Top 10% salaries in Singapore by age and industry

Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed below belong solely to the author. Data sourced from the Ministry of Manpower.

In Aug, Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower updated its salary benchmarks used to score Employment Pass applications for foreigners. But the added benefit of these statistical tables is that they provide the most detailed insight into how much Singaporeans earn depending on age and industry (which then immigrant applicants are evaluated against).

The data below shows benchmark levels of local PMETs that foreigners have to match or exceed in order to get the maximum 20 points for the salary section under the COMPASS system introduced last year. They must fall within the top 10% of salaries earned by Singaporeans in each sector.

S$10,000 at age 25?

Elite performers can draw more than S$10,000 even at a fresh graduate age of 25, in eight industries: Administrative & Support Services, Air & Sea Transport, Banking & Finance, Fund Management (even S$15k!), IT, Insurance, Professional Services, and Real Estate.

But even in less generous industries, the salaries of the top 10% of 25-year-olds start at roughly S$6,200 per month. Not bad.

By age 40, it’s possible to make S$10k per month in each one, though it is already likely in most of them by your mid-30s. In other words, climbing the ladder can lead to a pretty comfortable life, no matter what your business is—there’s good money to be made everywhere.

Note: These amounts are inclusive of the basic salary as well as fixed monthly allowances, which include contributions to any pension plans (i.e., CPF) by the employer.

Salaries at the 90th percentile of local PMETs

(Professionals, Managers, Executives, and Technicians)

By 45 years or more (which is where MOM stops its benchmarking for EP candidates), it’s clear that the most lucrative professions are found in, unsurprisingly, financial services (with fund management being a notable outlier, paying its top 10% of middle-aged employees over S$40,000 per month), IT, wholesale trade, and logistics. You can hope to clear about a quarter of a million per year in each of them.

But you won’t be a beggar in any other industry, given that at this age, each pays its top performers well over S$100,000 per year.

And as these figures constitute the bar foreigners need to clear to score top points in their EP application, it’s clear that Singaporeans in high-paying jobs are well shielded from outside competition.

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