Average salaries in Singapore

[youngatwork]

Hello, Does anyone know the range of salary for a Flight Operations Inspector in Singapore Aviation Authory. I have 20 years of Pilot expereince but no Flight Operations

[philipdhm]

Hi, I have been reading round this for awhile but I dont seem to be able to find an up-to-date post on it, possibly due to my own incompetence.

I recently completed my PGDE for science teaching and am currently finishing off an online 150 hour type TEFL course. Jobs I'm looking to apply for are asking me for my salary expectations are but I'm not actually sure what they 'should' be. Apologies as I rather sense this will have been done to death many times before but results seem to range from $3500-5000 for MOE school to a bit more for International Schools. I've heard International Schools have the better pay and conditions but I'm coming with just a years experience, so I'm unsure where to shot.

Any help gratefully looked for and appreciated, regards Philip

[CaptainBullus]

Hi, I have been reading round this for awhile but I dont seem to be able to find an up-to-date post on it, possibly due to my own incompetence.

I recently completed my PGDE for science teaching and am currently finishing off an online 150 hour type TEFL course. Jobs I'm looking to apply for are asking me for my salary expectations are but I'm not actually sure what they 'should' be. Apologies as I rather sense this will have been done to death many times before but results seem to range from $3500-5000 for MOE school to a bit more for International Schools. I've heard International Schools have the better pay and conditions but I'm coming with just a years experience, so I'm unsure where to shot.

Any help gratefully looked for and appreciated, regards Philip

Unsure about MOE schools but International Schools salary is slightly less than double what you have mentioned for MOE, dependent on experience obviously.

[danam]

Hello, I need some clarification.
I tried to read some topics in the forum, but I still didn't get many things.
I am a guy of 33 y.o, single, working in Sweden in PR.
I received an offer from Singapore for 3700 SG$ per month (45000 per year).

Checking online it seems that after tax I will get around 3,400 per month.

I checked in some websites the cost of one bedroom apartment, and the minimum seems to be 2,500$ with an average around 2,800SG$. Is it right?

My question is: how is it possible to get 3,400$ and pay 2800SG$ for the apartment (without expenses) and then live with around 500SG$ for food and everything? Something might be wrong. I think I made some mistakes within the calculation.

[ecureilx]

Hello, I need some clarification.
I tried to read some topics in the forum, but I still didn't get many things.
I am a guy of 33 y.o, single, working in Sweden in PR.
I received an offer from Singapore for 3700 SG$ per month (45000 per year).

Checking online it seems that after tax I will get around 3,400 per month.

I checked in some websites the cost of one bedroom apartment, and the minimum seems to be 2,500$ with an average around 2,800SG$. Is it right?

My question is: how is it possible to get 3,400$ and pay 2800SG$ for the apartment (without expenses) and then live with around 500SG$ for food and everything? Something might be wrong. I think I made some mistakes within the calculation.

you didn't make any mistakes ... you just didnt research how cheap it is to get a whole apartment ... i.e, privacy ....

you can do, as many Asean/Asian talents do.....

get a master room for ~1,000 $ per month (master room = attached toilet) or common room for ~750 $ or less

so you have 2400 $ upwards for everything ..

btw tax isn't so high, check www.Iras.gov.sg for online tax estimates ...

[danam]

you didn't make any mistakes ... you just didnt research how cheap it is to get a whole apartment ... i.e, privacy ....you can do, as many Asean/Asian talents do..... get a master room for ~1,000 $ per month (master room = attached toilet) or common room for ~750 $ or less

so you have 2400 $ upwards for everything ..

btw tax isn't so high, check www.Iras.gov.sg for online tax estimates ...

The point is that i'm 33 and I wouldn't like to share the apartment anymore like when I was a student. I would like to have something for my own.
A whole apartment is cheaper? Do you think 2,500$ is a normal price for one bedroom apartment?

Thanks, I will also check your link.

[ecureilx]

The point is that i'm 33 and I wouldn't like to share the apartment anymore like when I was a student. I would like to have something for my own.
A whole apartment is cheaper? Do you think 2,500$ is a normal price for one bedroom apartment?

Thanks, I will also check your link.

No, the point is, with my post, you should know your salary is low, if you want to live that kind of life, i.e. an apartment by yourself. IRAS/Tax is secondary. Your primary cost is accommodation, and you have to strike a balance

Hence I suggested a master room, privacy with own toilet, or not much privacy by common room, i.e. shared toilet.

Anyway, the aren't many 1 bedroom apartments, most if not all are 2 bedroom apartments. If you really want your own, you can take a '2' bedroom apartment and rent out the common room, say maybe around 700 - 900 $ to defray part of your rent costs.. if you can find a tenant and .. the landlord agrees to let you sub-let.

Now here is the spanner in the works. the 2500-2800 apartments are government housing, i.e. shared facility, not much anything else

If you look for a condo, with a pool, gym, and all, then make that 3,500 and above .. more like 4,000 plus ..

[danam]

No, the point is, with my post, you should know your salary is low, if you want to live that kind of life, i.e. an apartment by yourself. IRAS/Tax is secondary. Your primary cost is accommodation, and you have to strike a balance

Hence I suggested a master room, privacy with own toilet, or not much privacy by common room, i.e. shared toilet.

Anyway, the aren't many 1 bedroom apartments, most if not all are 2 bedroom apartments. If you really want your own, you can take a '2' bedroom apartment and rent out the common room, say maybe around 700 - 900 $ to defray part of your rent costs.. if you can find a tenant and .. the landlord agrees to let you sub-let.

Now here is the spanner in the works. the 2500-2800 apartments are government housing, i.e. shared facility, not much anything else

If you look for a condo, with a pool, gym, and all, then make that 3,500 and above .. more like 4,000 plus ..

Thanks. I didn't imagine that my salary was low. Actually I think, reading around, that is a normal/proper salary.

I converted my actual Swedish salary and it is around 80000SG$ per year. I tried to read a lot around to avoid to ask how much should I earn for a XYZ position.

The point is that I would like to have an experience in SG for 1-2 years and then move back with more qualifications. Checking some salaries in some database or in some forums, I found out that the average salary in PR/Marketing for non-senior (I've 4-5 years of experience) seems to be from 3,500 to 5,000$, if you're lucky. And then, even If I look deeper and If I'm lucky I can find something for 5,000$, but still that's not a lot to have a normal life, and with normal I mean have an apartment for your own. I don't go out a lot or have an high standard level of life, I just love to go home and be in my own place.
So actually to have an apartment, outside maybe, you should make not less than 5,500$. And you kind of survive. Tell me if I'm wrong.
Thanks again for your precious help.

[Wd40]

Danam, you must understand that salary x can be decent for a local but the same could be very low for a for a foreigner.

Most locals own houses in Singapore and they are given to them by the government at very subsidised prices. Many locals also stay with their parents well until middle age also. So for them $3500 is decent also here usually husband and wife both work and it is very very rare in Singapore that a single person stays in a whole house. The government policies are such that they expect you to get married and only then you get a house(and produce kids) or wait till 35 if you want to remain single and still want a house for yourself.

So you see, how you will need atleast 5k to be in Singapore as a single foreigner and rent a whole unit and meet all the other expenses.

[ecureilx]

..
So actually to have an apartment, outside maybe, you should make not less than 5,500$. And you kind of survive. Tell me if I'm wrong.
Thanks again for your precious help.

Adding to what WD40 wrote ..

A few expats come in with housing covered, so that is taken care of.

Most don't have that privilege nowadays

So, if you want to earn, save some $, you have to adopt yourself, from having a whole house to sharing an apartment

In fact, you may get a decent condo room for 1,500 or so, which includes Gym, Pool etc ..

Now back to salary

As far as I know there are only 2 segments for PRs

1) those earning 5 figure pay per month ..
2) all others - including locals, who are comfortable with earning 5,000 or so .. or less.

Note that for SCs, they are accumulating CPF, which goes towards getting their own apartment and for the smart ones, the monthly CPF alone covers the housing due, and they only top up like 100$ or so a month - in essence, they save a lot

Plus those below 35 must be married, so the housing loan is shared again ..

Yes, housing is the big cost, if you want to work here.

Unless you can find an employer willing to pay upwards of 5K or more, or get housing subsidized ..

Good luck

[zzm9980]

Checking online it seems that after tax I will get around 3,400 per month.

Actually, you'll pay much less tax. S$550 on the first S$40,000 and 7% on the next $40,000. So about S$750 total for the year on the S$45,000 you mentioned.

And that's before deductions. In actuality you'll probably not pay a thing.

[danam]

Unless you can find an employer willing to pay upwards of 5K or more, or get housing subsidized ..

Good luck

Thanks for all your answers. Actually I received another job offer from an IT company, same role in PR and still from Singapore, that actually showed me that my salary was really low. They offer me now:

- 6,100 sgd per month, plus a monthly bonus of 500sgd.

Do you think that with this money I can have my own 1 bedroom apartment with kitchen and bath with facilities (gym, pool, so that I don't need to pay for the gym and so on) and have some money left for food and medical insurance?

Should I ask more? I don't understand why they offered me 3,700 and now 6,100. It's kind of difficult understand the average salary.

And what pass should I get?

Many thanks!

[zzm9980]

If you don't want a roommate, you'll be paying 50% of your salary in in rent. You can pull it off, it is not an unreasonable amount to live on if you don't expect to save a lot of money or have an extravagant social life. (No clubbing every weekend, and trips to Bali every other month).

You get an Employment pass. If MOM denies that, then hope they give you an S-Pass. This isn't a "pro or con, which should I choose" scenario, it's what your employer applies for and you hope MOM approves.

[ecureilx]

If you don't want a roommate, you'll be paying 50% of your salary in in rent. You can pull it off, it is not an unreasonable amount to live on if you don't expect to save a lot of money or have an extravagant social life. (No clubbing every weekend, and trips to Bali every other month).

You get an Employment pass. If MOM denies that, then hope they give you an S-Pass. This isn't a "pro or con, which should I choose" scenario, it's what your employer applies for and you hope MOM approves.

adding on, there are very few 1 bedroom condos going cheap

better to get a 2 bedroom condo and share ... or find a master room in a condo ...

a general measure is to try to pay around not more than 35% of your pay for rental, if you plan on having monthly trips to Bali, Vietnam or Philippines ...

[koplerismus]

Hmmm... I had an offer for working as maintenance controller at SIA Engineering for about S$ 3300 per month. After reading this thread, S$ 3000 per month seems lacking - if you wish to had your own apartment.

So my question is, did SIA Engineering offer is lower or is it normal salary for this kind position?

FYI, I am Indonesian with Bachelor degree and 2 years experience as Administration. Right now I'm still working as Maintenance Controller at local MRO for almost a year right now.

Thanks for your kind reply in advance anyone