Oil traders, tech professionals among big earners

Jump in median pay for roles relating to healthcare, wellness, beauty: MOM data

- Tay Hong Yi

Oil and bunker traders were among those handsomely rewarded in 2023, a bumper year for Singapore's ports.

They earned a median gross wage of $14,911 per month as at June 2023, coming in tops among the jobs covered by the latest annual occupational wage data released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

Bunker sales in Singapore had weighed in at a record 51.8 million Marine tonnes in 2023, rewriting the 50.6 million tonne mark notched in 2017.

Marine superintendents also ranked high in median gross wage, coming in 19th out of around 500 common occupations across all industries.

Jobs pertaining to technology, finance and media were also well represented among the top 20 roles ranked by median gross wage.

The Straits Times on July 30 released the 2024 Singapore Salary Guide, which draws from MOM'S annual Occupational Wage Survey, among other sources.

Almost 4,800 private-sector employers were polled from July to December in 2023 for the MOM survey, with the results released in June 2024.

These employers collectively employed some 288,700 full-time Singaporean and permanent resident employees who had Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions in June 2023.

Chief information officers, chief technology officers and chief security officers came in second with a median gross wage of $13,840.

The wage figures include employee CPF contributions but exclude employer CPF contributions.

Other tech roles in the top 20 include enterprise or solution architects, digital forensics specialists, and infocomm technology sales and services professionals.

The highest-paying finance-related job was that of business valuer, which drew a median gross wage of $13,649, coming in fourth place.