Minimum salary advice

[vccground]

I am from India and have more than 11 years of experience in the areas of firmware, embedded software development.

A Singapore-based company is keen on considering me for a post of Senior Firmware Engineer, and is asking me to quote a minimum acceptable salary before proceeding to the offer stage.

I am looking for suggestions and advice in this regard as I have nil knowledge of current salary rates and minimum family living expenses in Singapore.

Decent, but not flamboyant lifestyle is what I would look for. I am married and have 2 kids, both under 5. My wife is not serious about finding a job.

What is the minimum monthly salary needed to take care of taxes, housing, utility, transport, food, medical, school expenses and save, post tax. Here in India I manage to save circa S$1000 each month.

Please will someone help me. Thanks.

[my 2 cents worth]

housing + utilities $3,500
food & groceries  $1,200
medical + insurance $500
private school for 2 kids $5,000
savings $1,000

taxes are low, you can acomplish the above with a $11,000-12,000 monthly salary, any bonuses will be literally a bonus

[2 Cents worth has]

some example figures but would it cost 5k a month for primary school as that is all the kids will be going to in the next few years.

BTW - good luck getting 12k a month as a firmware programmer - 6 or 7 if you are lucky

[Forgot to say]

Taxes on 12k would work out about 1000 SGD a month

There is nothing in 2 cents budget for travel and entertainment

[Yank_def]

Two methods
1) search on similar firms or this firm
2) "I appreciate your consideration of my candidacy.  As I have not lived in Singapore, I really can't say at this point with clarity.  I do know that your company, xxxxx, is known to be a fair company and I know that your HR department already has set pay scales for these types of positions.  I am therefore ready to consider your minimum offer and will show you in the first 6 months how much value I bring to the firm".  Then, when they make the offer, try to bump it 5-10% with a full review in 6 months.  Document all of your efforts.

[elgringo]

housing + utilities $3,500
food & groceries  $1,200
medical + insurance $500
private school for 2 kids $5,000
savings $1,000

taxes are low, you can acomplish the above with a $11,000-12,000 monthly salary, any bonuses will be literally a bonus

it is not necessary to put the children in private school, the public school is quite OK in Singapore, at least the primary school so that would save 5k (public school is <100 SGD a month)

[manndarin speakers]

Public schools here teaches only Chinese mandarin, Bahasa Malay and Tamil, besides English.
OP will want his kids to learn Hindi and whatever native Indian dialect he belongs to, private is the only option

[one note]

Public schools here teaches only Chinese mandarin, Bahasa Malay and Tamil, besides English.
OP will want his kids to learn Hindi and whatever native Indian dialect he belongs to, private is the only option

A non-Tamil Indian may choose to offer as his/her MTL: (a) Tamil, or (b) a non-Tamil Indian Language such as Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi or Urdu. (Copied from the MOE website)

There is a centralised language centre near Lavender MRT station which offers non-Tamil Indian language classes to pupils studying in the local government schools.

[boreigner]

Demand a s$300k guaranteed bonus minimum as well. All cash / no stock to make it worth your while.

[Ignore ..]

Ignore the moron claiming to be a compensation expert, he isnt, so dont believe anything he says here.

Go look at the published salaries that are actually being paid on the MoM website.  These are actual real salaries being paid to workers in all the industries.

If you cant fnd it there is a link on the Contact Singapore website

[IT guy]

Senior developer roles in software are usually given to people with 6-7 years of experience. Since you have almost double that, I'm wondering if the roles is really a match for your experience. Based one my experience, i'd say the base salary would be around 7000 with a variance of +/- 500 depending on the company. Probably an additional months salary will be thrown in as bonus. Again from my knowledge, the local semiconductor firms pay less than the market standard, so you could be looking at the lower end of the spectrum.
With 2 kids and wife not working it would be very difficult(not impossible) to save more than $1000 on that kind of salary. So you need to evaluate if it makes sense to compromise on your living standards and come here just for a few dollars more than what you are currently able to put away.
If you didn't have kids I'd say around $8500 would be a comfortable income for a couple from India, who are not looking for an extravagant lifestyle. Based on the expenses incurred for children(which i have no idea about) you'd need to add in the additional amount to reach what would be the ideal salary.
At your experience, i'd suggest you to look for more senior roles that would pay close to 10k a month.

[Compensation expert]

If you take the numbers from the MOM and Contact Singapore website, then you are just short-changing yourself. Those wages are for locals. As a foreigner, you offer more than the locals. And you don't live like the locals. And you shouldn't. You are in Singapore for a period to make your fortune, so focus on that. In Singapore, if you don't demand, you don't get any. Singaporeans are passive and for that reason, you can see that in their compensation.

[salary guru]

Locals are as demanding as foreigners when it comes to pay. Foreigners do not necessarily bring more value. More often than not, they incur a financial burden to the companies due to the requirement to support their families and housing. Locals already have that. Foreigners do not put in more hours than the locals. As a family man, there are other things that demand your attention. This applies equally regardless your status as a local or foreigner.

However it may be that you are able to provide a competency that locals lack. Use that to bargain  salaries at the higher end. In fact ask for as much as you need. The HR will adjust down anyway. There is nothing to worry about if your skills are highly sought. Its not like the job will go to the lowest bidder regardless.

[Compensation expert]

Locals ask for the sky but offer little. The foreign talents come in on local terms and are willing to put in the hours. That's why big MNC prefers the foreigners ...no worries about reservist call-ups, easy to terminate in case of incompetence and better control of them.

Foreigners from developing countries should be bold to ask for more compensation; you will never be overpaid.