Singapore Wage Map 2026
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Gender Wage Gap

Singapore's gender pay gap, honestly

The Ministry of Manpower publishes median pay by sex for 365 occupations. Across them the typical gap is 6.2% in men's favour — but it's an unadjusted gap (no controls for hours, seniority or industry), it runs both ways (105 occupations pay women more), and it widens sharply as pay rises.

Source: MOM Occupational Wage Survey, June 2025 — full-time resident employees, medians.

Median gap
6.2%
across 365 occupations with both sexes published
Women out-earn men in
29%
105 of 365 occupations
Gap in the top third of pay
10.1%
highest-paid third of occupations

An unadjusted median comparison — it controls for nothing (hours, seniority, industry). A real gap, with real nuance: it's far from uniform, and it isn't a same-job-same-employer discrimination measure.

1

The gap widens as pay rises

Occupations split into equal thirds by overall median pay; the median gap in each third.

Each point is the median of the per-occupation gaps in that pay third (n = 365, ~122 per third). Positive = men earn more.
2

It's not one gap — it's a spread

Every matched occupation's gap around a zero line. The mass sits right of zero, but there's a real left tail.

  • Men ahead (251)
  • Women ahead (105)
365 occupations, binned in 5% steps. 251 favour men, 105 favour women, 9 are exactly equal.
3

The biggest gaps, both ways

The 15 occupations where men earn most above women, and the 15 where women earn most above men.

Men earn more
  1. Process engineering technician+54.3%
  2. Translator+47.6%
  3. Semi-conductor technician+45.6%
  4. General waste collection/recycling/material recovery worker+42%
  5. Trade broker+41%
  6. House steward+39.8%
  7. Fund/Portfolio manager+39.6%
  8. Sports coach+39.3%
  9. Chauffeur+38.6%
  10. Dairy/Confectionery products machine operator+38.3%
  11. Metalworking machine setter-operator+37%
  12. Technical superintendent+36.3%
  13. Sales professional (institutional sales of financial products)+34.9%
  14. Automation engineer+34.4%
  15. Bus driver+33.8%
Women earn more
  1. Travel consultant/reservation executive−54.5%
  2. Receptionist (general)−51.9%
  3. Cashier (general)−50.2%
  4. Data processing control clerk−46.5%
  5. Secretary−46%
  6. Food service counter attendant−43.9%
  7. Telemarketer−43.2%
  8. Legal clerk−43.1%
  9. Personnel/Human resource clerk−39.8%
  10. Bill collector−38.8%
  11. Library clerk−33.9%
  12. Payroll/Wages clerk−30.7%
  13. Sports centre manager−28.6%
  14. Beautician−28.2%
  15. Event manager−25.5%
Bar length is the size of the gap on a shared scale. Unadjusted medians — extreme gaps often reflect who does the higher-paid variants of a role, not identical work at different pay.
4

Gap by occupational group

Median gap within each of the nine SSOC major groups — the structural story behind the headline.

Median of per-occupation gaps within each group. Group sizes vary widely (Professionals 119 → Agricultural & Fishery 2 — treat the tiniest groups as noise).
5

Familiar roles, side by side

Male and female median pay for recognisable occupations, joined by the gap line.

  • Male median
  • Female median
  • Right-hand figure = gap (＋ men ahead, − women ahead)
A hand-picked set of 20 widely-recognisable roles, all publishing both a male and a female median.
6

Variable pay widens the gap

The median gap is larger on gross pay than on basic — overtime, commissions and allowances amplify it.

Variable pay widens the median gap by +1.4 pts — from 4.8% on basic wages to 6.2% on gross.

  1. Trade brokerbasic +12.5% → gross +41%+28.5 pts
  2. Semi-conductor technicianbasic +17.7% → gross +45.6%+27.9 pts
  3. Bus driverbasic +7.6% → gross +33.8%+26.2 pts
  4. Trailer-truck driverbasic +5.5% → gross +30.8%+25.3 pts
  5. Crane/Hoist operator (excluding port)basic +9.1% → gross +33.2%+24.1 pts
  6. Salesperson (door-to-door)basic +2.9% → gross +24.6%+21.7 pts
  7. Traditional Chinese medicine practitionerbasic −12.1% → gross +9.3%+21.4 pts
  8. Process engineering technicianbasic +35.7% → gross +54.3%+18.6 pts
  9. Financial product structurerbasic +7.6% → gross +19.2%+11.6 pts
  10. Aeronautical engineering technicianbasic −12.5% → gross −2%+10.5 pts
Basic vs gross median gap across the matched occupations. The list ranks the occupations with the largest gross-minus-basic amplification.
7

Where one sex barely registers

Occupations MOM published for one sex only — a publication proxy for gender-skewed fields, highest-paid first.

Published for men only89 occupations
Associate Professionals and Technicians 23Professionals 19Craftsmen and Related Trades Workers 16Plant and Machine Operators and Assemblers 11Cleaners, Labourers and Related Workers 9Services and Sales Workers 8Managers 3
  1. Diagnostic radiologist$20,000
  2. Flying instructor (excluding air force)$20,000
  3. Ship broker$16,833
  4. Marine superintendent$12,386
  5. Data/Database architect$12,109
  6. Script writer/editor$11,010
  7. Commodities/Freight derivatives broker$10,635
  8. Ship charterer$9,975
  9. Optical engineer$9,663
  10. Photographer$8,407
  11. Chemical engineering technician (petrochemical)$8,326
  12. Postal service manager$8,176
  13. Marine surveyor (ship/nautical)$8,121
  14. Environmental inspector (environmental public health)$8,003
  15. Security manager$7,788
  16. Instrumentalist$7,683

+73 more, highest-paid shown first

Published for women only50 occupations
Professionals 16Associate Professionals and Technicians 12Services and Sales Workers 7Managers 4Plant and Machine Operators and Assemblers 4Clerical Support Workers 3Craftsmen and Related Trades Workers 3Cleaners, Labourers and Related Workers 1
  1. Internal medicine physician$9,262
  2. Veterinarian$8,805
  3. Preschool education/Early intervention centre manager$8,260
  4. Community partnership/relations manager$7,753
  5. Medical laboratory scientist$7,436
  6. School principal$6,529
  7. Wellness centre manager$6,176
  8. Curator$5,875
  9. Medical/Pharmaceutical products sales professional$5,800
  10. Advertising salesperson$5,740
  11. Sonographer$5,709
  12. Optometrist$5,500
  13. Audiologist$5,393
  14. Biological technician$5,230
  15. Dietitian$5,077
  16. General dental practitioner$4,972

+34 more, highest-paid shown first

This is a publication proxy, not a headcount. An occupation appears here because MOM suppressed the other sex's median for a small sample — it signals a skewed field, not a measured workforce composition. Read “89 male-only” as “too few women to publish a female median”, never as “no women do this job”.

How to read this — caveats & method

  • Unadjusted. These are raw median comparisons — they don't control for hours worked, seniority, experience or firm. The gap is not a like-for-like “same job, same employer” discrimination measure.
  • All industries only. MOM publishes sex-split medians only at the all-industries level — there is no industry, age or percentile cut by sex, so none of these figures can be narrowed to a sector.
  • Full-time residents, gross medians. Monthly gross wages (basic plus overtime, commissions and allowances) for full-time resident employees, June 2025.
  • The skew lists are a publication proxy. An occupation appears under “men only” or “women only” because MOM suppressed the other sex's median for a small sample. It marks a gender-skewed field — not a workforce census. Don't read “89 male-dominated jobs” as a count of who works where.
  • Convention. Gap = (male − female) ÷ male × 100 on gross medians; positive means men earn more. Coverage: 365 occupations publish both sexes, 89 men only, 50 women only.