Your salary is only one line of what a job pays

You will be able to list every part of a job offer and sort it into guaranteed cash, possible cash, CPF and benefits.

Two offers land in the same week. One pays S$4,200 a month, the other S$4,000. Most fresh graduates take the first and feel they made the obvious call. Sometimes they did. Often they never checked. (Every figure in this lesson is a made-up example, not a market rate.)

The monthly salary is the number recruiters lead with, so it's the number people compare. But a job pays you in several ways, and some of them never show up in that figure. Total compensation is everything an employer gives you in a year in exchange for your work, whether it lands in your bank account, your CPF, your insurance cover or your calendar.

Start with what lands as cash. There's the base salary, times twelve. Many Singapore employers add an annual wage supplement, the AWS, often called the 13th month. It's common, but the Ministry of Manpower treats it as a matter for your contract, not a legal entitlement, so check whether your offer states it or only mentions it as something that may be paid. Then there's the variable bonus, which depends on how you and the company do. An offer letter that says "bonus of up to three months" has promised you nothing beyond the words up to. Fixed allowances for transport, phone or meals count as cash too, if they're paid whether or not you claim.

Next is the money that goes to CPF. If you're a Singapore citizen or permanent resident, your employer pays a CPF contribution on top of your salary. The rate depends on your age and there's a monthly wage ceiling. The CPF Board sets both and changes them from time to time, so look up the current figures on the CPF Board website rather than trusting a number from a friend. You can't spend this money freely today, but it's yours, and it pays for housing, healthcare and retirement later.

Then come the benefits that save you money: group hospitalisation and outpatient cover, dental, a flexible benefits allowance you can spend on a gym or a health screening, a training budget, extra annual leave. Each one has a cash value, which is roughly what you'd pay yourself to get the same thing.

Last, there are costs. A longer commute is time and fare. An office that keeps you until nine most nights lowers your pay per hour even if the monthly figure is higher. A training sponsorship with a bond ties you to the company and has a price if you leave early.

Now run the two offers through this. Say the S$4,200 job has no AWS, a bonus described only as discretionary, and basic outpatient cover. The S$4,000 job writes a one-month AWS into the contract, includes a flexible benefits allowance and gives five more days of leave. On base salary alone, the first job is S$2,400 a year ahead. Add the contractual AWS and the second job pays S$52,000 in guaranteed cash against S$50,400, before you count the benefits or the leave.

None of this means the bigger total always wins. A job that teaches you more in year one can be worth far more than a couple of thousand dollars. But you should make that trade on purpose, knowing its price, and not because one number was larger than another.

The rest of this module shows you how to read each part of an offer and put a fair value on benefits. How to ask for more is taught in Negotiation: salary, deals and everyday asks, and finding the job in the first place is covered in Career strategy: CVs, interviews and networking in Singapore.

Your task: take an offer you have, or a job ad that states a salary range, and list every item of pay and every benefit it mentions. Sort them into four groups: guaranteed cash, possible cash, CPF, and benefits. Then mark anything the document leaves vague, because those are your questions for the employer.

List every item of pay and every benefit in one offer or job ad, sort them into four groups, and mark each vague item as a question.

Course

• Your first job: the money playbook