Cost of Hiring a Maid in Singapore: 2026 Breakdown

Ask three agencies what a helper costs and you get three monthly numbers, none of them the full bill. The cost of hiring a maid in Singapore is not one figure, it is a stack of them.

So take one specific household. A helper on S$650 a month, the standard S$300 first-helper levy, and the cheapest of the five insurance policies SGfi tracks that meet the Ministry of Manpower's minimums. On those assumptions a two-year contract runs to roughly S$23,350 before any agency fee. Qualify for the levy concession and the same contract lands closer to S$17,600.

Neither of those is your number. The arithmetic below is, so you can rebuild it with your own figures.

What the government charges

These are the only figures in this article that come with a price set by a public authority. Everything else is a market range.

The Settling-in Programme line has a detail almost nobody flags. MOM accredits three providers and they charge different prices for the same one-day course: Absolute Kinetics Consultancy at S$76.40, NTUC LearningHub at S$77.00, and Grace Management & Consultancy Services at S$92.65. All three are GST-inclusive and all three are the employer's bill.

The security bond is the line most often misread as a fee. It is a S$5,000 pledge to the government, required for every migrant domestic worker except Malaysian helpers, and it is provided as a banker's or insurer's guarantee rather than paid in cash. All five insurers in SGfi's maid insurance comparison fold it into the policy as a Letter of Guarantee, so asking for it adds nothing to the premium.

The levy concession dwarfs every fee in the setup

At S$300 a month against S$60, the levy concession saves S$240 every month. That is S$2,880 a year, or S$5,760 across a 24-month contract.

Who qualifies, per MOM: a household with a Singapore Citizen child below 16, a Singapore Citizen aged 67 or above (or a Permanent Resident aged 67 or above living with a Singaporean spouse or family member at the same registered address), or a person certified by a Singapore-registered doctor as needing help with at least one activity of daily living, which also needs an AIC recommendation letter. The concession covers one helper per eligible person, capped at two helpers per household.

What maid insurance actually costs in 2026

MOM requires medical insurance of at least S$60,000 a year covering inpatient care and day surgery, plus personal accident cover of at least S$60,000. The medical minimum was S$15,000 until 1 July 2023, which is why older cost guides quote a much smaller premium.

Here is the cheapest tier from each of the five insurers SGfi tracks that meets those minimums, for a 26-month policy and a helper aged 50 or below. Premiums were verified on 22 July 2026 and reflect promotional pricing where a campaign was running, which is most of them. They move.

What does matter is the co-payment. Claims up to S$15,000 in a policy year are fully covered, and above that, up to the S$60,000 limit, the insurer pays 75% while the employer pays 25%. At the mandated minimum that caps employer exposure at 25% of S$45,000, or S$11,250 in a single policy year.

Salary and agency fees, where official numbers run out

Singapore sets no statutory minimum wage for migrant domestic workers. What exists instead is a patchwork of source-country floors and agency convention, so the figures below are market ranges published by agencies rather than government data.

Agency fees run from S$1,000 to S$4,000 on the employer side, and agencies publish them at their own discretion.

What the cost of hiring a maid in Singapore leaves out

Four obligations rarely make it into the published totals, and one of them is not small.

Rest day compensation. A helper is entitled to one rest day a week, and since 1 January 2023 at least one rest day a month cannot be compensated away. For each of the others she agrees to work, she gets at least one day's salary on top of her monthly pay, and that payment is not counted into her basic salary. MOM's employer guide computes the daily wage as monthly salary divided by 26 working days. At S$650 that is exactly S$25 a day, so buying back three rest days a month adds S$75 monthly, or S$1,800 over a two-year contract.

The flight home. The employer pays the cost of sending her home whatever the reason for termination, air ticket and check-in luggage included.

Six-monthly medical examinations. Pregnancy and VDRL screening every six months, HIV every two years, tuberculosis once after two years of stay. MOM is blunt about who pays: "You must pay for the 6ME and any medical expenses arising from it." No price is set, so clinic rates decide the figure.

Food and upkeep. No public authority sets a figure and I could not find a source I would stand behind, so it is absent from the totals above rather than filled with a borrowed estimate.

Common questions

How much does it cost to hire a maid in Singapore per month? On a S$650 salary with the standard first-helper levy and the cheapest compliant insurance amortised over 26 months, about S$965.44 a month. With the concessionary levy, about S$725.44. Neither figure includes agency fees, food or rest-day compensation.

Is maid insurance compulsory in Singapore? Yes. Medical insurance of at least S$60,000 a year and personal accident cover of at least S$60,000 are mandatory, along with a S$5,000 security bond for every migrant domestic worker except Malaysian helpers. Use SGfi Maid Insurance to compare different rates and insurers.

What is the maid levy in 2026? S$300 a month for a first helper, S$450 for subsequent helpers, and S$60 at the concessionary rate. The daily equivalents are S$9.87, S$14.80 and S$1.98, derived by MOM as the monthly rate times 12, divided by 365, rounded up to the nearest cent.

Does the security bond cost extra on top of insurance? Not with any of the five plans SGfi tracks. Each includes the S$5,000 bond as a Letter of Guarantee, so the mandatory requirement adds nothing to the premium.

Can I lose the S$5,000 bond? Yes. It can be forfeited in full if your helper goes missing and is not found, and MOM's employer guide states that only half, S$2,500, is forfeited where the employer made reasonable effort to locate her.

Nobody publishes what feeding another adult in your home costs, and that is the one line in this budget you will have to fill in yourself.

All rates and figures are based on publicly available information as of July 2026. Terms may change without notice. This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.