Domestic helper salary in Singapore: what is fixed, what is not, and what nobody can tell you

What is actually fixed

Singapore does not set a minimum wage for domestic workers. There is no MOM-mandated floor. Anyone who tells you otherwise is describing something else, usually a source country rule or an agency's own policy.

Some source countries do set one, and it binds you. Where a home country requirement and a Singapore requirement differ, the stricter applies.

For Philippine hires the minimum is 650 Singapore dollars a month, raised from the previous level, 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.)

One caution on that figure. The Philippine Embassy website in Singapore still shows the older amount in an undated post, while the MWO knowledge base shows the current one with the advisory number. Confirm with the MWO directly before you put a number in a contract.

For Indonesian and Myanmar hires, minimum salary figures circulate very widely. We have not been able to find a primary source for any of them. Every version traces back to an agency blog, and an agency blog is a commercially interested party. Ask the relevant representative office in Singapore directly. If someone quotes you a figure, ask them where it comes from.

What is fixed about how you pay it

On time. Late salary is one of the grounds on which a security bond can be forfeited. (MOM, security bond requirements for migrant domestic workers, page last updated 2 February 2026.)

Without deductions to recover placement costs, for Philippine hires. No deduction to recover recruitment, placement or training costs under any label, including where the arrangement is called a loan, an advance or a salary deduction agreement. No placement fee may be charged to her by either agency. (Same source as above, resting on R.A. 10022.) For other corridors the position differs and should be checked rather than assumed in either direction.

With rest day compensation on top, where it applies. She is entitled to one rest day a week. At least one a month cannot be compensated in money and must be taken. 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.)

Capped agency deductions, separately. The Singapore agency may charge her no more than one month's salary per year of service, to a maximum of two months, on basic salary plus fixed allowances. Amounts above that are unlawful. Separately again, and this one is money back to you: if the placement ends within her first six months, the agency must refund you at least half of the service fees you paid. 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 she is repaying an agency out of her salary in the first months, that is a lawful arrangement in some corridors and unlawful in others. Know which one you are in before the first payday, not after.

And the question underneath the question

Most people arriving at this page are really asking whether they can afford this, or whether they are paying fairly. Neither is answered by a range.

Affordability is the total annual figure, and it is knowable. Fairness is a conversation with the person you are employing, in which the salary is one term among several: the rest day arrangement, the hours, the home leave, whether she is repaying anyone. Those terms are worth more attention than they usually get, because a salary at the top of a market range attached to a badly defined job is not a good deal for either of you.

When we have the data

We are collecting wage and terms data from employers in Singapore directly, with the method published. When there is a dataset worth printing it goes on the research page, with the sample size and the method every time, including where the sample is too small to conclude anything.

There is no mailing list. This site asks you for nothing and stores nothing about you, so the way to see new data is to come back to the research page, or write to [email protected] and ask.