You've been offered a new number: a promotion, or a new contract. It looks like more. Whether it actually is depends on details the letter leaves out. Start with the figure you already know: your basic salary.
Four short steps: allowances, bonus, CPF, and the target you set yourself. Most people find the number moves more than they expected.
A pay package is built from parts that behave differently. Some arrives every month. Some only if the year goes well. Some arrives once and never again. And some never reaches your account at all: it goes to CPF, which is still yours, just not yet spendable.
Four short steps follow. Fill in what applies to you and leave the rest blank. The number updates as you go.
This decides how much of the package reaches your bank account each month, and how much your employer pays on top of it.
Permanent Residents in their first two years contribute at lower graduated rates. This tool assumes full rates.
CPF rates step down with age. Rates below are the 2026 figures, effective 1 January.
Read these off your existing contract or your last payslip. Each one includes where to find it.
Money paid every month no matter what you spend — transport, phone, meals. Not claims you file receipts for.
Clause 4. Benefits. The Employee shall receive a fixed monthly transport allowance of SGD 200, payable with the monthly salary.
Look under Benefits, Allowances, Remuneration.
Words to search for fixed allowance transport allowance mobile allowance housing allowance
If it says reimbursement or upon production of receipts, it is not an allowance. It is your own money coming back. Leave it out.
Some employers pay foreign staff a cash amount in place of the CPF they cannot contribute. It behaves like an allowance.
Enter it either way. Filling one fills the other.
Clause 5. Annual Wage Supplement. The Employee shall be paid an AWS equivalent to one month of basic salary, payable in December.
Look under Annual Wage Supplement, Thirteenth Month, Bonus.
Words to search for AWS 13th month guaranteed annual bonus
This is the single most misread clause in Singapore employment contracts. If it says at the discretion of management or subject to company performance, it is not guaranteed, no matter what you were told in the room. Put it in the next field instead.
Months of basic, percent of annual basic, or a dollar figure. Any one of the three.
Clause 6. Performance Bonus. Subject to the Company's profitability and the Employee's individual performance, the Employee may be considered for a discretionary bonus.
Look under Performance Bonus, Variable Bonus, Incentive.
Words to search for discretionary variable bonus on-target bonus subject to
Use what you actually received last year, not the figure you were quoted at interview. The two are often different.
Name the increase you came here wanting. Set it now, while it's still yours. Once you see the full offer, it's remarkably easy to decide that whatever you were given is what you wanted all along.
The same four parts, read off the new letter.
Paid every month no matter what you spend. Not claims you file receipts for.
Clause 4. Benefits. You shall be entitled to a fixed monthly transport allowance of SGD 300, payable together with your monthly salary.
Look under Benefits, Allowances, Remuneration.
Words to search for fixed allowance transport allowance mobile allowance housing allowance
If the letter says reimbursement or upon production of receipts, it is not an allowance and does not belong here. It is your own money coming back.
Only if the letter guarantees it. Subject to performance belongs in the next field.
Clause 5. Annual Wage Supplement. You shall be paid an AWS equivalent to one month of basic salary, pro-rated in your first year of service.
Look under Annual Wage Supplement, Thirteenth Month, Bonus.
Words to search for AWS 13th month guaranteed annual bonus pro-rated
This is the most misread clause in Singapore employment contracts. At the discretion of management or subject to company performance means it is not guaranteed, whatever you were told in the room. Put it in the next field instead. Also check whether your first year is pro-rated, because joining in September rarely pays a full month in December.
The number they quoted you at target. Not the ceiling.
Clause 6. Performance Bonus. You may be considered for a discretionary annual bonus with an on-target value of two months' basic salary, subject to Company profitability and individual performance.
Look under Performance Bonus, Variable Bonus, Incentive Plan.
Words to search for discretionary on-target subject to may be considered
Use the on-target figure, not the maximum. And ask what the bonus has actually paid out over the last two years. A target nobody has hit is a number, not an income.
A one-off payment for joining. It changes your first year and nothing after it, so it is kept separate below.
Clause 8. Commencement Incentive. A one-off sign-on payment of SGD 5,000 shall be paid with the first month's salary, repayable in full should the Employee resign within twelve months of commencement.
Look under Sign-on Bonus, Joining Bonus, Special Payments.
Words to search for sign-on joining bonus clawback repayable
Read the clawback line closely. Most sign-on bonuses in Singapore must be repaid in full if you leave inside twelve or eighteen months, which quietly makes it a retention clause, not a gift.
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Figures exclude income tax. Take-home shown is after CPF only.
A one-page negotiation note built around the exact gap above: the sentences, the order to raise them in, and what to ask for when the salary line won't move. Tell us where to send it.
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Done — your note is below. We have your email too, so if you would like a second pair of eyes on the letter, one of us can pick it up from here.
It's the toughest part, the asking, especially to the key decision maker, and it is made harder when you don't know whether asking will cost you the offer. We have always been on the other side of that table: we built the offers, we navigate the stakeholders, run the pay reviews and set the salary bands. That's how we know which asks actually move a number, and which ones just cost you goodwill.
If you would like a second pair of eyes on your letter before you answer it, send it over.