Salary benchmarks
Lawyer Salary in Singapore 2026: The MOM Figure Versus the Firm-Tier Table
The latest official cells are June 2025 Ministry of Manpower medians: S$12,507 a month for in-house legal counsel and S$10,000 for practicing advocates and solicitors. The 2026 band a general counsel matches for a first-year at a top local firm sits above S$100,000 a year, and it is not that occupation median.
The number on the slide is not the number on the offer.
Sartori maps about 6,000 lawyers in Singapore. The first number a general counsel asks about lawyer salary Singapore is which June 2025 cell the seat sits on, not a single 2026 associate scale.
MOM Occupational Wages 2025, reference month June 2025, released 30 June 2026. Vulcan Post transcribed the in-house legal counsel median at S$12,507 gross monthly on 16 July 2026. Bonuses excluded. Private-sector firms with at least 25 employees. Public-sector lawyers left out. A June 2025 all-seniority median, not 2026 associate cash.
Four reads of one city. The in-house median and the practicing median are June 2025. The local-firm floor is a 26 July 2026 ministerial band. The US scale is US payroll. The dated table sits in section 03.
- S$12,507
- June 2025 median gross monthly wage for private-sector in-house legal counsel. Bonuses excluded. Released 30 June 2026.
- MOM Occupational Wages 2025, via Vulcan Post, 16 July 2026
- S$10,000
- June 2025 median gross monthly wage for Advocate/Solicitor (practising). Same survey, bonuses excluded.
- MOM Occupational Wages 2025, via Vulcan Post, 16 July 2026
- >S$100,000
- Annual floor for a first-year qualified lawyer at a top local firm, 26 July 2026. Very top firms: S$120,000 to S$140,000.
- K. Shanmugam, Channel NewsAsia, 26 July 2026
- 10 days
- Median working days from offer to acceptance on Sartori's Singapore associate mandate telemetry.
- Sartori & Partners, Singapore associate mandate telemetry
What the June 2025 MOM medians actually measure
Start with the survey that is now the official private-sector print, then keep the June 2024 cell labeled as the prior year. Year and source sit in the same sentence.
The Straits Times, on 28 July 2026, reported the Occupational Wage Survey conducted from July to December 2025. Coverage was an estimated 391,300 full-time resident employees in private-sector firms with at least 25 employees. Public-sector workers are excluded. MOM’s methodology PDF for that survey records 5,230 private-sector establishments, a response rate of 98 percent, and a reference month of June 2025. Gross monthly wage is basic pay plus overtime, commissions, allowances and other regular cash, before employee CPF and tax. It excludes employer CPF, bonuses, stock options and lump sums. A separate MOM release in January 2026, cited in the same Straits Times article, put median pay for all full-time resident employees in 2025 at S$5,000. That all-employee median includes the public sector. It is not the lawyer cell.
The occupation dollars are a press transcription of those tables, not a Straits Times reprint. Vulcan Post, on 16 July 2026, put “In-house legal counsel (excluding judiciary, ministries and statutory boards)” at a median gross monthly S$12,507 and “Advocate/Solicitor (practising)” at S$10,000. The Straits Times ranking of the same survey did not print those two cells. Its top three — diagnostic radiologists, financial derivatives dealers and flying instructors — each sat at S$20,000. In-house counsel is no longer the third-place figure from the prior survey. The practicing median is about 80 percent of the in-house median.
The age cut is the same survey. The Straits Times on 28 July 2026 printed the top cell for workers aged 25 to 29: AI and machine-learning engineers at S$8,970. Vulcan Post, on 3 August 2026, transcribed that same MOM age table and put Advocate/Solicitor (practising) at S$8,800 and in-house legal counsel at S$5,834. The Straits Times match on the AI row is the check for the lawyer rows in that transcription. Annualized, still excluding bonuses, S$8,800 × 12 is S$105,600 and S$5,834 × 12 is S$70,008.
Annualize the all-age cells and convert them on one pair. S$12,507 × 12 is S$150,084. S$10,000 × 12 is S$120,000. Channel NewsAsia, on 26 July 2026, printed S$100,000 as US$77,480. On that pair the in-house year is US$116,285 and the practicing year is US$92,976. Those USD lines are conversions. They are not MOM-published USD wages.
Do not read S$12,507 as a pay cut from the prior cell. MOM’s own methodology says year-on-year comparisons of this sample fluctuate. The Straits Times, on 25 August 2025, had reported the June 2024 survey at S$17,972 for in-house legal counsel, on a sample of 407,800 employees. Vulcan Post’s 30 July 2025 reprint of that older survey said S$17,939. The two 2024 reprints differ by S$33. This page keeps the Straits Times figure as the prior cell and does not average it with S$12,507. Annualized, the 2024 Straits Times monthly is S$215,664, still bonus-excluded. It is 2024 cash.
In that same cohort, 61 of 94 in-house counsel, general counsel and head-of-legal respondents over a 24-month window named the MOM in-house monthly median as the number they were still asked to match — even when the seat on the requisition was a first-year or 3PQE hire off a Singapore law practice. A general counsel at a Singapore-based licensed fund-management company put the constraint in one line: The MOM cell is the only Singapore lawyer-pay figure the committee will accept without a second source.
The MOM cell is the only Singapore lawyer-pay figure the committee will accept without a second source.
June 2025 occupation cells, and the 2026 bands beside them
Lawyer salary Singapore in 2026 is this stack: a June 2025 occupation median, a 2024 graduate median that is still the last published course figure, and a 26 July 2026 ministerial band. The year sits in every row.
The Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Survey 2024 of Class of 2023 Law put NUS Faculty of Law at a gross monthly median of S$7,000 (mean S$6,999; 25th S$6,200; 75th S$7,000) and SMU School of Law at the same gross monthly median of S$7,000 (mean S$6,585; 25th S$6,000; 75th S$7,000). Annualized, S$7,000 × 12 is S$84,000, or US$65,083 on the 26 July 2026 pair. That is about 56 percent of the June 2025 MOM in-house monthly median. It is a first post-training year across employers in that survey, not a 2026 lockstep.
The 2025 Graduate Employment Survey prints N.A. for Law at both NUS and SMU. Class of 2024 Law is scheduled for JAUGES 2026 because the practice-training period lengthened to 12 months, so the follow-up is two years after graduation. That follow-up is not published. Channel NewsAsia, on 5 June 2026, reported MOM’s 2025 School-to-Work Transition Study of about 2,500 Singapore resident graduates aged 22 to 28: law was one of three fields in which pay met or exceeded expectations. The article did not print a law dollar median, so none is invented here.
The Business Times, on 15 January 2025, put newly qualified lawyers at Big Four Singapore law practices at around S$6,800 to S$7,000 a month under the old six-month training regime. Firms raised trainee allowances for the 12-month practice-training period that began January 2025 and declined to disclose the new newly qualified quantum. No 2026 Big Four newly qualified reprint from a newspaper, the universities or MinLaw was found, so none is stated. MinLaw, in a written answer on 9 September 2024, said honoraria remain a matter between trainees and firms. Press-reported 2025 honoraria ran S$3,500 for the first six months then S$5,000, or a flat S$4,500. That is honorarium, not associate salary, and it is a 2025 report.
The 2026 ministerial band is the cell a general counsel is matching when the hire is off a top local firm. Channel NewsAsia, on 26 July 2026, reported Shanmugam at the NUS Law freshmen inauguration: a first-year qualified lawyer at a top local firm can earn more than S$100,000 a year (printed as US$77,480), pay at the very top firms runs from S$120,000 to S$140,000, and the best-performing lawyers who become junior partners after six to eight years can make about S$200,000 to S$300,000 a year. On the same pair those ranges are US$92,976 to US$108,472 and US$154,960 to US$232,440. The Business Times the same day printed the floor above S$100,000 and the junior-partner band. It did not print the S$120,000 to S$140,000 range. S$120,000 is also what the June 2025 practicing median annualizes to. Those are different constructs: one is an all-seniority employee median, the other is a ministerial description of very top firms.
Top local-firm first-year floor
Shanmugam, 26 July 2026: a first-year at a top local firm can earn more than S$100,000 a year. Very top firms: S$120,000 to S$140,000.
Channel NewsAsia, 26 July 2026 ↗| Seat | Year of figure | SGD | USD on the 26 July 2026 pair | What it measures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOM in-house legal counsel, median gross monthly | June 2025 (released 30 June 2026) | S$12,507 / month | US$9,690 / month | All-seniority private-sector in-house median; bonuses out; firms with at least 25 employees; public sector excluded |
| Same MOM in-house cell, annualized x12 | June 2025 cash, still bonus-excluded | S$150,084 | US$116,285 | Arithmetic on the monthly median; not a MOM-published annual wage |
| Advocate/Solicitor (practising), median gross monthly | June 2025 | S$10,000 / month | US$7,748 / month | All-seniority private-practice occupation median; bonuses out; not a firm tier and not partner profit |
| Same practising occupation, ages 25 to 29 | June 2025 | S$8,800 / month | US$6,818 / month | Age band inside the same survey; annualizes to S$105,600 |
| In-house legal counsel, ages 25 to 29 | June 2025 | S$5,834 / month | US$4,520 / month | Age band; annualizes to S$70,008. Not a general-counsel package |
| NUS and SMU LLB Class of 2023 | GES 2024 follow-up | S$7,000 / month median | US$5,424 / month | Last published course median. GES 2025 prints N.A. for Law. Annualizes to S$84,000 |
| Big Four NQ monthly, old six-month training | Pre-January 2025 (BT 15 Jan 2025) | ~S$6,800–S$7,000 / month | US$5,269–US$5,424 / month | Reported newly qualified cash under the old regime. No 2026 reprint. Not a 2026 wage |
| Top local-firm first-year annual | 26 July 2026 ministerial band | More than S$100,000 | More than US$77,480 | Floor for a first-year at a top local firm. CNA printed the US dollar figure |
| Very top local firms, first-year annual | 26 July 2026, Channel NewsAsia | S$120,000–S$140,000 | US$92,976–US$108,472 | CNA only. The Business Times printed the floor and the junior-partner band, not this range |
| Top local-firm junior partner, 6–8 years | 26 July 2026 ministerial band | About S$200,000–S$300,000 | US$154,960–US$232,440 | Top performers who become junior partners; not a lockstep |
| Trainee honorarium, 12-month practice-training period | 2025 press-reported | S$3,500 then S$5,000, or flat S$4,500 | US$2,712 / US$3,874; or US$3,487 | Honorarium, not associate salary. No 2026 reprint found |
| US first-year base, 2026 market scale | 2026 US payroll | Not a Singapore package | US$235,000; Latham US Payroll Class of 2026 US$225,000 | US payroll. No Singapore office publishes this lockstep in SGD |
USD lines on MOM, GES and the ministerial ranges other than the printed US$77,480 floor are conversions at S$100,000 = US$77,480, rounded to the nearest dollar. Twelve times a rounded monthly USD can differ by a few dollars from the annual USD of the same cell. The US first-year row is US payroll: Biglaw Investor’s 2026 market scale at US$235,000 and Latham’s US Payroll Class of 2026 at US$225,000. On that pair those convert to S$303,304 and S$290,398 — an illustrative conversion of a US scale, not a Singapore announcement.
| Against | As of | Matching that cell is |
|---|---|---|
| MOM in-house monthly median | June 2025, released 30 June 2026 | Matching a 2025 all-seniority in-house cell, not a first-year |
| Practicing advocate monthly median | June 2025 | Matching an all-seniority employee median, not a top-local floor |
| GES Law Class of 2023 | GES 2024 follow-up | Matching the last published course median, not a 2026 wage |
| Top local-firm first-year | 26 July 2026 ministerial band | The associate a general counsel is hiring off a top local firm |
| US 2026 first-year base | US payroll | Cannot be matched as Singapore-office cash from any page found |
Who earns the figure, and who writes the check
Two readers sit on the same cash figure: the Singapore lawyer on a practicing-certificate ladder or an in-house desk, and the general counsel who hires them.
Of 23 closed Singapore associate searches over the trailing three years, Sartori’s mandate telemetry records 15 as company-side seats in which a general counsel, chief legal officer or head of legal was matching a practicing-certificate associate. The remaining 8 were firm-side associate seats at Singapore law practices or Qualifying Foreign Law Practices. The company is the majority buyer on the Singapore associate desk that priced this table.
We have worked the Singapore associate market for 8 years, for companies in funds, banking, regional headquarters and industrials, and for Singapore law practices. Over the trailing three years we closed 23 associate searches at a 93 percent completion rate, on a typical timeline of 6 to 12 weeks, with a median 10 working days between offer and acceptance and counter-offer incidence at 37 percent.
In the same cohort, 38 of 72 first-to-fifth-year associates at Singapore law practices over an 18-month window said their offer conversations with in-house teams opened on the MOM in-house median rather than on a firm-tier table. That is the associate-side read of the same gap a chief legal officer hits when they try to price a 4PQE funds hire off a local-firm CV using the June 2025 all-seniority cell of S$12,507 a month.
Practicing-certificate ladderCorporate desk, no PC required
- Singapore law practice Advocate and solicitor with a practicing certificate. The Shanmugam first-year and junior-partner bands live here.
- QFLP and foreign-law platform Foreign-law seats and Singapore-law seats in permitted areas only. The US payroll contrast lives here as context, not as an SGD cell.
- In-house desk MinLaw lists in-house counsel as a path that does not require a practicing certificate for the function itself. The June 2025 MOM median is this cell.
The associate cell sits at a Singapore law practice or a foreign-law office; the MOM cell sits on a company payroll.
- Local-firm first-years earn the ministerial floor. Shanmugam’s more-than-S$100,000 sentence, and the S$120,000 to S$140,000 band at the very top firms, are the public 2026 ranges for that seat. They are not a lockstep those firms have printed.
- The occupation median is not that floor. June 2025 practicing advocates and solicitors sat at S$10,000 a month, S$120,000 annualized. That matches the bottom of the very-top first-year band as a dollar amount and measures a different population.
- In-house counsel earn the MOM cell. About 4,800 as of July 2026, against a June 2025 median of S$12,507 a month. SILE counts in-house only as a secondary seat, maximum three months, so the associate a company later hires was trained at a firm first.
- QFLP headcount is an October 2025 print. MinLaw, on 16 October 2025, named nine Qualifying Foreign Law Practices and put more than 550 lawyers in those Singapore offices. Their SGD newly qualified cash is not on any page found for this refresh.
The general counsel matching this table sits in fund managers, family offices, banks and regional headquarters.
- Fund managers already staff a legal line. MAS Singapore Asset Management Survey 2025 put 1,320 licensed fund-management companies and 1,406 variable capital companies against AUM of S$6.7 trillion as at 31 December 2025. MAS Chairman Gan Kim Yong, on 5 August 2026, put 2025 growth at 10.1 percent, to that same S$6.7 trillion.
- Family offices were still above 2,000 at end-2025. The same parliamentary reply said more than 2,000 single family offices were receiving tax incentives as of end December 2025. That replaces the end-2024 “past 2,000” line. It is not a new exact count, and it is not a general-counsel salary.
- Regional headquarters hire the MOM occupation. Those legal teams are the in-house side of the June 2025 cell, and they hire from the same early-PQE band that later leaves practice.
- Foreign-law panels are a different product. If the general counsel needs English-law or New York-law work, the seat can carry a US or London payroll that never appears as a Singapore SGD lockstep.
Of those 15 company-side files, 9 were seats at regional headquarters, banks, licensed fund-management companies or family-office desks matching a 1-to-5 PQE from a local firm, and 6 were first in-house counsel seats building a desk rather than adding to one. A composite from the nine: a licensed fund-management company asked us to fill a first funds-counsel seat against a board pack that still carried the MOM monthly median. The first-choice candidate was a first-year off a top local firm sitting above S$100,000 annual. We closed in 11 weeks, inside the usual 6 to 12 weeks, on a 3PQE from a Singapore law practice who would disclose current cash.
A second composite, from a European industrial regional headquarters: the general counsel needed a 4PQE mergers-and-acquisitions lawyer who could read English-law documents and still instruct Singapore counsel. The shortlist came off foreign-law seats, not off the MOM cell. We closed in 8 weeks. The head of legal at that regional headquarters later described losing a separate 3-to-5 PQE banking associate to a counter-offer inside 8 working days — inside the 10-day median, and still lost.
A June 2025 in-house median is not a 2026 first-year offer.
The statute that delays the newly qualified the company is hiring
The MOM in-house monthly median is a corporate-desk cell. The associate cell is delayed by the 12-month practice-training period, and 2026 foreign-firm hiring still sits on the October 2025 license bridge.
Trainee on honorariumQualified associate on a PC
- Qualified person and Part B Admission as a lawyer (non-practitioner) under the 2023 amendments. Overseas graduates still face Part A, citizenship or permanent residence, and relevant legal training.
- Twelve-month practice-training period In force for the cohorts that started from 2025. In-house is a three-month secondary seat, not a full training contract.
- Practicing certificate, then the associate cell The general counsel who wants a 2026 newly qualified lawyer off a local seat is hiring someone who spent the prior year on honorarium, not on the MOM in-house median.
The Legal Profession (Amendment) Act 2023 lengthened training and pushed the first qualified-associate cell out by about six months versus the old six-month regime. That is why the 2025 Graduate Employment Survey prints N.A. for Law. A general counsel who treats the June 2025 in-house median of S$12,507 a month as “Singapore lawyer pay” is not looking at the newly qualified cell.
MinLaw will not mandate trainee pay. The 9 September 2024 written answer is still the policy on the books: honoraria are set between trainees and law firms. The only dated honorarium print found for this refresh remains the 15 January 2025 Business Times report. A 2026 newly qualified hire off a local seat spent calendar 2025 on that honorarium.
QFLP licenses are on a two-year bridge. MinLaw, on 16 October 2025, said the nine named QFLPs may be renewed from 1 January 2026 until 31 December 2027. Between 2021 and 2024 the nine generated over $2 billion in revenue from offshore work. That revenue window is 2021–2024. It is not a 2026 salary and not a 2026 revenue figure. The committee report the same day recommended changes to the Singapore-lawyer mix. Those caps were a report under consultation. They are not stated here as in-force 2026 law. A 2026 offer at a Qualifying Foreign Law Practice is current-regime pay.
Legal services exported from Singapore were S$1.74 billion in 2024, up from S$0.64 billion in 2013, in the 16 October 2025 committee report citing SingStat as at 7 August 2025. No 2025 legal-services export figure was found, so none is estimated. The profession stock a general counsel can cite for 2026 remains Shanmugam’s about 6,400 lawyers and about 4,800 in-house counsel.
The desks that still absorb a Singapore associate
The MOM cell is a stock of pay. Caseload, listings and assets under management say which seats are busy. They do not set the wage.
SIAC’s Annual Report 2025 recorded 886 new cases, with a total sum in dispute of USD 14.53 billion (SGD 18.66 billion), 89 percent international. The 2024 report had put 625 new cases and USD 11.86 billion. No 2026 SIAC annual report was published at this refresh, so 2025 is the latest caseload year on the page. Do not convert case value into associate headcount or into a 2026 salary.
Equities work has a newer print than the December 2025 snapshot. The Straits Times, on 6 August 2026, reported SGX’s results for the financial year ended 30 June 2026: 21 new equity listings raised S$4.1 billion, up from six listings that raised S$25.7 million the year before. Calendar 2025 had been reported, on 30 December 2025, at 16 listings and about US$2.5 billion. The Securities and Futures (Amendment) Act 2026 came into force on 29 June 2026. MAS announced the S$5 billion Equity Market Development Programme on 21 February 2025; by the later phase described in the 19 November 2025 review, S$3.95 billion of that S$5 billion had been allocated. Those are listing and programme facts. They are not associate salaries.
LSEG Deals Intelligence, via The Straits Times on 6 January 2026, put Singapore investment-banking fees at US$864.6 million in calendar 2025, up 28.9 percent. Completed-M&A advisory was US$265.1 million; equity-capital-markets underwriting US$210.9 million; debt-capital-markets US$155.2 million. Announced M&A involving Singapore was US$70.4 billion, down 9.1 percent, with deal count down 22.1 percent. That is a 2025 fee year, reported in January 2026. No fuller 2026 fee year exists yet, so it is not relabeled as 2026.
MAS Singapore Asset Management Survey 2025 put AUM at S$6.7 trillion as at 31 December 2025, with 76 percent sourced outside Singapore. Licensed fund-management companies were 1,320. Variable capital companies were 1,406, with 3,443 sub-funds. Private-equity and venture-capital AUM sat at S$795 billion. The 5 August 2026 parliamentary reply put the 2025 increase at 10.1 percent, to the same S$6.7 trillion. The 2024 survey had put AUM at S$6.07 trillion. FDD Circular 05/2026, 31 July 2026, said family-office schemes will be reviewed before they expire on 31 December 2029. None of those figures is a lawyer’s salary.
Retention, not a new pay scale, is the 2026 policy note on junior seats. The Law Society–Anthro Insights study, released 22 June 2026, took 855 survey responses and 31 interviews. The Straits Times, on 12 January 2026, reported surveys of newly minted lawyers in 2024 and 2025 in which around 60 percent said they were likely to leave legal practice in the next five years. Shanmugam’s 26 July 2026 speech, citing Edwin Tong, put about 60 percent remaining in practice after five years and about 40 percent after a decade, over 2015–2024, with Singapore lawyers in practice up 26 percent across that decade. The June 2025 in-house median is the cell some of that cohort moves into. It is not a reason to mark up 2026 associate bands.
How a general counsel should run a Singapore associate hire
Run the hire against the cell that matches the seat: the June 2025 in-house median, the June 2025 practicing median, the 26 July 2026 local-firm floor, or a foreign-law payroll that is not public in SGD.
4 of 9 newly qualified or first-year files over an 18-month window stalled past twelve weeks because the buyer budgeted against the MOM in-house monthly median while the candidate was sitting on a top-local first-year band above S$100,000 a year. Those nine sit inside the 23. A June 2025 in-house median is not a 2026 first-year offer.
Of the 8 firm-side files in the same 23, 3 needed a second shortlist after the first-choice newly qualified used the 10-working-day offer window to shop a US-payroll figure that is not public. Sartori’s Singapore associate counter-offer incidence is 37 percent. The window is short enough that a candidate can shop an unpublished number inside it.
Google Ads Keyword Planner, measured 11 September 2026 across four countries, put 60 monthly searches on lawyer salary Singapore. That is demand for the dated number, not a reason to invent a lockstep. Sartori & Partners maps 1,480,000+ lawyer profiles globally, with quarterly market surveys running since 2019. The Singapore associate findings come from that program, on a base of 250 structured interviews.
- 01 · Which product? Write in-house MOM-cell match, top-local first-year, 3-to-5 PQE raid, or foreign-law seat as separate briefs. If you cannot say which, you are not ready to open a search.
- 02 · Which print? Price against the dated cell that matches the seat: S$12,507 a month is June 2025 in-house, S$10,000 a month is June 2025 practicing, and above S$100,000 a year is the 26 July 2026 first-year floor. If the board will only fund S$12,507 a month for a top-local first-year, you are matching the wrong cell.
- 03 · Which desk? Name the file: funds, banking, equity capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, arbitration, projects, or in-house generalist. A generic Singapore commercial lawyer produces a shortlist for a job you do not have.
- → All three answered? Then run the search on the 6 to 12 weeks clock, budget a 37 percent counter-offer, and put the unpublished foreign-firm SGD question in the first screening call.
- Write the seat before the cash. In-house, Singapore law practice, or foreign-law office. The June 2025 MOM cell prices the first. The 26 July 2026 floor prices a top-local first-year. Do not mix them.
- Pull the dated table, not a rumor. Vulcan Post, 16 July 2026, is the transcription of the June 2025 medians. Channel NewsAsia, 26 July 2026, is the top-local floor. GES 2024 is the last course median, and it is labeled 2024.
- Ask what the candidate actually earns. Foreign-firm Singapore newly qualified cash is not public. A candidate who will not say current SGD is not ready to be matched in-house.
- Budget the 10-day window. Counter-offer incidence on this desk is 37 percent. Cleared candidates shop inside it.
- Treat US payroll as a different product. US$235,000 is a US scale. It is not a Singapore package, and it is not the in-house median.
The company-side route sits on our in-house counsel recruiting practice; the firm-side newly qualified and 1–5 PQE work sits on associate recruiting. The market landscape this salary table does not restate sits on our Singapore legal market 2026 page. What a chief legal officer costs on the company side sits on our in-house counsel salary 2026 benchmark. The US lockstep this table did not join is on our 2026 BigLaw associate salary scale. Companies building a legal function from nothing rather than adding a seat should start with the first general counsel guide instead.
Questions from both sides of the table
What is lawyer salary Singapore in 2026?
There is no single 2026 associate scale. The latest official cells are June 2025 Ministry of Manpower medians, released 30 June 2026: in-house legal counsel at S$12,507 a month and practicing advocates and solicitors at S$10,000 a month, bonuses excluded. A first-year at a top local firm can earn more than S$100,000 a year, and very top firms S$120,000 to S$140,000, Channel NewsAsia reported on 26 July 2026. The June 2024 in-house median of S$17,972 is an older cell. MOM warns against reading the change as a pay cut.
What is in house counsel salary Singapore on the official table?
MOM's Occupational Wage Survey 2025, reference month June 2025 and released 30 June 2026, put in-house legal counsel at a median gross monthly S$12,507. Annualized, still excluding bonuses, that is S$150,084, or US$116,285 at the Channel NewsAsia 26 July 2026 pair of S$100,000 = US$77,480. The cell covers private-sector firms with at least 25 employees and excludes judiciary, ministries and statutory boards. Ages 25 to 29 in that occupation sat at S$5,834. Coordinating Minister K. Shanmugam, reported on 26 July 2026, put the in-house stock at about 4,800.
What does a first-year at a top local Singapore firm earn in 2026?
More than S$100,000 a year, and S$120,000 to S$140,000 at the very top firms, according to Channel NewsAsia's report of Coordinating Minister K. Shanmugam on 26 July 2026. The first figure is a floor, not a midpoint. Junior partners after six to eight years can make about S$200,000 to S$300,000 a year. Under the old six-month training regime, The Business Times on 15 January 2025 put Big Four newly qualified monthly cash at about S$6,800 to S$7,000. No 2026 Big Four newly qualified reprint was found.
What do NUS and SMU Law graduates earn after training?
Both NUS Law and SMU Law Class of 2023 recorded a gross monthly median of S$7,000 in the 2024 Graduate Employment Survey. That is about 56 percent of the June 2025 MOM in-house monthly median. The 2025 Graduate Employment Survey prints N.A. for Law because the practice-training period lengthened to 12 months, so Class of 2024 Law is scheduled for JAUGES 2026. That follow-up is not published.
How long does a Singapore associate search take?
Typically 6 to 12 weeks on Sartori's Singapore associate line, with a median 10 working days from offer to acceptance and a 93 percent completion rate across 23 closed searches over three years. Files that budget the June 2025 in-house median of S$12,507 a month against a top-local first-year floor above S$100,000 are matching an all-seniority cell to a first-year floor.
Do US-firm Singapore offices pay the 2026 US associate scale?
No Singapore office page publishes the 2026 US first-year base of US$225,000 or US$235,000 as an SGD lockstep. Latham's careers table headed US Payroll still listed Class of 2026 at US$225,000 when accessed. Biglaw Investor's 2026 market scale is US$235,000 for a first-year. Those are US payroll figures. Converting them on the 26 July 2026 pair into Singapore dollars does not make them a Singapore announcement.
June 2025 MOM tables, the July 2026 ministerial bands, and what was left out
In-house and practicing medians are June 2025, released 30 June 2026. Local-firm bands are 26 July 2026. Graduate medians are GES 2024 because the 2025 survey has no Law figure. USD conversions use the Channel NewsAsia pair of that day.
June 2025 MOM tables, the July 2026 ministerial bands, and what was left out
31 references- Sartori & Partners — Singapore Legal Talent Research Programme (250 structured interviews; quarterly surveys; mandate telemetry) sartoriglobal.com ↗
- Table: Occupational Wages 2025 (released 30 June 2026) stats.mom.gov.sg ↗
- Coverage and Methodology of Occupational Wage Survey, 2025 stats.mom.gov.sg ↗
- S'pore MOM lists 57 common occupations paying a median of S$100,000 per year or more (16 July 2026) vulcanpost.com ↗
- 30 top-paying jobs for under-30 year-olds in Singapore, according to MOM (3 August 2026) vulcanpost.com ↗
- Which jobs pay the highest salaries in Singapore's private sector? (28 July 2026) straitstimes.com ↗
- Which jobs pay the highest median salaries in Singapore? (25 August 2025, June 2024 survey) straitstimes.com ↗
- MOM releases salary data for 570 professions (30 July 2025 reprint of the 2024 survey) vulcanpost.com ↗
- Coverage and Methodology of Occupational Wage Survey, 2024 stats.mom.gov.sg ↗
- Lawyer attrition concerns need to be taken seriously, more data needed: Shanmugam (26 July 2026) channelnewsasia.com ↗
- Attrition rate among Singapore lawyers stable, but issues remain, says Shanmugam businesstimes.com.sg ↗
- Fresh graduates may need to adjust salary expectations (5 June 2026) channelnewsasia.com ↗
- GRADUATE EMPLOYMENT SURVEY (SMU 2024) news.smu.edu.sg ↗
- GRADUATE EMPLOYMENT SURVEY (SMU 2025) — Law prints N.A. moe.gov.sg ↗
- NUS GES 2024 — Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Survey news.nus.edu.sg ↗
- NUS GES 2025 — Law Class of 2024 deferred to JAUGES 2026 moe.gov.sg ↗
- Singapore law firms raise legal trainee allowances (15 January 2025) businesstimes.com.sg ↗
- Written reply to Parliamentary Question on the number of Single Family Offices (5 August 2026) mas.gov.sg ↗
- SINGAPORE ASSET MANAGEMENT SURVEY 2025 mas.gov.sg ↗
- SGX reports higher net profit as efforts to boost the local stock market reap results (6 August 2026) straitstimes.com ↗
- Update on Qualifying Foreign Law Practice Licences (16 October 2025) mlaw.gov.sg ↗
- Report of the Committee to Review the Regulatory Framework for Law Practices (16 October 2025) mlaw.gov.sg ↗
- Report of the Working Group for the Reform of Legal Education mlaw.gov.sg ↗
- SIAC Annual Report 2025 siac.org.sg ↗
- SIAC Annual Report 2024 siac.org.sg ↗
- DBS leads as Singapore investment banking fees hit a four-year high in 2025 (6 January 2026) straitstimes.com ↗
- More diverse IPOs, sustaining post-listing performance key for SGX in 2026 (30 December 2025) straitstimes.com ↗
- Review Group Completes Equities Market Review (19 November 2025) mas.gov.sg ↗
- Law Society–Anthro Insights legal profession sustainability study (22 June 2026) lawsociety.org.sg ↗
- Biglaw Salary Scale (2026 market scale, US payroll) biglawinvestor.com ↗
- Salary Benefits (Latham) — US Payroll lwcareers.com ↗
S$12,507 and S$10,000 are June 2025 median gross monthly wages, bonuses excluded, transcribed by Vulcan Post on 16 July 2026 from MOM Occupational Wages 2025. The Straits Times on 28 July 2026 confirmed the survey frame and did not print those two cells. S$17,972 is the June 2024 cell, kept as prior year only. USD lines other than the printed US$77,480 floor use S$100,000 = US$77,480. No 2025 legal-services export, no 2026 Big Four newly qualified quantum, no Singapore-office SGD lockstep, no Law Society 2026 headcount and no JAUGES 2026 Law median were found; those figures are omitted.
Our own numbers — the interview cohort, the mandate telemetry, the counter-offer incidence and the offer-to-acceptance window — come from the continuous research program described on our research page.
Adjacent benchmarks for the same two readers
Singapore legal market 2026
The market page for the same city: who sits where, which desks are hiring, and the firm landscape this salary table does not restate as a thesis.
Read the Singapore market mapIn-house counsel salary 2026
What a company-side legal counsel seat costs once you leave a firm-tier table — the chair that has to decide whether to match this print.
View in-house rangesBigLaw associate salary scale 2026
The US lockstep this Singapore table did not join: $235,000 first-year through $455,000 eighth-year, US payroll, effective 1 July 2026.
Read the US scaleA quiet conversation
Matching a Singapore associate, or hiring the in-house seat that has to?
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