S’pore industries ranked by median salary, from S$2,4K to S$9,8K

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

The last reported median salary figure for Singapore residents was S$5,500 per month in 2024, inclusive of employer CPF. However, as I have commented here a few times before, I’m not very fond of this particular statistic as it isn’t really informative to most people.

Each person has a different background, is of a different age, and pursues a career in a different sector of the economy. I covered how incomes evolve with age last month, now it’s time to look at how it varies depending on the industry—and the differences are quite profound.

All positions

At first, let’s take a look at general data for all positions—that is, both PMET and non-PMET jobs. PMET stands for Professionals, Managers, Executives & Technicians, a category that encompasses ca. 64% of Singapore residents (citizens and PRs), with the remaining workers performing clerical, assisting, or manual tasks.

As you can see, the difference in pay is quite significant depending on the career path you choose.

Unsurprisingly, the ranking is topped by Financial Services, followed by IT—long known to be two of the most lucrative and desirable industries in Singapore. The third place goes to the government, which remains a very generous employer.

However, because these figures are still averaged across PMET and non-PMET jobs within each industry, the different proportions of people in each category could influence those averages.

It’s quite likely, for example, that you would find far fewer PMETs in the Accommodation & Food Services sector, as opposed to Finance, where the opposite is likely.

So, let’s take a look at a more detailed breakdown.

PMET

For professionals, the order remains just the same as before, but the amounts differ quite significantly—especially the lower we go.

While financial services receive a bump of S$1,100 to their average, the bottom-ranking Accommodation & Food Services category jumps by S$2,000, or over 67%, showing that PMETs can make significantly more than the general median for their industry.

At the same time, however, it also confirms that they are paid the least of all and are just one of two sectors to fall below even the overall median of S$5,500 for the entire of Singapore.

This might be a reflection of the challenges that the industry is facing amid sky-high rents that are squeezing profits, leading to closures (more than 3,000 last year) and weighing down salaries.

Overall, the median salary for PMETs is more than S$7,300 per month, although only the top six industries make it.

Non-PMET

Less educated residents, who take up clerical jobs, maintenance, security, and cleaning, among others, earn less than half of what their PMET colleagues do. With a median of just S$3,000, their everyday reality is not so rosy.

If you’re one of those in a hunt for a better non-PMET position, start by looking at government openings, since only the Public Administration & Education sectos pays more than S$4,000 to over half of its non-PMET employees (that’s what median stands for—it’s the middle figure, half of the people make more, half make less).

Non-PMET staff in finance come in second place, but aren’t paid that much higher than their colleagues in most other industries are, and fall S$800 behind government jobs. Since most of them are relatively simple and require limited training, they are often treated as a cost that has to be minimised.

Once again, Accommodation & Food comes at the very bottom, paying barely above S$2,400, reflecting the extreme cost pressures faced at the moment, quite regardless of the post-pandemic travel and leisure rebound. Soaring rents are eating into profits, and as a result, worker salaries are also affected.

Only jobs in related Arts & Recreation, as well as other Community & Social services pay similarly little, with the rest mostly falling around the S$3,000 figure.

Money begets money

The old adage that money serves to create even more money remains true in the job market. Financial and insurance services pay close to S$10,000 to at least half of the professionals in the field. The more money you deal with, the better your pay.

IT remains a strong and attractive industry, which also continues to create the most job openings each year, despite uncertainty and layoffs hitting it abroad. But Singapore is so small and so focused that it might not be a major issue here anytime soon.

Good pay can also be found in Professional Services, which supports the corporate employers, as well as Manufacturing, which is highly advanced in Singapore and is willing to pay for skilled employees.

In between all of these industries, there’s the government, paying well both its qualified professionals as well as non-PMETs, for whom it is by far the most attractive career path, as virtually all other industries are offering considerably less compelling conditions.

• Read other articles we’ve written on Singapore’s current affairs here.

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