Guide · Payroll Compliance

Singapore Itemised Payslip Requirements: The Complete Checklist

Every item MOM requires, who's covered, when to issue it, and what happens if you don't. Based directly on MOM's official Employment Act guidance for itemised pay slips.

Who this applies to

Employers must issue itemised pay slips to every employee covered by the Employment Act. A rule of thumb still circulates online that this only applies to staff earning up to S$4,500/month — that's outdated. The S$4,500 salary cap was removed on 1 April 2019, and the Employment Act's core provisions, including itemised payslips, now cover virtually all employees regardless of salary, including PMEs (professionals, managers, executives).

The main employees who fall outside the Employment Act are seafarers, domestic workers, and public servants/statutory board employees. If your staff don't fall into one of those three categories, they need an itemised payslip — regardless of how senior or highly paid they are.

The 12 required items

An item can be left out if it genuinely doesn't apply — for example, if a staff member has no overtime that period, items 9-11 can be skipped. For consolidated payslips (salary paid more than once a month), each slip should cover all payments made since the last one.

  1. Full name of employer
  2. Full name of employee
  3. Date(s) of payment — multiple dates if the slip consolidates several payments
  4. Basic salary for the period — for hourly, daily, or piece-rated staff, also show the rate (e.g. S$X/hour) and the total hours, days, or pieces worked
  5. Start and end date of the salary period
  6. Allowances — all fixed allowances (e.g. transport) and ad-hoc allowances (e.g. a one-off uniform allowance)
  7. Other additional payments — bonuses, rest day pay, public holiday pay
  8. Deductions — fixed deductions (e.g. employee CPF) and ad-hoc deductions (e.g. no-pay leave, absence)
  9. Overtime hours worked
  10. Overtime pay for the overtime payment period
  11. Start and end date of the overtime period — only needed if it differs from the salary period
  12. Net salary paid for the month

When to issue it

Format and record-keeping

Soft copy or hard copy are both acceptable, including a handwritten payslip — the requirement is about content, not the medium. Employers must be able to produce past payslips on MOM's request, so records need to be kept:

What happens if you don't comply

Since 1 April 2016, failing to issue itemised payslips is a civil breach, not a criminal offence. In practice, MOM typically investigates a complaint, may direct the employer to fix the breach, and can impose an administrative financial penalty for continued non-compliance — assessed per affected employee, so a slip that's missing an item for five staff is treated as five separate instances, not one. Exact penalty amounts are set by MOM and do change over time — check MOM's own website for the current figures rather than an older article (this one included), since we deliberately don't quote a specific number here that could go stale.

The much bigger real-world cost for most small businesses isn't the penalty — it's the time spent fixing payslips by hand every time a template is wrong, and the awkward conversation when an employee spots a missing item themselves.

Don't want to build a compliant payslip template from scratch? Use FeliHR's free Itemised Payslip Generator — it's pre-built to cover all 12 items above, live-preview, and print straight to PDF.

Try the free generator →

This guide summarises MOM's published Employment Act guidance on itemised pay slips as of 2026 for general informational purposes. It is not legal advice — for a specific situation, check MOM's official website or consult a qualified adviser.

Common questions

Since 1 April 2019, virtually all employees under a contract of service are covered, with no salary cap — the old $4,500/month rule of thumb no longer applies. Main exclusions: seafarers, domestic workers, public servants/statutory board employees.
12 items: employer name, employee name, date(s) of payment, basic salary (with rate/units for hourly-daily-piece-rated staff), salary period dates, allowances, other payments (bonus/rest day/PH pay), deductions, OT hours, OT pay, OT period (if different), and net salary.
At least once a month, together with salary payment, or within 3 working days if that isn't possible. On termination, together with the final salary.
2 years for current employees; for ex-employees, their last 2 years of payslips kept for 1 year after they leave.
Since 2016 this is a civil breach, not a criminal offence — MOM can direct a fix and impose administrative penalties for continued non-compliance, assessed per employee. Check MOM's website for current penalty figures.