Singapore Contractor Day Rate Calculator

15% to 25% is standard for sole proprietors and independent contractors, to compensate for unpaid leave and the lack of job security. If you're paid through a recruitment agency on PAYG payroll, the agency already handles CPF (for citizens/PRs) and payroll administration, so a lower 8%-15% loading is enough since it only needs to cover unpaid leave. These loadings are lower than markets like Australia because Singapore has no compulsory employer-side super or pension contribution for contractors to fund.

Multiply your target base salary by your contractor loading factor (1 plus your loading %), then divide by your realistic billable days for the year (230 is a common default). For example, a S$110,000 base salary with an 18% sole proprietor loading over 230 billable days works out to roughly $565/day. The calculator above runs this for your own numbers, plus the reverse: enter a day rate to see the permanent salary it's equivalent to.

Divide your day rate by your standard billable hours per day, typically 8 hours. A S$500/day rate at 8 hours works out to roughly S$62.50/hour. Most Singapore contracts bill by the day rather than the hour, so this is mainly useful for comparing against hourly-rate roles or part-day engagements.

It depends entirely on your structure. An agency PAYG contractor is run through payroll like an employee, so CPF (for citizens/PRs) is deducted the normal way. A sole proprietor invoicing clients directly makes no compulsory CPF Ordinary/Special Account contribution at all, though compulsory MediSave contributions on net trade income still apply. Always confirm your structure before comparing a quoted rate to a permanent salary.

No. Unlike the UK (IR35) or Ireland (PAYE vs Class S PRSI), Singapore has no separate contractor tax code: both employees and sole proprietors are taxed at the same progressive resident IRAS rates. This makes the tax side of contracting genuinely simpler in Singapore, the main differences are CPF treatment and what counts as taxable income (net business income after allowable expenses, for a sole proprietor).

A full Singapore working year is 260 days (52 weeks x 5 days), but a contractor doesn't get paid for all of them. Subtract 11 gazetted public holidays, 14 days of paid-leave-equivalent buffer, and 5 sick or bench days, and you land at roughly 230 billable days. True freelancers have no statutory paid leave at all, so many budget extra downtime for gaps between contracts, which is why the calculator lets you adjust billable days.

As a sole proprietor, you invoice clients directly, handle your own accounting, and carry the full job-security gap yourself, so your loading needs to be higher (15%-25%). On agency or PAYG payroll, the agency runs you through their payroll like an employee, including CPF for citizens/PRs, so a smaller 8%-15% loading is usually enough to cover just the unpaid-leave gap.