What it actually costs to hire a domestic helper in Singapore
The number people quote each other is the monthly salary. It is the smallest part of the answer. Below is every cost, with the source that sets it and the date that source was last updated, split into what you pay once and what you pay every month.
Every month: the levy at 300 dollars, or 60 if you qualify for the concession, plus salary, food, accommodation, utilities and medical care. None of the last four may be deducted from her pay.
Once, before she starts: a 5,000 dollar security bond, which is a guarantee you pay a premium on rather than a payment, insurance, the Employers' Orientation Programme, the Settling-in Programme, flights, the medical examination, and an agency fee if you use one.
The levy alone is 3,600 dollars a year on top of salary. Every figure below is sourced to the body that sets it, with the date that source was last updated.
Where a figure is set by a regulator, it is exact. Where it is set by a market, it is given as a range and labelled as such, because a market figure printed to the cent is wrong within a year.
Most people searching for this type the word maid, so if that is how you found this page, you are in the right place.
All dollar figures on this page are Singapore dollars.
One-time costs, before she starts work
| Item | Cost | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|
| Security bond | 5,000 dollar guarantee, waived for Malaysian helpers | MOM, page updated 2 February 2026 |
| Employers' Orientation Programme, first-time employers | About 30 to 36 online, about 35 to 76 in a classroom, including GST | MOM, page updated 7 August 2026 |
| Settling-in Programme, first-time helpers | About 76 to 93, including GST | MOM, page updated 1 September 2025 |
| Medical and personal accident insurance | Premium varies by insurer and her age | MOM sets the minimum cover, not the price |
| Agency fee, if you use one | Market rate, not regulated for employers | The agency |
| Flights, medical examination, work permit issuance | Varies | Various |
A note on the security bond, because it is the figure that alarms people most and it is the least well understood. It is a guarantee, not a payment. You arrange it through a bank or an insurer and pay a premium, not the five thousand. It is returned after the work permit is cancelled, she has gone home and the conditions have been met, usually about a week after departure. It can be forfeited, including for salary not paid on time.
The bond cost may not be passed on to her. Neither may the insurance.
Monthly costs
| Item | Cost | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Levy, first helper | 300 a month, 9.87 a day | MOM, page updated 8 July 2026 |
| Levy, each additional helper | 450 a month, 14.80 a day | Same |
| Levy, concessionary rate | 60 a month, 1.98 a day | Same |
| Salary | Set by contract, with a floor for some corridors, see below | Contract and home country regulator |
| Food, accommodation, utilities, medical care | Your cost, not deductible from her salary | MOM |
The concessionary levy applies to households with an eligible person: a Singapore citizen child under 16, a citizen aged 67 or above, a permanent resident aged 67 or above with a citizen family member attached, or a person with disabilities certified by a Singapore-registered doctor. One helper per eligible person, capped at two per household. The difference between 60 and 300 a month is 2,880 dollars a year, so it is worth checking whether you qualify before you budget. (MOM, levy concession for a migrant domestic worker, page last updated 7 July 2026.)
The levy starts on the fifth day after arrival for a first-time helper, counting the arrival day, and the day after arrival otherwise. It is due by the 17th of the following month. Two consecutive missed payments revoke the work permit.
Salary floors set by her home country
Singapore does not set a minimum wage for domestic workers. Some source countries do, and where that is the case the stricter rule applies to you.
The Philippines. Minimum 650 Singapore dollars a month, raised from the previous figure, applying to new contracts and to renewals for returning workers from 21 October 2025. (Migrant Workers Office Singapore, based on DMW Advisory No. 25, Series of 2025, effective 22 August 2025.) The Philippine Embassy site in Singapore still shows the older figure in an undated post, so confirm with the MWO directly before you rely on it.
Most of what this page costs you is settled by one document, and it is usually drafted by the party being paid to place her. The clauses to read twice
Indonesia and Myanmar. Figures circulate widely and we have not been able to find a primary source for either. Every version we found traces back to an agency blog, which is a commercially interested party and not adequate on its own. Ask the relevant representative office in Singapore directly.
What you may not deduct
For Philippine hires, no deduction from salary to recover recruitment, placement or training costs, under any label, including where the arrangement is described as a loan, an advance or a salary deduction agreement. No placement fee may be charged to her by either the Philippine or the Singapore agency. Her passport stays with her. (Same source as above, resting on R.A. 10022 and Section 13 of R.A. 8239.)
For other corridors the position is different and should be checked rather than assumed. The widespread market practice of a helper repaying her placement over several months is not lawful for Philippine workers, and the difference between corridors is real and should not be generalised in either direction.
Separately, and for everyone: the Singapore agency may charge her no more than one month's salary per year of service, capped at two months, calculated on basic salary plus fixed allowances. Anything above that is unlawful.
What you get back if it ends early. If the placement ends within her first six months, the agency must refund you at least half of the service fees you paid. At least fifty per cent, not a proportion worked out from how long she stayed. The condition that catches most people: tell the agency that you intend to cancel her Work Permit, repatriate her or transfer her before you do it, not after. Service fees exclude the costs that only pass through the agency, such as the Work Permit, the Settling-in Programme, the medical and her ticket. Read your own service agreement and ask the agency in writing what they count as service fees. The rule is the floor and your agreement can give you more. MOM sets the conditions that disqualify you, and there are five: engaging the agency for administrative work only rather than for matching, breaching employment law or committing an offence against her, failing to tell the agency in reasonable time before you cancel the permit, having already had two replacements where one lasted beyond six months or three replacements in total, and no longer needing a caregiver because the person she was hired to care for has died or moved away. An agency does not get to add conditions of its own on top of those. (MOM FAQ on what workers pay the Singapore agency, page last updated 3 July 2024. Rule 13A, Employment Agencies Rules 2011, and MOM, Refund of EA service fee, page last updated 18 September 2024.)
If you are using an agency, ask for an itemised statement of what you pay and what she pays. The second number is the one worth reading.
The costs people forget
Rest day compensation. She is entitled to one rest day a week. At least one a month must be taken and cannot be compensated in money. Any additional rest day compensated in money requires her agreement and at least one day's salary on top of the monthly wage. (MOM, rest days and wellbeing, page last updated 16 January 2026. The rule has been in force since 1 January 2023.) If you plan to buy back rest days, that is a real monthly cost and it belongs in the budget.
Repatriation. You pay the full cost of sending her home, including the flight, any required pre-departure tests and onward transport. (MOM, employer responsibility for repatriation costs, and MOM guidance on sending a migrant domestic worker home.) This applies whenever the employment ends, including when it ends badly, and it is the cost most often left out.
Medical care. Yours, including the six-monthly medical examination.
Home leave. Flights every one or two years, depending on what you agreed. Agree it in writing before she starts, because a disagreement about this in year two is expensive in more than money.
The cost of a placement that fails. Repatriation, a new security bond, a new set of one-time costs, and the levy running throughout. This is the largest number on the page and the only one you can influence, which is the entire argument for spending time on the job description before you spend money on the hire.
The honest summary
Add the levy alone and you are at 3,600 dollars a year above salary at the normal rate. Add insurance, the one-time programmes, medical care, food and the flights and the true annual cost sits well above the number most households have in mind when they start.
None of that is an argument against hiring. It is an argument for pricing the decision properly once, at the start, rather than discovering it in instalments.
A transfer helper changes some of these costs. What is different when you hire a transfer
The workbook
Book 1 contains the full cost model as a worksheet you fill in for your own household, including the concessionary levy test, the corridor rules and a year on one page so the annual items do not surprise you.
Hiring a Domestic Helper in Singapore. The Shared Standard, Book 1.
Figures on this page were checked on 10 September 2026 against the sources named. Requirements and fees change. Check the source before you rely on a number.