Your CPF, your salary and your benefits make up your real total compensation in Singapore, but most people only ever check the salary line. The Employment Act sets a legal floor: paid annual leave that starts at 7 days, 11 paid public holidays, overtime at 1.5x your hourly rate, paid sick leave, and parental leave that now runs up to 30 weeks for a couple in 2026. These are not perks your boss is being generous with. They are entitlements with dollar values you can calculate. This guide breaks down each one with the current 2026 rules and the actual numbers, so you can spot when you are being short-changed and price a job offer properly.
If you are covered by the Employment Act, the statutory minimums for 2026 are: 7 days of paid annual leave in your first year (rising to 14), 11 paid public holidays, paid sick leave that starts on a pro-rated basis from 3 months of service and reaches the full amount at 6 months, and overtime at 1.5x your hourly basic rate if you qualify. Maternity leave is up to 16 weeks, paternity leave is 4 weeks, and a new pool of Shared Parental Leave reaches 10 weeks for babies born from 1 April 2026.
Almost every employee in Singapore is covered by the Employment Act, including foreigners on work passes. The big exceptions are seafarers, domestic workers and most public servants, who are covered under separate rules. A second, narrower layer called Part IV covers hours of work, overtime and rest days, and it only applies to workmen earning up to $4,500 a month and non-workmen (rank-and-file staff) earning up to $2,600 a month in basic salary.
Under the Employment Act, you earn paid annual leave once you have served your employer for at least 3 months. The statutory minimum is 7 days in your first year, then one extra day for each additional year of service until it caps at 14 days from your eighth year onwards.
Plenty of employers offer more than this, often 14 to 21 days from day one. That extra leave has a real cash value. If you earn $4,500 a month, a single day of leave is worth roughly $208 of your time (using a 21.75 working-day month). Five extra days of leave a year is over $1,000 in value, which is worth weighing against a base salary when you compare offers.
If you join or leave partway through a year, your leave is pro-rated using completed months divided by 12, multiplied by your annual entitlement, with fractions of 0.5 and above rounded up. Unused statutory leave is not lost at the stroke of midnight on 31 December. It can be carried forward, by agreement, for up to 12 months after the end of the leave year, and only lapses if you still have not taken it by then. Your employer cannot write a policy that forfeits accrued statutory leave any earlier. On resignation, your employer must either let you clear it during the notice period or pay it out at your gross rate.
| Year of service | Paid annual leave (days) |
|---|---|
| 1st year | 7 |
| 2nd year | 8 |
| 3rd year | 9 |
| 4th year | 10 |
| 5th year | 11 |
| 6th year | 12 |
| 7th year | 13 |
| 8th year and after | 14 |
Every employee covered by the Employment Act gets 11 paid public holidays a year, paid at your gross rate of pay. For 2026 these are the gazetted dates. Three of them fall on a Sunday this year, which triggers the in-lieu Monday rule.
When a public holiday lands on a Sunday, the following Monday becomes a paid public holiday. So 1 June (after Vesak Day), 10 August (after National Day) and 9 November (after Deepavali) are also days off in 2026. When a holiday falls on a Saturday or any other non-working day for you, your employer gives you a day off in lieu or an extra day's salary instead. For travel planning around these, see our full breakdown of Singapore public holidays in 2026.
| Holiday | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | 1 January | Thursday |
| Chinese New Year | 17-18 February | Tue-Wed |
| Hari Raya Puasa | 21 March | Saturday |
| Good Friday | 3 April | Friday |
| Labour Day | 1 May | Friday |
| Hari Raya Haji | 27 May | Wednesday |
| Vesak Day | 31 May | Sunday (Mon 1 Jun in lieu) |
| National Day | 9 August | Sunday (Mon 10 Aug in lieu) |
| Deepavali | 8 November | Sunday (Mon 9 Nov in lieu) |
| Christmas Day | 25 December | Friday |
The Sunday rule is the easy case. The trickier ones are when a public holiday falls on your weekly rest day or on a day you do not normally work, because the two are treated differently. If the holiday falls on your rest day, the next working day becomes your paid public holiday instead, so you lose nothing. If it falls on a non-working day, your employer owes you either an extra day's pay at your gross rate or a day off in lieu.
Managers and executives sit outside Part IV, so they do not get the automatic extra day's pay for working a public holiday. What they can get, by agreement with the employer, is time off in lieu scaled to hours worked: half a day off for up to 4 hours on the holiday, or a full day off for more than 4 hours. Confirm which arrangement your contract spells out before you agree to cover a holiday shift.
If your employer asks you to work on a public holiday, you are owed more than your normal pay. The basic rule for working a full day on a public holiday is one extra day's salary at your basic rate of pay, on top of your gross salary for that day. So you are effectively paid roughly double for that day, plus overtime if you work beyond your normal hours.
There is a money-saving alternative both sides can agree on: instead of the extra day's pay, you and your employer can agree to a day off in lieu, or for managers and executives, time off in lieu. If you are a manager or executive earning above the Part IV caps, you do not get the extra day's pay automatically, but your employer must still give you a day off or another mutually agreed arrangement.
Overtime is work beyond your normal hours. Under Part IV, normal hours are up to 44 hours a week, and the daily threshold is 8 hours if you work more than five days a week or up to 9 hours if you work five days or fewer. If you are covered, your employer must pay at least 1.5 times your hourly basic rate for those extra hours. You can work a maximum of 72 overtime hours in a month.
Whether you qualify is where most people get it wrong. Statutory overtime pay only applies to non-workmen earning a basic monthly salary of $2,600 or less, and workmen earning $4,500 or less. If you are a non-workman earning above $2,600, the law does not require your employer to pay overtime at all, though many still do as a contractual benefit. Check your employment contract rather than assuming.
The hourly rate is set by a formula: (12 x monthly basic salary) divided by (52 weeks x 44 hours). For a non-workman, overtime is capped: even if you earn close to $2,600, your overtime is calculated on a salary of $2,600. At that cap the hourly basic rate works out to about $13.64, so an overtime hour pays around $20.45. Two hours of overtime a day, five days a week, adds up to roughly $880 a month before tax, which is real money worth tracking against your take-home salary.
| Item | Rule |
|---|---|
| Overtime rate | At least 1.5x hourly basic rate |
| Normal hours before OT kicks in | 44 hours/week; 8 hours/day (over 5-day week) or 9 hours/day (5-day week or fewer) |
| Monthly OT cap | 72 hours |
| Non-workman salary cap for coverage | $2,600 basic/month |
| Workman salary cap for coverage | $4,500 basic/month |
| Hourly rate formula | (12 x monthly basic) / (52 x 44) |
If you are covered by Part IV, your employer must give you at least one rest day a week, which is a full unpaid day from midnight to midnight. Shift workers can have a continuous 30-hour block instead. The rest day does not have to be a Sunday, and the gap between two rest days cannot stretch past 12 days. Your employer cannot generally make you work more than 12 hours in a day.
Working on a rest day costs your employer more, which is the point of the rule. The pay depends on two things: how much of the day you work, and who asked. If your employer requires the shift, the rate is higher than if you volunteer for it. The table below has the exact multipliers, all on top of your normal monthly salary. Anything you work beyond your normal daily hours on a rest day also earns overtime at 1.5x. Confirm in writing who initiated the shift before you agree, because it changes your pay.
| Hours worked | Employer asked you | You asked to work |
|---|---|---|
| Up to half your normal daily hours | 1 day's basic salary | Half day's basic salary |
| More than half, up to normal daily hours | 2 days' basic salary | 1 day's basic salary |
| Beyond normal daily hours | 2 days' salary plus overtime | 1 day's salary plus overtime |
Once you have served your employer for at least 6 months, you are entitled to paid sick leave: up to 14 days of paid outpatient sick leave a year, and up to 60 days of paid hospitalisation leave. The 60 hospitalisation days already include the 14 outpatient days, so the total is not 74. To claim, you generally need a medical certificate from a company-approved or government doctor, and you must inform your employer within 48 hours.
If you have served between 3 and 6 months, you get a pro-rated entitlement on a sliding scale. Below 3 months, there is no statutory paid sick leave. Treat sick leave as a buffer, not a salary top-up, and keep your own cash cushion: an emergency fund covering 3 to 6 months of expenses is what carries you if a longer illness exhausts your paid leave.
| Months of service | Outpatient (days) | Hospitalisation (days) |
|---|---|---|
| 3 months | 5 | 15 |
| 4 months | 8 | 30 |
| 5 months | 11 | 45 |
| 6 months and after | 14 | 60 |
Parental leave changed in 2026, and the totals are now generous if you qualify. An eligible working mother of a Singapore citizen child gets 16 weeks of Government-Paid Maternity Leave, provided she has served her employer for a continuous period of at least 3 months before the birth. An eligible working father gets 4 weeks of Government-Paid Paternity Leave, now a mandatory entitlement.
The new piece is Shared Parental Leave. For Singapore citizen babies born on or after 1 April 2026, parents share a pool of 10 weeks, up from 6 weeks earlier. By default it splits 5 weeks each, and parents have 4 weeks from the birth to change the arrangement. Stacked together, an eligible couple can take up to 30 weeks of paid leave in their child's first year: 16 + 4 + 10. On top of that, each working parent of a citizen child also gets 6 days of Government-Paid Childcare Leave a year until the child turns 7, then 2 days of extended childcare leave a year for ages 7 to 12.
The government funds these schemes up to a reimbursement cap of $2,500 a week, inclusive of CPF, which works out to $10,000 over any 4 weeks. Who pays the maternity weeks depends on the child's birth order. For a first or second child, the employer pays the first 8 weeks and the government reimburses the last 8. From the third child onwards, all 16 weeks are government-funded up to the cap. If your salary sits above $2,500 a week, your employer covers the gap when your contract pays full salary during leave. This is one reason parental leave policy is worth checking before you join a company, alongside how an extended leave period interacts with your CPF contributions and any Baby Bonus and CDA payouts you can claim.
| Leave type | Entitlement | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Maternity (GPML) | 16 weeks | Mother, 3+ months service |
| Paternity (GPPL) | 4 weeks | Father, mandatory |
| Shared Parental Leave | Up to 10 weeks | Babies born from 1 Apr 2026; default 5 weeks each |
| Childcare leave (GPCL) | 6 days/year | Each parent, child under 7 |
| Extended childcare leave | 2 days/year | Each parent, child aged 7-12 |
The benefits that matter most are sometimes the ones at the start and the end of a job. Notice period is one. If your contract sets a notice period, that is what binds both sides, and it has to be the same length for you and your employer. If the contract is silent, a statutory default applies, scaled to how long you have served. Either side can pay salary in lieu of notice instead of working it out. One quiet detail worth knowing: CPF is not payable on salary in lieu of notice, so paying your way out of a notice period leaves a gap in your CPF for that stretch.
The Annual Wage Supplement, the 13th-month bonus most Singaporeans expect in December, is not a legal entitlement. It is payable only if your contract, handbook or collective agreement provides for it, and if business has been poor the employer can negotiate a lower amount. Treat it as variable pay, not a fixed part of your salary, when you budget. If you leave partway through the year, a contractual AWS is usually pro-rated for the months you worked.
If a job ends through retrenchment rather than resignation, retrenchment benefit is the cushion. There is no statutory amount, but the tripartite norm is 2 weeks to 1 month of salary for each year of service, with the exact figure depending on the company's finances and the industry. You generally need at least 2 years of service to qualify, and those with less may receive a smaller goodwill payment. None of this replaces your own buffer, which is why an emergency fund still does the heavy lifting if a job ends suddenly.
| Length of service | Notice period |
|---|---|
| Less than 26 weeks | 1 day |
| 26 weeks to under 2 years | 1 week |
| 2 years to under 5 years | 2 weeks |
| 5 years or more | 4 weeks |
When you compare two job offers, the headline salary is only part of the picture. Benefits convert to dollars if you do the arithmetic. Extra annual leave above the 7-to-14-day floor, employer-paid overtime, a 13th-month bonus (the Annual Wage Supplement, which is customary but not legally required), medical insurance, and dental are all part of your total compensation.
A simple way to compare: take the base salary, add the cash value of leave above the statutory minimum, add expected bonus, and add the rough cost of any insurance the employer pays so you do not have to buy it yourself. An employer's health coverage can be worth a few hundred dollars a year that you would otherwise spend on your own Integrated Shield Plan riders or outpatient cover.
Do not forget CPF. Your employer contributes on top of your salary, and for most workers under 55 the employer share is 17% of your wage up to the monthly ceiling. That is part of your total package even though it lands in your CPF rather than your bank account. Run the numbers with our CPF contribution calculator so the comparison is apples to apples, and remember benefits like paid leave are only valuable if your salary is enough to actually save: aim to keep a healthy savings rate regardless of how good the perks look.
The statutory minimum under the Employment Act is 7 days in your first year of service, rising by one day each year to a cap of 14 days from your eighth year. You qualify after 3 months with the employer. Many companies offer more than the minimum as a contractual benefit, so check your contract.
There are 11 gazetted public holidays in 2026. Because Vesak Day (31 May), National Day (9 Aug) and Deepavali (8 Nov) fall on Sundays, the following Mondays (1 Jun, 10 Aug, 9 Nov) become paid public holidays in lieu for most employees.
Only employees covered by Part IV of the Employment Act: non-workmen earning a basic monthly salary of $2,600 or less, and workmen earning $4,500 or less. They must be paid at least 1.5x their hourly basic rate, up to 72 overtime hours a month. Higher earners get overtime only if their contract provides it.
Your hourly basic rate is (12 x monthly basic salary) divided by (52 x 44), then multiplied by 1.5 for overtime. For non-workmen, the calculation is capped at a $2,600 monthly salary, giving an hourly basic rate of about $13.64 and an overtime hour of roughly $20.45.
For a full day worked on a public holiday, you get your gross salary for the day plus one extra day's pay at your basic rate, so roughly double, plus overtime if you work beyond normal hours. You can instead agree with your employer to take a day off in lieu.
After 6 months of service you get up to 14 days of paid outpatient sick leave and up to 60 days of paid hospitalisation leave a year, with the 60 days inclusive of the 14. Between 3 and 6 months you get a pro-rated amount on a sliding scale. You need a valid medical certificate to claim.
For a Singapore citizen child born from 1 April 2026, an eligible couple can take up to 30 weeks of paid leave in the first year: 16 weeks maternity, 4 weeks paternity, and a shared pool of 10 weeks Shared Parental Leave. Each parent also gets 6 days of childcare leave a year until the child turns 7.
If your employer requires it, you get 1 day's basic salary for up to half your normal daily hours and 2 days' basic salary for more than half, on top of your normal salary. If you volunteer, it is half a day and 1 day's salary respectively. Anything beyond your normal daily hours also earns overtime at 1.5x. This applies to employees covered by Part IV.
Yes. Unused statutory annual leave can be carried forward by agreement for up to 12 months after the end of the leave year, and only lapses if you still have not taken it by then. Your employer cannot forfeit accrued statutory leave any earlier, and any unused leave must be paid out when you leave.
If your contract sets a notice period, that applies and must be the same for both sides. If it is silent, the statutory default runs from 1 day for under 26 weeks of service, to 1 week, 2 weeks, and 4 weeks for 5 years or more. Either side can pay salary in lieu of notice instead of serving it, but CPF is not payable on that amount.
No. The Annual Wage Supplement is not required by the Employment Act. It is payable only if your contract, handbook or collective agreement provides for it, and a company facing poor results can negotiate a lower amount. Budget for it as variable pay rather than guaranteed salary.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.