In this article, we will give information about the average salary in Singapore, it may be useful for those who are seeking knowledge related to the salary there. Let’s keep reading this article!

General Information About The Labor Market in Singapore

The employment market in Singapore is developing and showing cautious optimism. Also, the demand for skilled professionals continues to grow. 

According to the Ministry of Manpower, employment rebounded in 2019 compared to the previous year, expanding by 55.000 jobs. Service sector jobs made up nearly three-quarters (72%) of the job growth, while other sectors more modest gains.

The digitisation is expected to drive many job opportunities in Singapore, particularly within cyber-security and fintech. Many business owners are shifting their services and operations into digital, so there is an increasing demand for talent with project management and technology skills to facilitate such change. 

The companies must also focus on professional development on internal staff and hiring staff with the right skill sets. It is to adapt to the rising tide of economics and prepare for the digital transformation.

The combination of constant change, ongoing technological developments, and skills shortages eventually have led Singaporean businesses to proactively hire the required skill sets and also invest in upskilling initiatives. 

In order to have a skilled workforce, a business owner has to look at very detailed salary information, as well as the job seekers usually do. Hiring a skilled workforce for a specific job might need a little higher salary than the other.

That is why, in this article, you will be given information about the general average salary in Singapore, salary comparison by education, by experience, and by industry. Thus, you will know what is the best for you!

General Information About the Average Salary in Singapore

The average monthly household income measures the combined incomes of all the people living under the same roof. It includes every form of income such as salaries, employer’s CPF wage contributions, and investment returns.

Household income is the sum of the gross income of all the members of a household. For households with at least one working person, the median household income for Singaporeans is at $9.293.

However, the median household income from work per household member is $2.792. In 2017, the median household was $9.023 and it was indicating a 3% increment in the year of 2018. 

The top 10% of Singaporeans bring home $13.581 per month per household member, while 12.1% of Singapore’s household is without monthly income from work. These are households with no working people.

Median monthly household income from work increased over the last 10 years. From 2009 to 2014, the median monthly household income from work rose by 18% cumulatively or  3.4% per annum. For the next years from 2014 to 2019, it continued to record healthy real growth of 13% cumulatively or 2.5% per annum.

Furthermore, when you work in Singapore, you can get additional payments, such as overtime, bonus, Annual Wage Supplement (AWS), productivity incentive payments, and allowances for travel, food, and housing. However, it depends on your company or industry that you will be working for.

Average Salary in Singapore: Comparison by Experience

The most important factor in determining salary is the level of experience. When you expect a certain amount of salary, you will need a higher experience too, because naturally the more years of experience the higher the wage.

For instance, an employee who is having experience from 2 to 5 years earns on average 32% more than a fresh graduate and junior across all industries and disciplines. A professional with 5-year experience tends to earn on average 36% more than those 5 years or less of work experience.

On the other hand, when you hit the 10 years mark, you will get salary increases by 21% and an additional 14% for those who have crossed the 15 years mark. Those figures are presented as guidelines only, as the numbers will become more significant if you consider one job title at a time.

Salary Comparison by Education

It is well known that higher education equals a bigger salary, and getting to know if it’s true or not, let’s find the comparison below.

Workers with a certificate or diploma earn on average 17% more than their peers who only reached the high school level. Employees who earned a Bachelor’s Degree earn 24% more than those who only managed to obtain a certificate or diploma.

Meanwhile, professionals who attained a Master’s Degree are awarded salaries that are 29% more than those with a Bachelor’s Degree. Finally, Ph.D. holders earn 23% more than Master’s Degree holders on average while doing the same job.

Salary Comparison by Industry

The companies in thriving industries tend to provide higher and more frequent raises, but the situation of any company is closely related to the economic situation in the country or region. This fact tends to change frequently, however, we will give you a top 5 highest paying job for each industry. Let’s see if your dream industry is listed below or not!

Accounting and Finance (Commercial Business)

According to the report, the accounting and finance sector has always been prominent and remains prime for growth. The government is planning to create 2.000 new jobs in the sector by 2020.

Accounting and Finance (Financial Service)

Same as above, many people are looking for accounting and finance (financial service) as their main jobs. As the government will create new jobs this year, so people will have a chance to get the job for themselves.

HR

The report predicts that there will be heavy expectations on HR professionals these days. They are here to aid and advise employees in identifying relevant and in-demand skill sets, and also provide the means for employees to acquire them.

Marketing

Many people are looking for jobs in the marketing sector too, and their main job description is to bring the businesses to more consumers. Those working in marketing would also need to keep the industry developments, so they are able to implement great strategies across various marketing channels.

Banking Operations

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) revealed in 2017 that they plan to create 3.000 jobs in the financial industry each year, with an additional 1.000 jobs per year expected to come from the fintech sector. MAS is also said to be working on the adoption of technology including blockchain and artificial intelligence to strengthen Singapore’s digital transformation.

All the information above about the average salary in Singapore will help you to decide whether you want to take a job in Singapore or not, but the necessary thing is you need to prepare and know what is the industry that you really want. In conclusion, the salary might interest you in deciding a job, but you need to gain your experience and skillset if you want to get a certain amount of salary! Viettonkin able to help you to set up any payroll and salary for the company around South East Asia.

Information technology is considered as a top priority of Vietnam’s economic development. The demand for experiencing and applying technology in daily life and work has made IT become a field for Vietnamese young talents to study and pursue.

Vietnam, it can be said that, becomes a pool of IT talents, which attracts plenty of foreign investors. If investors would like to run an IT business in Vietnam, looking for a salary standard in IT is an essential thing. 

Tech talents expectation for their job

Due to digital transformation, vacancies of digital products or UX have been sought by a lot of business owners. The need for better IT infrastructure is increasing to improve the product quality and user experience.

Candidates are predicted to consider factors when choosing their boss such as flexible working hours, insurance, remote working space and opportunities to learn or self-development. Besides, tech experts are keen on training workshops, courses on technical skills, cross-functional project involvement as well as the soft-skill course.  

Factors that affect the salary of tech talents

Before having an overview of salary in IT sector, we should acknowledge factors that will affect the salary increase. Four factors are years of experience, technical background, gender, and location.

First of all, IT employees’ salaries depend much on years of experience. Those having more hand-on experience are certainly got a higher payment. For example, Glassdoor - a platform offering hot jobs worldwide - estimates that a web developer from one to three years of experience can earn $63,805 while senior web developers with more than 10 years of experience can earn $87,160.

Second, the technical background can also impact on the tech talents’ salary. Your salary can be offered based on your mastery of programming languages (namely HTML, CSS or Javascript), regarding to developers. Besides, the educational background will not affect 100% of your salary. It does not mean that you can not earn top-dollar salary if you only have a bachelor’s degree. Your salary will increase when you have more years of experience and self-study to improve your skills day by day.

Third, gender. In fact, gender should not have affected the salary, however, Vietnamese women account for a minority in the IT industry compared to their counterparts. Hence, the salary for women in the IT sector might be lower than that of male tech talents.

Another factor that influences tech staffs is location. Obviously, companies in big cities will need and pay more for tech talents because of the high demand for using the Internet as well as trying new and high-quality service. 

Overview salary in Vietnam technology

The table below will show you salaries on a monthly basis for some positions in the IT sector. Job titles are mentioned including CTO (Chief Technology Officier), Architect, Project/ Program Manager, Developer, Quality Assurance (QA)/ Quality Control (QC), Data Scientist. 

Monthly Salaries in Tech in Vietnam 

Monthly salaries in tech vary among positions and required skills. In the chart, CTO takes charge of more duties and requires both senior technical skills and management skills, then the monthly salary for CTO is highest, range from $6,000 to $12,000, following by architect, program manager, developer, and quality control. In particular, the initial salary of Data Scientist starts at $1,500, which is higher than that of quality control and developers.

The reason lies in the hot trend of big data and artificial intelligence in the IT sector. In 2019, data science vacancies augmented 137% compared to the first half of 2017. More and more companies are keen on data science and willing to pouring money as data science will help employers analyze and make an appropriate decision.

To give a deeper view of the salary in the IT sector, the next part of this article will cover some factors that affect the developer’s salary. 

Programmer average salary in Vietnam in 2020

Average Salary By years of experience

Vietnamese developer salaries by years of experience

This table demonstrates the annual salaries of developers based on years of experience. Obviously, senior developers with more than 4 years of experience will earn approximately $25,000 and fresh developers can earn around $8,000 per year. The annual salary will increase when developers work longer. 

By educational background

Programmers who acquire higher education will easily earn more. From the table, a developer with a certificate from vocational institutions gets a lower salary than those obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree.

Master’s Degree can help developers receive the salary up to $13,000, much higher than those having a Bachelor’s Degree and Certificates. Moreover, developers obtaining a Master’s Degree also have better chances to be promoted to become leaders. 

Vietnamese developers salaries by educational background

By locations

Programmer salaries also vary from different locations. Two biggest cities (Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city) usually offer higher salaríe for developers than other places because they are two major centers that attract a lot of youngsters and provide plenty of job opportunities, though the gap is not too large. Developers working at HCMC can earn up to approximately $16,000 per year, $2000 higher than those working at Hanoi. Developers at Hue and Da Nang also get good salaries. 

Data Analyst Average Salary in Vietnam 

What do data analysts do? The main role of a data analyst is to gather data and use it to help companies to make better decisions.

How much can data analyst make? It also varies depending on factors namely experience and education. A data analyst salaries in Vietnam range from 7,650,000 VND (minimum salary) to 25,700,000 VND (maximum salary). 

Average Salary By years of experience

Data analyst salaries change by experience

A data analyst with less than 2 years experience is offered around 8,830,000 VND, then the salary will be increased gradually when the analyst work in this field longer. For example, after 5 years of working as a data analyst, the salary can rise to 38%, to approximately 12,200,000 VND.

By education

Salaries of a data analyst also change based on the education level. Those obtaining certificates or diplomas can earn an average salary of 10,500,000 VND, while students with Bachelor’s Degree earn 16,700,700 VND, which is 58% higher than the former. 

UX designer average salary in Vietnam

Another field in the tech sector that worth mentioning is UX/UI designer. The salary of UX designers varies depending on years of experience. According to UX designer salaries, UX designers can earn around $12,938 per year with less than 3 years of experience. From 4 to 7 years of experience, the annual salary can increase to $14,000.

Besides, you can look up for further information related to FDI guide or digital transformation at Viettonkin's blog. To sum up, Vietnam is a promising market for foreign investors with a pool of tech talents. Besides an attractive salary, Vietnamese tech talents also wish to develop themselves further via training workshops, get insurance and offer flexible working hours. This article hopes to help you understand basic insight into the salary standards in the Vietnam IT sector. 
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