What It Actually Costs to Hire a Domestic Helper in Singapore
Most published cost guides in Singapore tell you to budget seven to ten thousand dollars before your helper starts. That number is wrong, and it is wrong in a specific, checkable way: it counts the S$5,000 security bond as cash, when MOM requires it as a banker's or insurer's guarantee that most employers never pay a cent of. The real cash you need is closer to S$1,500 to S$4,000, and your ongoing cost is salary plus a levy of either $60 or $300 a month.
The S$5,000 that is not a cost
Start here, because it is the single biggest distortion in this market and it deters people who could comfortably afford a helper.
MOM requires a S$5,000 security bond for every helper who is not Malaysian. It is a binding pledge to pay the government if the Work Permit conditions are breached, furnished as a banker's or insurer's guarantee. It is not a deposit. In practice it comes bundled into an insurance package, so for most employers there is no separate cash outlay at all. It is discharged about a week after she goes home.
Two of the highest-ranking cost pages in Singapore put the full S$5,000 inside their headline upfront totals, producing figures like "S$6,632 to S$8,632" and "S$7,479 to S$10,479". Those totals are inflated by roughly S$4,950. They overstate the cash an employer needs by about five times. Check any cost table you read against this one line.
The three numbers you actually want
Employers ask these in this order, so here they are in that order. The government figures below are exact. The rest are market ranges, and we say which is which throughout, because blurring the two is how the published numbers went wrong.
| Question | Realistic answer | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Cash before she starts | S$1,500 to S$4,000 | Agency fee and insurance, not government fees |
| Every month | S$660 to S$1,000 | Salary, and whether you get the $60 levy |
| Two-year contract | S$18,000 to S$28,000 | Mostly salary and levy across 24 months |
Government and programme fees are the small part. Work Permit application and issuance is S$70 in total. The Employers' Orientation Programme is S$29.98 to S$76.30 and only applies to first-time employers. The Settling-in Programme is S$76.40 to S$92.65 and only applies to helpers who have not worked here before, so a transfer helper skips it.
Work out your own numbers
Government and programme fees are exact and checked against MOM on 20 July 2026. You supply the salary, because that is a market rate and not a rule.
Singapore sets no minimum wage for helpers. If you are hiring a Filipino helper the Philippine authorities enforce a floor of about $650 a month on new and renewed contracts.
What this deliberately leaves out. Our placement fee, because it depends on the placement and we would rather talk it through than quote you a number that turns out to be wrong. Insurance premiums, food, home leave and her medical costs, which vary by insurer and household. And the $5,000 security bond, which is a banker's or insurer's guarantee rather than money you hand over. Guides that add that bond into an upfront total overstate the cash you need by roughly $4,950.
What leaves your account every month
The levy is S$300 a month for a first helper at the normal rate, or S$60 at the concessionary rate. That $240 difference is the largest single variable in the whole calculation, and most households with a young child or an elderly parent qualify without realising it.
| Monthly item | Typical | Rule or market |
|---|---|---|
| Salary | S$500 to S$950 | Market |
| Levy | S$60 or S$300 | Rule |
| Food and upkeep | S$150 to S$350 | Rule to provide, no set amount |
| Insurance, spread over the contract | S$15 to S$30 | Rule to hold, market price |
| Medical exam every 6 months | S$40 to S$80, twice a year | Rule |
Food is worth a sentence of its own. The Work Permit conditions make you responsible for her upkeep including adequate food, and it cannot be deducted from her salary. There is no statutory figure. Where a helper cooks separately, a cash allowance of S$250 to S$350 a month is the common practice, but that is a market norm and not a rule, and several guides present it as though MOM had set it.
Salary: what is a rule, and what is just repeated
Singapore sets no minimum wage for domestic helpers. MOM requires only that you pay, in full and on time, the salary you declared in the Work Permit application.
The Philippines is the one real floor. Since 21 October 2025 the Philippine Department of Migrant Workers has enforced a minimum of US$500 a month, stated by its Singapore office as about S$650, on all new and renewed contracts. It replaced a US$400 floor that had stood since 2006. Because it is set in US dollars, the Singapore-dollar equivalent moves.
You will find pages stating an Indonesian minimum of S$550, S$560, or S$600 to S$650, and a Myanmar minimum of S$500. We could not verify any of them against a primary source. The Indonesian Embassy's own helper portal publishes no salary figure, and the Indonesian government's country profile gives S$600 to S$750 explicitly as a range that depends on experience, not as a minimum. Those numbers appear to be agencies citing each other. Treat them as market convention, and expect the operative number to be whatever the sending country's mission will register on the day.
What the data does support is that experience moves pay more than nationality does. The gap between nationalities at entry level runs about S$100 to S$150. The premium for a helper with a completed contract behind her is S$100 to S$200, and at senior levels the nationality bands overlap almost entirely. Hire for the experience you need and the fit with your household, and the salary follows from that.
One distinction most pages blur: a transfer helper is already in Singapore and changing employer. That is not the same as an experienced helper. She may be six months into a first contract. Do not pay an experience premium for a transfer that is only a convenience premium.
The costs the other guides leave out
- The Employers' Orientation Programme. Required before a first-time employer may apply, and almost never listed.
- The six-monthly medical examination. A recurring cost you pay, twice a year, for the whole contract. Helpers aged 50 and above are exempt and are examined at renewal instead.
- The insurance co-payment. On medical claims above S$15,000 the insurer pays 75% and you pay 25%. That split is between the insurer and you. You may never ask your helper to co-pay any part of her medical expenses.
- The rest day you cannot buy out. She is entitled to one rest day a week. Since January 2023, at least one a month must actually be taken and cannot be compensated away. Budget the others at a day's salary each if she agrees to work them.
- The older-helper insurance band. Since July 2025 premiums are priced across two age bands, 50 and below, and above 50. A helper who is exactly 50 falls in the lower band.
- Repatriation. Her flight home at the end of the permit is your obligation, including check-in luggage and transport to the airport nearest her hometown.
- The levy during home leave. It keeps running. A waiver needs at least 7 consecutive days away and is capped at 60 days a year.
Your agency fee is not her loan
These are two different things and at least one major cost guide merges them. Your agency fee is what you pay the agency, typically S$1,000 to S$3,000 for a helper from overseas and less for a transfer. Her placement loan is her own debt to the deploying agency, repaid by deduction from her salary over several months. Listing her loan as an employer cost inflates your budget and misrepresents whose money it is.
Salary deductions are capped and must be agreed in writing and itemised. If a deduction schedule is not written down, that is a problem worth raising before she starts, not after.
We do not publish our own placement fee, and that is deliberate. It depends on where she is coming from, whether she is a transfer, and what the placement involves. Quoting a number that turns out to be wrong for your situation is the behaviour this page exists to argue against, so ask us and we will walk you through it.
Questions employers actually ask
- How much cash do I actually need before my helper starts?
- For most first-time employers, roughly S$1,500 to S$4,000 once you include an agency fee and insurance. The MOM and programme fees alone come to about S$180 to S$240. The S$5,000 security bond is not part of it, because it is a guarantee rather than a cash payment.
- Do I have to pay the $5,000 security bond?
- Not in cash. MOM requires a S$5,000 bond for every non-Malaysian helper, but it is furnished as a banker's or insurer's guarantee and is usually bundled into an insurance package. You only pay if it is forfeited for a breach.
- What is the monthly cost of a helper in Singapore?
- Salary plus levy is the bulk of it. With the concessionary levy of $60 and a salary of $650, that is $710 a month before insurance, food and her medical costs. Without the concession the levy is $300, so the same helper costs $950 a month.
- Is there a minimum salary for a domestic helper in Singapore?
- Singapore sets none. MOM requires only that you pay in full and on time what you declared. The Philippines enforces a floor of US$500 a month, about S$650, on new and renewed contracts for Filipino helpers.
- Is the agency placement fee the same as the helper's loan?
- No, and confusing the two is a common error. Your agency fee is what you pay the agency. The placement loan is the helper's own debt, repaid by deduction from her salary. Some cost guides list her loan as though it were your cost.
- Do I have to pay for her flight home?
- Yes. Repatriation at the end of the Work Permit is your obligation, including check-in luggage and transport to the airport nearest her hometown. Mid-contract home leave is contractual, not a legal requirement.
- Can I deduct her food or insurance from her salary?
- No. Food, lodging, medical and dental costs are your responsibility as employer and cannot be charged back to her. Insurance premiums cannot be passed on either.
- Does the levy still run when she goes home on leave?
- Yes, unless you apply for a waiver. A waiver needs at least 7 consecutive days overseas and is capped at 60 calendar days a year.