Want to know if you are paid enough? Start with these salary guides

Besides the Singapore Salary Guide by The Straits Times, which draws on Ministry of Manpower data, other recruitment firms also publish benchmarking guides using their own data.

SINGAPORE – The Singapore Salary Guide by The Straits Times offers a broad, national-level view of the wages across more than 500 occupations based on the Ministry of Manpower’s data.

Readers can enter their age, occupation and gross monthly salary to see how they compare with peers at the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles.

The guide also shows the highest-paying jobs by median salaries. At the top are diagnostic radiologists, derivatives dealers and flying instructors, each with a median monthly salary of $20,000. They are followed by chief information, information security and technology officers at $17,812, risk management managers at $17,077 and commercial airline pilots at $17,053.

Among workers aged 25 to 29, artificial intelligence and machine learning engineers top the rankings with a median monthly salary of $8,970.

Among those in their 30s and 40s, the top-earning occupations include financial derivatives dealer, economist and infocomm technology sales and services professional.

Among those in their 50s, flying instructor, in-house legal counsel and fund/portfolio manager are among the best-paid occupations.

Men earn more than women in 251 of the 365 occupations where comparisons are available. The widest gap observed is among fund/portfolio managers, trade brokers and sales professionals.

Women earn more in occupations such as sports centre managers, business valuers and industrial safety engineers.

Several recruitment firms also publish their own salary guides. These tend to offer more industry-specific views of the market. Here are some examples:

Adecco: Using data from its clients and candidates, it provides salary benchmarks across 10 functions, including finance, engineering, technology and education – a sector rarely featured in other guides. Its figures represent monthly base salaries.

Michael Page: It draws on its proprietary data and analyses to project salaries across 13 functions, ranging from banking and legal to procurement and sustainability. Its salary figures include bonuses and incentives.