Employee benefits in Singapore: Statutory and competitive 2026

Singapore’s statutory benefits package differs significantly for local employees and foreign professionals. Citizens and permanent residents pay CPF contributions, while Work Permit and S Pass holders must meet mandatory medical-insurance requirements. Both Singaporean and foreign employees covered by the Employment Act are entitled to statutory leave, while work-injury protection generally applies to employees of all nationalities.

For many employers, though, the legal minimum is only the starting point. Group medical cover, bonuses, flexible benefits, and other additions often shape how competitive an offer feels. Employment Pass holders, in particular, receive no CPF and no mandatory employer medical insurance, so to stay competitive, employers must look beyond statutory packages.

The statutory floor combines leave under the Employment Act, Singapore’s main employment statute, with work-injury protection, family leave, and the Central Provident Fund (CPF), the compulsory savings scheme for citizens and permanent residents. Covered foreign employees generally receive the same annual, sick, hospitalisation, and public-holiday leave as covered locals. CPF and mandatory medical insurance depend instead on residence status and work pass.

Foreign hires typically hold an Employment Pass for professionals, managers, and executives; an S Pass for mid-skilled staff; or a Work Permit for semi-skilled workers in approved sectors.

Private health insurance covering every employee, as well as year-end pay and bonuses, are market benefits that the law leaves to the employer.

Annual leave starts at 7 days in the first year of service and increases by one day each year thereafter, reaching 14 days from the eighth year. Three points apply:

• An employee in the third year of service has 9 days: the 7-day base plus one day each for years two and three.
• The entitlement begins once the employee has worked at least three months
• MOM, the Ministry of Manpower, which administers employment law, publishes the year-by-year entitlement.

Sick leave follows its own scale, which grows with completed months of service:

The hospitalisation figure includes the outpatient days.

For example, an employee with more than six months’ service who has used 10 outpatient days this year has 50 days of hospitalisation leave left 60 days minus the 10 already used.

The employer pays for sick leave and qualifying consultation fees directly, with no government refund. Working any of the 11 paid public holidays generally earns additional pay, and the Singapore leave guide shows how these entitlements fit into a leave calendar.

Government-paid parental leave usually depends on the child being a Singapore citizen. The parent can be a citizen, a permanent resident, or a foreigner, as long as they meet the service and family-status conditions. For a relocating employee, the child’s citizenship matters more than the parent’s passport.

Reimbursement caps what the employer can claim back.

Example: an employee who is a father has four weeks of paternity leave pay of SGD 14,000. The employer pays the salary as normal and can claim up to SGD 2,500 per week, for a total of SGD 10,000 for the four weeks. The remaining SGD 4,000 is not eligible for reimbursement.

The funding split is set to change. At the 2026 National Day Rally, the Government announced it will cover the cost of all child-related leave for every child order, up to the reimbursement limit. That includes maternity, adoption, paternity, shared parental and childcare leave. Childcare and extended childcare leave will also merge into one scheme for children aged 12 and below, with up to 12 days a year for each working parent.

The Government has yet to announce a start date as of writing this, so the employer-funded portions in the table continue to apply until then.

CPF  is a statutory social-security contribution, not an optional pension. Employer and employee both contribute: the employer deducts the employee’s share from wages and pays both shares to the CPF Board. The savings go into four accounts:

• Ordinary Account: housing, insurance, education and investment.
• Special Account: retirement savings below age 55.
• Retirement Account: opened at 55 and used for payouts, including the CPF LIFE annuity.
• MediSave Account: hospital bills and approved medical-insurance premiums.

Foreigners on an Employment Pass, S Pass, Work Permit or Miscellaneous Work Pass are outside CPF. Contributions start on the date a foreign employee becomes a permanent resident. For the first two years, graduated rates normally apply, unless the employer and employee jointly choose an approved higher rate.

For citizens or permanent residents, the employer’s CPF cost depends on age and wage, and some age-based contribution rates for older employees change on 1 January 2027. For the relocating engineer on an Employment Pass, the gap is the missing retirement savings. Some employers fill it with a supplementary retirement contribution or a cash equivalent. That equalisation is a competitive choice, and it usually needs its own tax review.

Work-injury protection is extended to almost every employee, while mandatory medical insurance applies to Work Permit and S Pass holders.

Working in Singapore does not automatically entitle employees to the Annual Wage Supplement (AWS), a yearly payment usually made at year-end and widely called the “13th month”. The AWS becomes payable once the employment contract or a collective agreement provides for it.

A performance bonus is a separate payment. MOM’s wage statistics treat the variable bonus as an amount paid in addition to the AWS, linked to company or individual performance, that changes from year to year. Whether a bonus is contractually fixed, formula-based or discretionary depends on the contract and the bonus-plan wording.

MOM’s Report on Wage Practices 2025 found that 74.2% of establishments (business locations) had adopted at least one Flexible Wage System component, with variable wages making up 13% of private-sector total wages. There are no percentages specifically for the number of companies paying an AWS.

An offer should state a number of details about both bonuses:

1. State whether an AWS is payable and whether it is fixed at one month’s pay.
2. Say whether the AWS is prorated for joiners, leavers and unpaid leave.
3. Describe the performance bonus as target-based, formula-based or discretionary.
4. Indicate the bonus performance period, payment date and treatment on resignation or termination.
5. Confirm whether quoted total pay includes employer CPF, the AWS or a target bonus.

A useful Singapore-specific benchmark is the CIPD/AIA Asia Employee Benefits Report 2025, based on a survey of 116 HR practitioners and business owners in Singapore. The sample is relatively small, so treat the findings as indicative rather than representative of the whole market. Insurance was the most commonly reported benefit category:

Other benefits in the same survey included health and wellbeing benefits (47%), flexible or remote working (37%), training and career development (28%), and telemedicine (18%). Separate AIA (American International Assurance) data covering roughly 14,600 corporate policies found telemedicine in 62% of them in 2025. Because that figure reflects AIA’s own client base, it is not directly comparable to the employer survey.

The design levels below show how benefits packages can step up. They are planning labels, not categories defined by the survey.

Benchmark against workforce mix, industry, seniority and mobility, since one prevalence figure says little about a given role.

Salary, bonuses, allowances and benefits in kind from employment are taxable unless an exemption or a concession from IRAS, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, applies. Putting an item in a flexible-benefits wallet does not change its tax treatment. IRAS publishes the concessions and exemptions employers can rely on.

Group life and accident cover can be structured so it is not taxable to employees. The employer must elect to forgo the corporate tax deduction for qualifying group premiums, which makes the premiums non-taxable for employees. They must then apply that choice consistently.

Singapore splits CPF and insurance duties by residence status, while annual and sick leave apply to every covered employee. Before calculating salary and benefits costs, a foreign employer should group employees by their residency or work pass status:

To turn that grouping into one offer, employers must work through these steps:

1. Confirm the hire’s residence status and, for parents, each child’s citizenship.
2. Apply statutory leave and work-injury protection to every group, following the coverage rules each one sets.
3. Add CPF, work-pass insurance and retirement equalisation as separate eligibility layers.
4. Choose one medical and leave package for all groups, so a legal distinction does not become an internal pay-equity problem,
5.  Write the AWS and bonus terms into the contract.

If the individual is hired  via an Employer of Record (EOR), ask the provider which insurer and policy cover the them, who handles government-paid leave reimbursements, and how AWS and bonus terms are reflected in the employment contract. The Singapore benefits guide sets out the underlying entitlements and benefit rules in more detail. For a relocating employee, medical cover and retirement equalisation are two of the main benefits to price into the offer.