Domestic helper salary in Singapore: what is fixed, what is not, and what nobody can tell you
Most people searching for this type the word maid, so if that is how you found this page, you are in the right place.
You want a number. This page will not give you a single one, and the reason why is more useful than the number would have been.
All dollar figures on this page are Singapore dollars.
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, mandatory rest days, 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, and agencies must refund a proportion of service fees if the employment ends early. (MOM FAQ on the fee cap under the Employment Agencies Act, and MOM press release of 26 June 2025.)
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.
Why we do not publish a salary range
You will find ranges on dozens of sites. Almost all of them come from agencies.
An agency has a commercial interest in the number you have in your head, in both directions. Ranges sourced from agencies are market observation from an interested party, not data, and republishing them with a confident air is how a figure with no origin becomes something everyone knows.
We ran the check and could not find a single independently collected wage dataset for this market that we would be willing to print. So we are not printing one.
When we have collected our own, it will appear on the research page with its sample size and method, and you will be able to see how it was made.
If you need a working number today, the honest route is to ask three agencies for their current range for the corridor and the experience level you are considering, ask each one what the figure is based on, and treat the answer as a market signal from a seller rather than as a fact.
The number you should actually be working out
Salary is the part of the cost people compare. It is not the part that decides affordability.
Levy alone is 300 a month for a first helper at the normal rate, or 60 at the concessionary rate, which is 3,600 or 720 a year. (MOM, paying levy for a migrant domestic worker, page last updated 8 July 2026.) On top of that sit insurance, the security bond premium, medical care including the six-monthly examination, food, utilities, home leave flights and the full cost of repatriation whenever the employment ends.
Two households paying identical salaries can have annual costs that differ by thousands, depending on the levy rate they qualify for and whether they budgeted for the flights.
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.
Get the salary and cost data when it is published.
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 and subscribers get it first.
One email, no more than monthly, and nothing else in it.
We publish the sample size and the method every time, including where the sample is too small to conclude anything.
Figures on this page were checked on 3 August 2026 against the sources named. Requirements and fees change. Check the source before you rely on a number.