Where the figures come from
The base is official statistics: the Ministry of Manpower and Ministry of Education in Singapore, and the Department of Statistics, the Public Service Department (JPA) and the Public Service Commission (SPA) in Malaysia. Each page cites the publication, the table and, for spreadsheets, the cells it used. The sources page lists every dataset, its release date and its licence.
On top of that base we add material of our own: projections for the coming year, an AI exposure score for each job from the International Labour Organization, government pay scales read from circulars and job notices, and a salary survey that readers fill in. Each of these is marked where it appears, so a reader can tell an official figure from a Foundific one.
Comparing like with like
Pay figures come in different measures. Gross wage in Singapore excludes bonuses and employer CPF. Graduate medians cover full-time permanent jobs. Malaysian state and sector figures are means, and government pay is a basic salary plus fixed allowances. Pages state which measure a number is before setting it next to another, and the guides include a short table on what each figure includes and excludes.
Ranges rather than one average
A single average hides a wide middle. Where the source publishes them, pages show the 25th and 75th percentiles as well as the median, so an offer can be placed within the normal range for a job rather than judged against one number. The salary comparison tool does the same for a reader's own pay.
Our own calculations
Some figures are ours. Annual figures are the monthly median multiplied by twelve. The percentile check fits a curve through the published quartiles. The June 2026 projection extends the last six years of medians and is tested against past years; its method and error rates are on the projections page. The field pages' "middle of the field" figure is the middle occupation median across the field, not a published group figure. Each of these carries an "estimate" label or a note on the page.
What the data does not cover
Government tables have gaps: small firms, foreign employees, bonuses, seniority and private-sector pay for single jobs in Malaysia are among them. Each guide ends with a section on what its sources leave out, and a tool shows the rule it applies so the result can be checked against a contract or payslip.
The salary survey
Readers can add their own pay, employer type, years in the job and industry. Answers are stored without name, email or IP address and are only shown as medians for groups of twenty or more. The aim is to cover what official tables do not, such as pay by employer type. The privacy notice has the details.
Updates
MOM's Occupational Wages are released each June, MOE's Graduate Employment Survey around March, and DOSM's Salaries and Wages Survey around September. Malaysian pay scales change with Budget announcements and JPA circulars. When a new edition arrives, the affected pages are rebuilt from the new file and the changelog records the change.
Corrections
If a figure does not match its cited source, or a rule in a calculator is out of date, tell us. The page's sources list gives the exact location to check against.