You will be able to check your payslip against the items the Ministry of Manpower lists for an itemised payslip.
Priya started her first full-time job in March, as a marketing executive at a small firm in Tampines (an invented example). Her first payslip was a one-line email from her boss saying her March salary of S$3,400 had been credited that day. It had no breakdown, no CPF figures, and nothing about the two days of overtime she had worked at an event. She assumed this was normal for a small company. It is not normal, and Singapore law says so.
In Lesson 1.1, "What every line on your payslip means", you read a payslip from gross pay down to net pay and checked the arithmetic. Before you can check anything, though, the payslip has to contain the right items, and you need to keep a copy of each one.
The payslip requirement comes from the Employment Act. An employer must give an itemised payslip to every employee the Act covers. An itemised payslip breaks your pay into its parts instead of only stating a total. The Act covers most people working in Singapore under a contract of service, whether local or foreign, junior or senior. Some groups are outside it, for example domestic workers and seafarers, and civil servants have their own terms. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) website lists who is covered and who is not.
MOM also sets a deadline for when the payslip must reach you, counted from the time you are paid. Look that deadline up on MOM's website yourself and don't rely on a colleague's memory of it, because a half-remembered deadline is weak to quote to HR.
A payslip can be soft copy or hard copy. A PDF by email, a page in a payroll app and a printed slip in an envelope all count. What matters is that it is itemised and that you actually receive it.
MOM publishes the full list of required payslip items, and it is short enough to check in a few minutes. In plain terms, a payslip must show:
Who: the employer's full name and your full name When: the date of payment, and the start and end dates of the salary period What you earned: basic salary, allowances paid for the period, and any other additional payments such as a bonus What was deducted: each deduction, listed separately Overtime: hours worked and overtime pay, plus the overtime period if it differs from the salary period The result: net salary paid
If you are covered by the Act, a message that gives only the employer and an amount is not a payslip in the legal sense. It only tells you that money was sent. Priya's email names the employer and the amount and almost nothing else from MOM's list. It has no salary period, no basic salary separated from allowances, no CPF deduction and nothing about overtime.
MOM's list covers which items are shown. It does not cover whether the figures are correct, so a payslip can include every item and still have a wrong number. Getting the items written down comes first, because you cannot check what is not written down. In Lesson 1.3 you will recalculate the CPF line.
To check a payslip, open MOM's list of required items and compare your payslip with it item by item. Note anything missing, and anything you would want HR to explain. Priya did this with her email and found seven items missing, including the salary period, her CPF deduction and the overtime.
Payslips are your record of what you were paid and what was deducted. If questions come up about pay, CPF or tax, your payslips are the first thing you will be asked for. Banks and landlords also ask for recent payslips when you apply for a loan or a lease.
Your employer keeps records as well, but don't rely on theirs. Companies change payroll systems, close down, or lose access to old files. Save each payslip on the day it arrives and keep all of them in one folder. Name each file by month so you can find any one in seconds. Module 8 ends with a document file for storing records like these.
If something is missing or wrong, go to HR first and do it in writing. An email gives you a dated record of what you asked and when. Keep it short and factual: say which payslip it is, which item is missing or which figure seems wrong, and what you want HR to do.
Priya wrote to her manager and listed the missing items. She asked for an itemised payslip for March and every month after, and asked how her two days of event work had been paid. Her manager, who ran payroll at the firm, had not known about the requirement. The next month she received a proper payslip, and her March payslip was reissued with the overtime included.
Most problems are settled at the HR stage. A small employer may not know the rules, and a larger one may have a payroll error that is quick to fix. If HR does not resolve it, MOM's website explains your options. Salary disputes generally go first to the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM), which offers mediation between employee and employer. If mediation does not settle it, the claim can go on to the Employment Claims Tribunals.
There are time limits for filing a claim. Check them on MOM's website early, and don't wait to see whether the problem fixes itself.
You don't need to start with a dispute, and you may never need TADM. Knowing the route exists still changes how you write the first email, because you are asking for something the law already requires.
Next, check your own payslip. Have MOM's page open in another tab, because you'll be reading the two side by side, and keep a note open for anything you'd want HR to explain.
Put your payslip next to MOM's list of required items. Write down anything missing or unclear so you can raise it with HR.
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