNC” or just foreign companies do not give bonuses, some don’t even give AWS. The ones that do, mentioned earlier would likely be in banking, consulting, oil, legal. Govt has not set up a platform to collate such data because hell would break loose and people would not work in certain places, and also they believe in letting the free market forces decide. I think some HR company should consider this. Would have very good hits!
Even for legal i heard from lawyer friends that homegrown large firms like Drew & Napier and Allen & Gledhill give superior bonuses than foreign firms with smallish presence, small staff strength here..
Basically three rules of thumb.
1) The higher than staff strength at one place, the more the head is pressured to give good bonuses, benefits. There is not a single MNC that has the local-based staff strength that rivals those of large GLCs here. i think Keppel and ST have over 7 to 8k, and SIA about 12k? Cos they are local and based here.
2) staff in the HQ of where a company is listed will ALWAYS get superior bonuses, benefits and have better prospects than staff elsewhere. this is why if you’re working for JPM, Merrill, aspire to work in the HQ in the US for career advancement. If you’re working for Fujitsu, aspire to work in Japan. This is the only way reach for the skies within that corporation. if not, you’ll always be in the (gasp!) backwater. Sure you can be given consolation and told that you’re ‘prized’ wherever you are, with titles like country manager or regional head. but of course you’ll always be lagging behind the corporate rats holding similar or identical title as you, by rank, but stationed in the HQ.
When profit and loss is announced at wherever any company is listed, who makes the most noise and has the biggest muscle? Local based staff that form the mass or the diaspora of foreign (to the HQ masters) staff elsewhere in small numbers at each place?
3)(This rings the truest) Everyone takes care of their own kind.
White shoe firms refer to mostly financial and legal fortune 500 firms. It’s only 2 sectors. There are many other sectors that make up the workforce.
That’s how I built my observation and that’s how it stands.
There is definitely a huge difference in remuneration given to front-office staff of white shoe firms compared to regional banks like DBS or sinking European banks like RBS. Traders are paid a lot because they handle and make large sums of money for banks and oil companies. And the monies handled by white-shoe firms make those handled by local banks look like dopey dwarves. Operation staff in white-shoe firms I doubt are paid more than ops staff in lesser banks.
White-shoe firms generally only hire top graduates from the elite Ivy League schools and schools of similar standing like Chicago, Oxbridge and MIT for front and middle office positions, and in the back office, the analyst position. Singaporeans who managed to get into white shoe firms in front and middle office, congrats. You are truly well paid.
In Singapore, none of the American white-shoe legal firms set up shop or bothered to have big business here as local law scene has not opened up to foreign players much. Really doubt those firms can be bothered with our tiny market.
dear wonder, it’s obvious you’re a glc fanboy. let’s grant your theory that people may confuse government service with glc, the results of the survey thus far still show that mnc beats all the rest hands down. even if glc really pays well, the fact that they’re run by ex-civil servants already puts people off. though i was never with any glc, i don’t think it’s too far fetched to claim glc operates a lot like government agencies in all aspects.
To DSTA;
i assume u are working in dsta, so can u tell me more abt the annual increment of an engineer in dsta.
one of my friend fresh grad in 2007 (2nd lower honours) NTU had his starting pay $3280 in 2007.
now after 2 years in dsta, he told me he is getting $4000.
Is that true that the annual increment in DSTA that high? wow, pay incresae by abt $700 in 2 years???!?!?!? can u verified this??
how abt the bonus from dsta (how many month of bonus dsta give >)