26-Year-Old S’pore Uni Grad Earns S$4,000/Month, Asks If She Should Be Getting More

Singapore Uni Grad Asks What The Salary Norm Is For A 26-Year-Old

A Singapore university graduate recently sparked a conversation after she took to SGWhispers to talk about her salary compared to her peers.

The 26-year-old shared that while she earns S$4,000 monthly, her friends the same age are allegedly making a lot more. Thus, she wanted to find out what is the “norm”.

However, commenters responded that what her friends are earning matters less than her own happiness, and that there are many factors beyond one’s paper qualifications when it comes to their salary.

Singapore university grad earns S$4,000 salary a month

On Monday (12 Dec), the anonymous OP posed the salary question “for (her) own (sanity’s) sake” on SGWhispers, which was also shared on Facebook.

She revealed that she earns S$4,000 monthly, but her friends the same age are supposedly raking in more than S$5,000. One of them purportedly even earns S$8,000 a month.

“All of our jobs are very similar desk jobs in operations or tech, no sales,” she claimed.

The OP added that she holds a local university degree, while her friends graduated from places such as the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and Kaplan.

Since they are all women, National Service (NS) can’t be considered a possible factor.

As such, she wanted to find out what the average salary is for a 26-year-old.

There isn’t a norm for how much a uni grad earns

While the question was to find out how much others are earning, it turns out that the answer can’t be determined with a particular number.

Simply put, a “norm” doesn’t exist for a certain age group.

One’s salary depends on more than just their paper qualifications in most jobs, one comment explained.

Lots of other skills, some intangible, are also required.

Others also said that everyone undergoes their own development, so there’s no use in comparing yourself to others.

A netizen said that one’s salary depends on the company they’re working in, as well as their performance and the market.

But they also gave some pointed advice urging the OP not to compare herself to others, even if she said she didn’t want to “sound too salty”.

Job market is not straightforward

The OP was simply curious as her peers appeared to be earning more than her even though they were all the same age.

However, a salary isn’t just dependent on the university one graduated from.

After all, qualifications don’t determine your job performance, and the replies clearly indicate there’s no straightforward answer.

For anyone looking for a job, there are many factors to consider beyond qualifications, and at the end of the day, no amount of money can make up for your job satisfaction, performance, or value.

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Featured image by MS News.