The median fresh local-university graduate in Singapore started on S$4,500 a month in full-time permanent work, according to the Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Survey (GES) for the Class of 2025, published by MOE and the six universities on 5 March 2026. That matches the Class of 2024, the first year the median has held flat since 2021, taken across NUS, NTU, SMU, SUTD, SIT and SUSS. The figure hides a lot: the gap between the top- and bottom-paying course clusters is about S$1,660 a month, so your degree subject moves your pay far more than your campus. Two things matter as much. Only 88.9 percent of graduates in the labour force found work within six months, down from 91.2 percent, so flat pay came with a harder hunt. And S$4,500 gross is not S$4,500 in the bank: after the 20 percent employee CPF cut you take home S$3,600. This guide gives the verified per-university and per-course numbers, the professional fields that pay more, then a plan for the money.
The GES is run jointly by the six autonomous universities about six months after final exams, then published by MOE. The Class of 2025 survey, fielded from 1 November 2025, drew 14,397 graduates at a 73.7 percent response rate. The median gross monthly salary for those in full-time permanent jobs was S$4,500, the same as the Class of 2024 and up from S$4,317 for the Class of 2023 and S$4,221 for the Class of 2022. Gross here means basic pay plus overtime, commissions, fixed allowances and other regular cash, before any deductions. After four straight years of rises, the median sat flat for the first time.
Median is the right number to anchor on, not mean. The median is the middle graduate: half earn more, half earn less. The mean (average) is pulled up by the small number of very high earners in medicine, law and tech, so it always reads higher than what a typical graduate actually gets. NUS, for example, posted a 2025 median of S$4,746 against a mean of S$5,193, a gap of nearly S$450 a month created by its top earners. When a university quotes a S$5,000-plus average, check whether it is median or mean before you compare.
The catch in the 2025 data is the employment rate. Of graduates in the labour force, 88.9 percent had found work within six months, down from 91.2 percent for the Class of 2024 reading and 93.8 percent in 2022. Full-time permanent employment specifically fell to 74.4 percent. More graduates were looking for work (92.2 percent were in the labour force, up from 90.7 percent), yet fewer landed a job in time, which is the part a salary headline never tells you. Plan your finances for a longer search than the cohorts before you had.
Across the six universities the 2025 medians cluster in a tight band, roughly S$4,200 to S$4,900. The spread between the top and bottom university median is about S$680 a month, which sounds like a lot until you see that the spread between course clusters within a single university is wider. The figures below are the overall medians and means from each institution's GES 2025 publication, released on 5 March 2026.
SUTD reads high partly because it is a small, engineering- and tech-heavy cohort, so its mix of courses skews toward better-paid clusters rather than the campus itself paying a premium. SMU and NUS sit close behind, lifted by accountancy, business and computing intakes. SUSS and SIT read lower for the mirror reason: their course mix leans toward applied and social-science fields that pay less at entry. Compare like with like by looking at the course, not just the crest on the certificate.
| University | Median 2025 (S$) | Mean 2025 (S$) | Median 2024 (S$) |
|---|---|---|---|
| SUTD | 4,900 | 5,041 | 4,900 |
| SMU | 4,747 | 5,116 | 4,600 |
| NUS | 4,746 | 5,193 | 4,600 |
| NTU | 4,550 | 4,812 | 4,500 |
| SIT | 4,230 | not published as single figure | 4,200 |
| SUSS | 4,224 | not published as single figure | 4,000 |
Your degree subject swings starting pay much harder than your university. In the Class of 2025 the information and digital technologies cluster posted a median of S$5,500, while arts, design and media sat at S$3,840. That is a S$1,660 gap every month, more than a third of a typical graduate salary, between two people who both hold a degree from a local university. The gap is wider than the S$676 spread between the highest- and lowest-paying campuses.
These are cluster medians across all six universities combined, taken from the joint GES 2025 publication. Within a cluster, specific high-demand programmes (computer science, certain engineering specialisations, accountancy with honours) sit above the cluster median, and some sit below it. Note the year-on-year moves: business, humanities and the social sciences nudged up, while information and digital technologies eased from S$5,600 to S$5,500 as tech hiring cooled. Use the cluster figure as a realistic baseline for what your field pays at entry, not a ceiling.
| Course cluster | Median 2025 (S$) | Median 2024 (S$) |
|---|---|---|
| Information & digital technologies | 5,500 | 5,600 |
| Engineering | 4,600 | 4,650 |
| Business | 4,400 | 4,400 |
| Humanities & social sciences | 4,350 | 4,250 |
| Built environment | 4,268 | 4,100 |
| Sciences | 4,200 | 4,125 |
| Health sciences | 4,050 | 4,000 |
| Arts, design & media | 3,840 | 3,800 |
The main GES leaves out a set of courses on purpose: medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, law and architecture. Graduates in these fields cannot work as full professionals straight after the exam hall. They first do housemanship, pupillage, a pre-registration year or supervised practice, so a six-month survey would catch them on trainee pay and understate the field. MOE runs a separate follow-up survey for these graduates about a year out, and the numbers land well above the all-cluster median.
In the latest follow-up, medicine led with a median around S$6,500 a month, the highest of any local-university field. Law sat near S$7,000 in the prior cohort, the top earner once called to the bar. Dentistry and pharmacy came in close to S$4,600 (NUS dentistry at S$4,595 and pharmacy at S$4,598), respectable rather than spectacular, paired with employment rates at or near 100 percent. If you are weighing one of these courses, read the follow-up figure, not the headline S$4,500, because the headline does not include your field at all.
Two caveats. These medians arrive a full year later than the rest, so they are a cohort behind. And the high pay is the back end of a long, costly road: medicine is five years of study plus housemanship, law adds Part B and pupillage, and the dropout and bar-pass filters are real. The income is genuine, but so is the time and money it takes to reach it.
| Field | Median (S$) | Overall employment | When you can practise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medicine | ~6,500 | 100% | After housemanship / first-year residency |
| Law (prior cohort) | ~7,000 | near 100% | After Part B and pupillage |
| Pharmacy (NUS) | 4,598 | 100% | After pre-registration training |
| Dentistry (NUS) | 4,595 | 100% | After supervised practice |
| Architecture | follow-up tracked | 100% | After practical training |
Gross salary is the number on the offer letter. It is not what hits your bank. If you are a Singapore citizen or PR aged 55 or below, you contribute 20 percent of your wage to CPF and your employer adds another 17 percent on top, for a total of 37 percent going into your CPF accounts. The employee 20 percent is deducted from your pay; the employer 17 percent is paid in addition to your salary, so it does not reduce your take-home but it is still your money.
On a S$4,500 gross monthly salary, your 20 percent contribution is S$900, leaving S$3,600 in cash each month. Your employer adds S$765. So your real monthly compensation is about S$5,265, of which S$1,665 is being banked into CPF every month, split across your Ordinary, Special and MediSave accounts. The OA earns 2.5 percent and the SA and MA earn 4 percent a year as of 2026, with extra interest on the first balances, so this is not money lost, it is forced saving you will use for housing, healthcare and retirement.
Two technical points for high earners. CPF only applies up to the Ordinary Wage ceiling, which rose to S$8,000 a month in 2026, so wages above that are not subject to CPF. And a S$4,500 monthly salary works out to about S$54,000 a year before bonuses, which sits in the lower personal income tax brackets; you can see exactly what you would owe with the income tax calculator and read the rules in our Singapore income tax guide.
A S$5,600 starting salary in tech versus S$3,800 in design looks like a settled argument, but treat the comparison honestly. Course fees, course length, the odds of landing a job in that field, and how fast pay grows after year one all change the maths. A four-year double degree that costs more and delays your first paycheck has to out-earn a three-year degree by enough to cover both the extra fees and the year of lost salary before it is genuinely ahead.
Run it as an opportunity cost. Suppose Course A starts at S$5,600 and Course B at S$3,800, a gap of S$1,800 a month or S$21,600 a year. If you invested that difference at a steady return, the gap compounds into real money over a decade. The point is not to chase the highest median, it is to know the trade you are making. If you love the lower-paying field and will stick at it, that is a valid choice; just go in with eyes open about the income, and lift your savings rate to compensate. See how a monthly gap grows with the compound interest calculator.
The biggest money mistake fresh graduates make is lifestyle inflation: a new salary becomes a new car loan, a pricier rental and weekly fine dining, and the raise vanishes. The fix is to decide where the money goes before it arrives. A simple frame is the 50/30/20 rule: roughly half of take-home on needs, 30 percent on wants, 20 percent to savings and debt. On S$3,600 take-home that is about S$1,800 for needs, S$1,080 for wants and S$720 to savings and investing.
Build an emergency fund first, before you invest a cent. Aim for three to six months of expenses in a high-interest savings account or T-bills you can reach quickly. Given that the 2024 cohort took longer to find work, a fresh graduate should lean toward six months. Our list of the best savings accounts and the T-bills guide show where to park it for a real return instead of leaving it idle.
Once the buffer is set, automate the rest. Send a fixed amount to investing on payday so you never see it as spendable, and start small and regular rather than waiting to feel ready. A monthly investment into a low-cost index fund or a robo-advisor does most of the heavy lifting through compounding over a career; our guide on how to start investing in Singapore walks through the first steps. Build the whole plan with the personal budget calculator.
The cluster median is a negotiation tool, not just a statistic. When an offer arrives, place it against the median for your course cluster, not the all-university S$4,500. A computing graduate offered S$4,800 is being lowballed against a S$5,500 cluster median; an arts graduate offered S$4,000 is already above the S$3,840 cluster figure. Knowing where you sit tells you whether to push, and by how much.
Anchor on a range, not a single number. A fair ask for most fresh graduates is the cluster median up to the 75th percentile, which the GES does not publish but typically runs 10 to 20 percent above the median for in-demand roles. Bring evidence: the official cluster figure, any competing offer, and a specific skill or internship that maps to the job. Recruiters expect a counter, and a first salary sets the base every future raise compounds on, so a few hundred dollars now is worth far more over a career.
Read the whole package, not just the basic. CPF, a guaranteed 13th-month, a sign-on bonus, healthcare and learning budgets all change the real value of an offer. A S$4,400 base with a fixed 13th-month beats a S$4,500 base without one. Once you have the gross figure settled, run it through the salary calculator to see the take-home, and remember that the employer's 17 percent CPF is part of your true compensation.
The GES is a snapshot taken six months out, so it captures first jobs, not careers. Pay in fast-moving fields can rise sharply in the first three to five years, while some stable fields start lower but compound steadily. A starting-salary table tells you the entry point, not the trajectory.
It also surveys only the six autonomous universities. Polytechnic graduates and those from private institutions are covered by separate surveys (the poly GES and the SkillsFuture PEI GES) with different and generally lower medians, so do not read these figures as the salary for every Singaporean graduate. And the medians exclude bonuses and variable pay that can add meaningfully to annual income in finance and sales roles.
Read the data as a planning tool, not a scoreboard. Use the course-cluster median for your field as your realistic anchor, build your budget around the take-home after CPF, and treat the employment rate as a reason to keep a larger cash buffer. The starting salary matters far less over a working life than your savings rate and how early you start investing it.
The most recent official figure is from the Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Survey for the Class of 2025, published on 5 March 2026 and available on data.gov.sg. The median gross monthly starting salary across NUS, NTU, SMU, SUTD, SIT and SUSS was S$4,500 for graduates in full-time permanent jobs, the same as the Class of 2024 after four years of rises. Median is more useful than average because the average is pulled up by a few very high earners, and at NUS the mean was S$5,193 against a median of S$4,746.
By overall median in the Class of 2025 survey, SUTD led at S$4,900, followed by SMU at S$4,747, NUS at S$4,746, NTU at S$4,550, SIT at S$4,230 and SUSS at S$4,224. SUTD reads high mainly because of its tech- and engineering-heavy course mix rather than the campus itself paying more. The course you study moves your pay far more than which university you attend, since the spread across campuses is about S$680 while the spread across course clusters is roughly S$1,660.
In the Class of 2025 survey, the information and digital technologies cluster had the highest median among the main clusters at S$5,500 a month, followed by engineering at S$4,600 and business at S$4,400. The lowest was arts, design and media at S$3,840. The gap between the top and bottom cluster is about S$1,660 a month, wider than the gap between any two universities. Counting the professional fields surveyed separately, medicine (around S$6,500) and law (around S$7,000) pay more once their training is done.
If you are a citizen or PR aged 55 or below, you contribute 20 percent of your wage to CPF, which is S$900 on a S$4,500 salary, leaving S$3,600 in cash each month. Your employer adds a further 17 percent (S$765) on top, so your total compensation is about S$5,265, with S$1,665 going into your CPF Ordinary, Special and MediSave accounts every month. That CPF money is forced saving for housing, healthcare and retirement, not money lost.
A S$4,500 monthly salary is about S$54,000 a year before bonus, which falls in the lower personal income tax brackets. After standard reliefs many fresh graduates owe a modest amount, and your CPF contributions are not taxed. Use an income tax calculator to estimate your bill and file by 18 April for the relevant Year of Assessment if you are required to.
No. In the Class of 2025 survey the median held flat at S$4,500, the first year it stopped rising since 2021, after climbing from S$4,317 the year before. Some clusters edged up (business, humanities) while information and digital technologies eased from S$5,600 to S$5,500 as tech hiring cooled. The share finding work within six months fell to 88.9 percent from 91.2 percent, and full-time permanent employment was 74.4 percent. Flat pay came with a tighter job market, so budget for a longer search.
Not automatically. A longer or pricier degree has to out-earn a cheaper one by enough to cover both the extra fees and the year or two of salary you gave up while studying, before it is genuinely ahead. Compare total cost against the realistic median for the field, factor in how reliably you can get hired and how fast pay grows, and remember that your savings rate over a career matters more than your starting salary.
Decide the split before the money arrives. A simple frame is roughly 50 percent of take-home on needs, 30 percent on wants and 20 percent to savings and investing, which on S$3,600 take-home is about S$1,800, S$1,080 and S$720. Build a three- to six-month emergency fund first, then automate a fixed investment on payday so consistency does the work, and avoid letting every raise become a bigger lifestyle.
These fields are surveyed separately because graduates start on trainee pay and only practise after housemanship, pupillage or a pre-registration year. In the latest follow-up survey, taken about a year after graduation, medicine led with a median around S$6,500 a month and law sat near S$7,000 in the prior cohort, both above any main GES cluster. Dentistry and pharmacy came in close to S$4,600, paired with employment rates at or near 100 percent. Plan around the follow-up figure for these courses, because the headline S$4,500 does not include them.
Generally yes at entry. The S$4,500 median covers only the six autonomous universities. Polytechnic graduates are tracked by a separate poly Graduate Employment Survey and private-institution graduates by the SkillsFuture PEI GES, both with lower starting medians. The figures in this guide should not be read as the salary for every Singaporean graduate. Pay over a career depends far more on field, skills and savings rate than on the qualification you started with.
Benchmark your offer against your course-cluster median, not the all-university S$4,500. A computing offer of S$4,800 is below the S$5,500 cluster median and worth pushing, while an arts offer of S$4,000 already beats the S$3,840 cluster figure. Ask for a range from the median up toward the 75th percentile, back it with the official figure and any competing offer, and weigh the full package including CPF and a 13th-month, not just the basic. A higher base now compounds through every future raise.
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.