Flying Instructors Are Singapore's Top Earners By Median Salary

Flying instructors have emerged as Singapore's top earners – at least by median gross monthly salary, which stands at $20,000.

- Cheong Poh Kwan

Following closely behind are foreign exchange brokers, who pull in a median pay of $19,750, and in-house legal counsel, who earn $17,972.

The salary data is revealed in the latest Occupational Wage Survey released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in August.

Conducted from July to December 2024, the survey covers a representative sample of 407,800 full-time resident employees from private sector companies with at least 25 employees each.

Public sector employees are excluded from the survey, so the salaries of roles such as air force flying instructor and in-house lawyer in the judiciary and ministries are not reflected.

Bus attendants, civil engineering and building construction laborers, and laundry and dry cleaning workers are among those earning the lowest median salaries, ranging from $1,400 to $1,560.

The MOM data also shows the pay for each occupation at the 25th and 75th percentiles – unless the sample size for certain niche roles is too small.

At the 75th percentile, flying instructors still take home the most handsome pay check at $30,000. However, those at the 25th percentile are earning $8,050, making this the profession with the widest pay gap at the middle level.

The data comes as no surprise to Mr. Fabian Lim, an aviation consultant at Wings Academy.sg, which employs several full-time flight instructors to guide customers through retail flight simulator experiences.

“Anyone in the industry can tell that only a small subset of flying instructors make $20,000 or more,” he told The Straits Times.

He said the top earners are typically commercial airline pilot instructors with at least 15 to 20 years of flying experience.