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How to hire remote employees in
Laws about hiring are complicated, and the same is true in Singapore. But there are ways to sidestep the headaches—if your company hasn’t already established a physical presence in Singapore, you have two real options when it comes to hiring. We’ll detail both below.
If you want to successfully hire in
Singapore
, you have two options:
Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in
Singapore
. Onboarding talent takes days, not weeks or months. Both you, the company, and your talent have more flexibility. And in many cases, since you’re remote, the talent you’re hiring is better classified as a contractor, anyway. Of course, it’s not possible in every case, but it’s what we built Thera for.
This is the long route. You can either establish a physical presence with an entity and register as an employer, or you can use an Employer-of-Record (EOR) solution. Odds are, you’ll find using an EOR to be the easier route. Still, using an EOR in
Singapore
is expensive—it can often be $500 per month per employee—and sometimes prone to lengthy onboarding times.
Hiring contractors is normally the easier, faster, more flexible choice—but don’t just take it from us. Below are the specific benefits and drawbacks to hiring contractors in
Singapore
.
Hiring employees takes months, at the minimum. When you hire with Thera's locally-generated contracts, it’s a matter of days or weeks. This means you can hire the best talent, fast, without losing them to a hellish procession of paperwork.
It costs just $0 to sign up for Thera, then $25 per month to hire your contractors with Thera. If you hired employees manually (or did contracting on your own), you’d likely be on the hook for thousands of dollars each month. Setting up an entity alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Hiring contractors in
Singapore
means you’re generally not on the hook for things like health insurance and paid time off. This makes hiring flexible for you, and it gives your talent more options.
Hiring employees is a bigger commitment, and can open you up to increased liabilities and regulations. When you hire contractors overseas, your biggest risk is misclassification—but laws surrounding contractor classification are often significantly more straightforward.
The contractor life isn’t for everyone—some people want the security that being an employee often appears to provide. Though it’s rare, this does happen, and it’s one disadvantage of manage an all-contractor team.
Most countries’ contractor-employer relationship laws stipulate that the employer can’t set fixed working hours, among other things. These laws give contractors more freedom over how and when they do their work than an employee would have. In reality, however, most contractors are willing & able to work on the company’s schedule—it’s a matter of setting expectations beforehand.
If you’re hiring contractors in
Singapore
, you can pay them with Thera in a single click. You won’t need to worry about complicated wire transfers, fees, or currency conversions. We’ll take care of it all. Just make a click and your contractor will get paid in their currency of choice. This is a valuable bonus for talent in countries where the local currency is particularly weak—most people appreciate the ability to receive their payment in stronger currencies.
If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in Singapore than employees. Still, there are valid reasons why you might want to hire employees instead. The content below is for you—we’ll cover employer taxes and obligations in Singapore.
PTO is calculated by the:
There are 11 public holidays. If a public holiday falls on a non-working day, the employee should either receive a day’s salary in lieu of the holiday or an extra day off. If the holiday falls on a rest day, the upcoming workday will be a paid public holiday.
The duration of sick leave entitlement provided to workers is dependent on how long they have been employed by their employer:
The employee must inform their employer within 48 hours of inability to work and must provide a medical certificate upon return.
Paid maternity leave of 16 weeks is provided to female employees employed for more than 3 months prior to giving birth and the child is a Singaporean citizen. During this period, employers are prohibited from terminating the employment.
For the first and second child, the first 8 weeks are paid by the employer and additional 8 weeks can be reimbursed by the government.
For the birth of the third child and more, all 16 weeks of maternity leave can be reimbursed by the government.
If the child is not a Singapore citizen, maternity leave is 12 weeks
Paternity leave in Singapore is 2 weeks. To meet the requirements of Government-paid Paternity Leave (GPPL), the child must be a Singapore citizen and the father has or was legally married to the mother between the conception and birth of the child.
In the case the child is adopted, the father is also eligible for paternity leave if the child is a Singapore citizen.
Parents are entitled to 6 days paid childcare leave yearly if their youngest child is below the age of 7 and a citizen of Singapore.
Work-Related Injury Leave – The employer covers all work-related injuries that an employee has suffered either directly or through insurances.
The employee should receive 100% of their average monthly earnings in the 12 months prior to the disability for 14 days if not hospitalized.
After 14 days they shall receive 66.7%. As of September 1, 2020, all work-related medical leave must be reported to the Ministry of Manpower.
Marriage Leave is Not a Statutory Entitlement Under the Singapore's Employment Act.
Most companies offer paid leave if it is for just a few days, but may offer part-paid or unpaid if the bride or groom plans for longer periods of time.
The standard amount of paid days off given by companies is usually 3 days.
Singapore law does not mandate compulsory compassionate leave. The common practice is to offer at least 2 to 3 days of paid compassionate leave.
In the event of a termination of a local employee, the employee’s salary must be paid:
Employee resigns and serves the notice period: On the last day of employment
Employee resigns without notice and no notice period is served: Within 7 days of the last day of employment
Termination due to misconduct: On the last day of employment, however, if this is not possible, the employee must be paid within 3 business days.
Employer terminates the employment contract: On the last day of employment, however, if this is not possible, the employee must be paid within 3 business days.
The notice period in Singapore is:
1 day notice for less than 26 weeks of employment
1 week notice for employees who have been employed more than 26 weeks and less than 2 years
2 weeks’ notice for employment of more than 2 years and less than 5 years4 weeks’ notice for over 5 years of employment
The severance payment includes all the salaries and benefits due at the last day of employment. If the employee has been employed for at least 2 years, they are entitled to receive “retrenchment benefits”.
The amount given to the employee depends on what is agreed upon in the employment contract or collective agreement when applicable.
In general, retrenchment benefits are usually between 2 weeks to one month for every year the employee has served at the company.
Probation period is optional but common practice is 3-6 months.
If an employee works a 5-day work week, a workday is up to 9 hours a day or 44 hours a week.
If an employee works a 6-day work week the workday is up to 8 hours.
For employees who are covered by the Employment Act, an employee must be paid 150% of the hourly basic pay of rate for any overtime hours.
Only the following employees are entitled to overtime:
A non-workman earning up to $2,600.
A workman earning up to $4,500.
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