Employer of Record in Singapore: 20 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Singapore: key facts

Singapore has no general minimum wage, no provincial variation, and CPF — its mandatory social contribution — applies only to citizens and permanent residents, not foreign hires.

Minimum wage

Singapore sets no general statutory minimum wage. Two narrower mechanisms apply instead:

• Progressive Wage Model (PWM): sector-specific wage ladders, mandatory in cleaning, security, landscaping, retail, F&B, waste management, administrators/drivers and other named sectors (mom.gov.sg, checked 2026-09-30).
• Local Qualifying Salary (LQS): not a wage owed to any worker — the floor a local (citizen/PR) employee’s pay must clear to count toward an employer’s foreign-worker quota. Rises to SGD 1,800/month from 2026-07-01 (from SGD 1,600) (mom.gov.sg, checked 2026-09-30).
• Employment Pass (EP) minimum qualifying salary: the floor a foreign professional’s own pay must clear for a work pass, not a minimum wage either — SGD 5,600/month at age 23 (general sector), rising to SGD 6,000 from 2027-01-01. Covered in full under Work permits below.

Employer contributions

CPF applies only to employees who are Singapore citizens or permanent residents; a foreign employee on an Employment Pass, S Pass or Work Permit pays no CPF at all.

FWL doesn’t apply to an Employment Pass holder or a citizen/PR, so it plays no part in the cost examples later on this page.

Working hours and overtime

Employees outside those salary thresholds aren’t covered by the Act’s hours/overtime rules, though the 44-hour week is the market norm.

Annual leave and public holidays

• Annual leave: 7 paid days after 1 year of service, rising by 1 day per additional year to 14 days from the 8th year onward (Employment Act s.43, contracts of 3+ months), sso.agc.gov.sg, checked 2026-09-30.
• Public holidays: 11 paid days in 2026, including Chinese New Year (29–30 Jan), National Day (9 Aug) and Christmas Day (25 Dec), mom.gov.sg, checked 2026-09-30.

Probation

No statutory probation period or length exists under the Employment Act — it’s a matter of contract, commonly 3–6 months, not a legal category with reduced entitlements (mom.gov.sg, checked 2026-09-30).

Notice and severance

Source: sso.agc.gov.sg, checked 2026-09-30. The contract may set a longer period, which then prevails.

• No general statutory severance pay. For 2+ years’ service, a tripartite (MOM/NTUC/SNEF) guideline recommends 2 weeks’ to 1 month’s salary per year of service — a norm, not a legal minimum, unless set out in the contract (mom.gov.sg, checked 2026-09-30).
• Employers with 10+ staff must file a Mandatory Retrenchment Notification with MOM within 5 working days of notifying any retrenchment.

13th salary and bonuses

Not mandatory. The Annual Wage Supplement (“13th-month payment”) is common market practice and can become contractually binding if paid regularly, but statute doesn’t require it (mom.gov.sg, checked 2026-09-30).

Mandatory benefits

• CPF contributions for citizens/PRs (see Employer contributions above).
• Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA) insurance: mandatory for all employees doing manual labour, for non-manual employees earning up to SGD 2,600/month, and for all foreign work-pass holders regardless of wage.
• Paid sick leave: up to 14 days outpatient and up to 60 days hospitalisation (inclusive) per year, for employees with 3+ months’ service and a MOM-recognised medical certificate.
• No statutory private health or dental insurance requirement.

Source: mom.gov.sg, checked 2026-09-30.

Work permits

• Employment Pass (EP): professionals, managers and executives. Minimum qualifying salary SGD 5,600/month at age 23 (SGD 6,200 financial services), rising to SGD 10,700 (SGD 11,800 financial services) at 45+; candidates also need 40+ points on the COMPASS framework unless exempt, e.g. a fixed salary of SGD 22,500+. From 2027-01-01 the age-23 floor rises to SGD 6,000 (SGD 6,600 financial services).
• S Pass and Work Permit: mid-skilled and lower-skilled hires, both subject to the Foreign Worker Levy and a quota.
• The EOR constraint: as of MOM’s 2024-07-09 clarification, an Employer of Record may not apply for a work pass for a foreigner based in Singapore who is in substance employed by an overseas company with no local presence — MOM calls doing so an offence. This doesn’t restrict EOR-mediated hiring of Singapore citizens or permanent residents, who need no work pass at all.

Source: mom.gov.sg, checked 2026-09-30.

Currency and payroll

• Currency: Singapore dollar (SGD).
• Salary must be paid at least once a month, within 7 days after the end of the salary period (Employment Act s.20); overtime pay within 14 days (sso.agc.gov.sg, checked 2026-09-30).

Is Employer of Record legal in Singapore?

Grey area. MOM has stated a position twice, but Parliament hasn’t legislated one, and no court has tested it. On 2023-11-07, MOM told Parliament that someone employed by an EOR is still a genuine employee with full Employment Act protections, even while doing the client’s work (mom.gov.sg, checked 2026-09-30). But on 2024-07-09, MOM published an FAQ saying an EOR may not apply for a work pass for a foreign national who’s based in Singapore but actually works for an overseas company with no local presence — and that doing so “would be committing an offence,” without naming which provision of the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (EFMA) makes it one. Singapore law firms have since noted the gap: no EFMA clause or case law explicitly bans the arrangement, but MOM’s Controller of Work Passes can revoke or refuse passes on administrative grounds regardless (Law Gazette, checked 2026-09-30). The restriction is specific to foreign hires with no Singapore-based client entity — it doesn’t touch EOR-mediated hiring of citizens or permanent residents, who need no work pass at all.

Separately, the Employment Agencies Act 1958 requires a licence to run an employment agency, but whether that applies to a “pure” EOR — one that directly employs rather than places workers with a third party — isn’t addressed by MOM guidance or by the Law Gazette’s analysis; treat this as unconfirmed, not settled.

For the client, three risks follow. Company officers can be personally liable under EFMA s.20 if an offence happens with their knowledge or through their neglect, and an overseas client that benefits from the arrangement can itself be liable as an abettor. MOM’s Controller of Work Passes can revoke passes or debar an employer from future hiring without needing a criminal conviction first. And for citizen/PR hires, where legality isn’t in question, the real risk is ordinary Employment Act compliance — leave, hours, notice, timely CPF — sitting with whoever is the contractual employer.

Who actually employs your hire in Singapore

Vendors describe their entity model globally (“own entities,” “owned + partner network”) far more often than they confirm it for Singapore specifically. Here’s what each vendor’s own Singapore page — or a public registry — actually says:

Ten of these 20 don’t say whether Singapore is served by their own entity or a partner’s. That matters less for who’s on the compliance hook — MOM has confirmed an EOR-employed worker here is a genuine employee either way — and more for the one question entity disclosure alone can’t answer: whether the EOR can sponsor a work pass for a foreign hire with no Singapore-based client entity, which MOM’s 2024 position says none of them can. Ask directly: “Can you sponsor an Employment Pass for this specific hire, or does my company need its own Singapore entity first?”

How to choose an EOR in Singapore

Hiring a foreign national who needs a brand-new Employment Pass, with no Singapore entity of your own? None of the 20 vendors above state they can sponsor that work pass — RemotePass, Safeguard Global and Atlas HXM say so explicitly on their own Singapore pages, matching MOM’s 2024-07-09 position. Skuad’s Singapore page still describes helping arrange Employment Passes, a claim that predates or conflicts with MOM’s clarification; verify directly with Skuad before relying on it. You’ll need your own Singapore entity for this specific hire regardless of which EOR you pick.

Hiring a Singapore citizen or permanent resident, and price matters most? Skuad discloses the lowest Singapore-specific price, $199/month (discounted from $349). Deel’s Singapore price is the highest disclosed here, about $680/month, but comes with the most explicit entity claim and a country-specific cost table.

Need the clearest evidence of who’s actually employing your hire? G-P has two Singapore-registered entities on ACRA; Safeguard Global’s Singapore entity is similarly on record. Most of the rest — ten of 20 — don’t disclose an owned-vs-partner split for Singapore at all.

Need to hire fast? Deel states onboarding can begin within 1 business day, with hires starting in as little as 2 days; Borderless AI quotes 1–2 business days too. Safeguard Global’s own entity cuts EOR onboarding to 1–2 weeks against 1–3 months to set up your own.

What it costs to employ someone in Singapore through an EOR

CPF, the main employer contribution, applies only to a Singapore citizen or permanent resident; a foreign employee on an Employment Pass pays none of it, so the same salary costs the employer two very different amounts depending on who’s hired.

Source: cpf.gov.sg, checked 2026-09-30. Figures assume the salary is paid entirely as monthly Ordinary Wage with no annual bonus, so the SGD 102,000/year combined CPF ceiling is never separately binding; SDL is a flat SGD 135/year in every case shown, since both salary levels exceed its SGD 4,500/month cap threshold.

The CPF Ordinary Wage ceiling has risen in steps since 2021 — from SGD 6,000/month through 2023-08-31 to SGD 8,000/month from 2026-01-01 — but it never bound either salary example above, so the employer cost for a citizen hire at these pay levels hasn’t moved across that period.

The EOR’s own fee is on top of the above. Published Singapore-specific numbers in our data range from $199/month (Skuad’s discounted rate) to about SGD 9,205/year (≈$680/month) at Deel; G-P quotes a flat USD 599/month, Borderless AI $579/month, and Justworks $599/month, each confirmed on the vendor’s own Singapore page. Most other vendors publish only a global list price ($99–$699/month) or none at all, quote-based — Rippling, Atlas HXM and Pebl all route Singapore pricing through a quote or calculator rather than a published figure.

Hidden costs, where actually published: Rivermate states no onboarding, offboarding, setup or termination fee beyond its monthly rate (a global claim, not Singapore-specific). RemoFirst states no setup fee, no minimum term and no termination fee globally. Playroll states no onboarding fee globally, but separately discloses a refundable security deposit equal to one month’s salary per employee as a global policy, not a confirmed Singapore figure. No vendor in this set discloses a Singapore-specific deposit, setup fee or termination fee — where the table above shows no figure, treat it as unpublished, not zero.

When you don’t need an EOR

• Your own Singapore entity. The only route if the hire needs a new Employment Pass and has no Singapore-based employer already — no EOR can be the sponsor for that case (see above).
• A PEO. Co-employment alongside an entity you already have, rather than the EOR standing in as sole legal employer. Papaya Global runs a separate Singapore PEO product alongside its EOR; see our PEO glossary entry and EOR vs PEO for how the liability split differs.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-01 — CPF Ordinary Wage (OW) ceiling rises to SGD 8,000/month, from SGD 7,400; the annual (OW+AW) ceiling stays at SGD 102,000/year.
• 2026-01-01 — Employment Pass minimum qualifying salary (SGD 5,600/month, general sector) now applies uniformly to new and renewal applications, ending the prior dual-rate gap.
• 2026-07-01 — Local Qualifying Salary rises to SGD 1,800/month, from SGD 1,600.
• 2026-07-01 — Minimum retirement age rises from 63 to 64; re-employment age rises from 68 to 69.

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Borderless AI’s Singapore page states the CPF Ordinary Wage ceiling as SGD 7,400/month — the 2025 rate. The current 2026 ceiling is SGD 8,000/month (see Employer contributions above), so this vendor page hasn’t been updated for the 2026-01-01 change.

How we built this page

Facts were collected and checked on 2026-09-30 against government sources (mom.gov.sg, cpf.gov.sg, sso.agc.gov.sg) and, for the Employer of Record legal position, MOM’s own parliamentary answer and FAQ alongside the Law Gazette’s 2025 legal analysis. Vendor entity claims were checked against a public registry (ACRA, via sgpbusiness.com) where one could confirm them, and against the vendor’s own Singapore-facing page otherwise; where a vendor states only a global entity model, we recorded Singapore as not disclosed rather than assuming. The ranking above puts confirmed, Singapore-specific own entities first. Nobody pays for placement on this page.