Average salaries in Singapore

[sundaymorningstaple]

feeling got con (cheated) after reading this. I am 10 years experience IT professional in MS Technology. Earning only 65k annually. Just got my offer from a US MNC.

Odds are you conned yourself. You only get underpaid if you undervalue yourself. Nobody forces you to accept the offer on the table.......

[prkravi]

in more cases than one, I've noticed that its the desperation that drives the salaries low...one hint that you badly need the job and that's Sugar Candy for HR.

[trevorwong77]

in more cases than one, I've noticed that its the desperation that drives the salaries low...one hint that you badly need the job and that's Sugar Candy for HR.

I am moving over from KL to Singapore. Guess this is the main candy for them. Anyway, this is just a beginning. I know it from here, it's not too late too.
Thanks for the forum, information. Keep this up pls.

[trevorwong77]

Hello Everyone,

Thanks to all who contributed, some very useful information on here.

I got an offer which will be confirmed soon to work in IT with a financial institution, and though I was initially looking forward to it, having a read through this thread and doing some apartment rental search it's gone a bit sour for me , the particulars :

Nationality : British
Status : Married, no kids.
Position : Business Intelligence (IT)
Experience : 10 years
Current UK Salary : £41,000 GBP annual (roughly $86,960 SGD)
Salary offered : $6,000 SGD per month

Unless some extra perks are provided (and nothing was mentioned at the time) I won't be taking up that offer it seems, shame as I was looking forward to it, but it just doesn't make sense looking at all the bills and running costs.

Thank you again, for your various contributions and links etc.

I am taking Team Lead role, and getting 5300 per month only. But I choose to go, due to settling down my wife too. But I stay in Johor, Malaysia. Going to work in Singapore and go back during weekend. It a way, i lower my living cost.
I really feel the food cost here is increased, compare 10 years ago. But it's similar in KL. But if I am earning S$ and expenses in RM. Benefit is huge.

Living cost in KL actually lower in this sense. But the salary is low. I could have to be in Architect role to earn my current salary.

Looking ahead for better role after 1 or 1.5 years. Cheers

[Newie10]

Hi All,

I have been offered two slightly different positions in MNCs for Finance roles with pays ranging from SGD 5,500 to 6,000 per month.
My last drawn salary was USD 6,500/mo and I have about 10 years of work experience.

Are they reasonable offers or am I selling myself short?

Your inputs are very much anticipated.

Thanks

[trevorwong77]

Hi All,

I have been offered two slightly different positions in MNCs for Finance roles with pays ranging from SGD 5,500 to 6,000 per month.
My last drawn salary was USD 6,500/mo and I have about 10 years of work experience.

Are they reasonable offers or am I selling myself short?

Your inputs are very much anticipated.

Thanks

Probably you can use big mac theory. A value meal in Mc Donald here is about 6 - 7S$. Try to compare the number of meals you can take with the money excluding the tax (profit after tax). Will give you the accurate big mac price later.

[winterland]

Hello. Newbie here. Are there finance professionals here?

I'm doing a comparative study on salary levels of finance professionals in SG and HK. I saw a salary guide from Robert Half at sg.jobsdb.com (I'm just not sure if i'm allowed to post the link here...so I'm playing it safe. Don't want to get banned ).

The salary levels on the guide were a little bit "higher" than my expectations, but I'd like confirmation from people before I edit my draft. Currently, I'm gathering comments from forums like this one.

Thanks!

[sundaymorningstaple]

draft of what?

[winterland]

draft of what?

Hi sir! The draft of my comparative study. Are there finance professionals here that can help me with my current problem?

Thanks!

[sundaymorningstaple]

What or who is the draft for! I know it's a study already.

[brad9132]

So my skillset is I'm an IT security/compliance expert with about 6 years experience. I'd be transferring over to SIN and working within my field and doing network engineering support.

I'm in the process of discussing a salary for a 2 year assignment in SIN and would be at about $10-11k SGD a month with me footing the bill for my expenses over there. From what I'm reading here, would this be considered a fair salary?

I'd basically be getting a 10% raise to cover increased costs on my side and my bills total up to about $200 a month at home and I'm single.

[econbizer2]

Hi all if you're really interested in finding out the pay you should be receiving, get a head hunter's advice, or pay abt 5000usd to purchase HR salary reports.. from Mercer or Towers Watson.

[davo75]

Hi everyone. Does anyone have any idea what golf coaches are paid in Singapore? The National Coach Job is currently advertised and was wondering what salary package to try and negotiate towards. Any help would be appreciated.

[mambo5five]

Any idea what is the salary of a Civil & Structural Engineer with Master and more than 5 years working experience?

[JonOfArimathea]

I will put my 2 cents in regarding IT given that there seem to be a few questions.

The range of pay for IT (and I am talking world wide) is absolutely enormous. Even trying to be as specific as 'application manager' or 'technical architect' still gives you a huge range.

Here are the reasons:

1. Specific product skills and experience. Being a 'Java' developer means nothing much - Being a 'IBM Websphere Commerce Integration expert who has experience of upgrades to the latest product version specifically for fashion retail' is something totally different.

2. Scale of projects / operations and degree of accountability you have experience of. For instance 'manager' or 'architect' is normally a less specific role and accordingly your value comes from your ability to deal with big complex horrible nasty political stuff and make it happen anyway. To manage or architect a $100k IT project is a fundamentally different proposition to a $2m project, which again is a universe away from a $40m programme, different to a $500m transformation etc. etc.

High specificity such as the (1) example takes you down the contracting path. It is risky because products can go out of favour and your skills can become out of date VERY rapidly. That said, there are extremely good and respected IT contractors in this realm who earn more than the respective company CIOs for whom they work (even though they are 4 levels down in the 'hierarchy').

Likewise for (2), the proven people at the top of their field who have proven success on a large scale earn orders of magnitude more. Again, particular industries and products give huge credibility. Companies are looking for people who are proven at implementing and managing specific products and solutions.

I would give once piece of advice, which is that IT is and will be increasingly commoditised because it IS very expensive. Yes, it can do great things, but you have to stay ahead of the game. Don't be greedy - be competitive.