Key Employment Terms and Itemised Payslips

Who the Employment Act covers

The Employment Act is Singapore’s main labour law. You are covered if you work under a contract of service with an employer. It covers local and foreign employees alike, full-time, part-time, temporary and contract, and it does not matter whether pay is hourly, daily, monthly or piece-rated. An employee working fewer than 35 hours a week is a part-time employee, covered by the Employment of Part-Time Employees Regulations.

Three groups are not covered: seafarers, domestic workers, and statutory board employees or civil servants. For anyone not covered by the Act, terms and conditions come from the employment contract alone.

Foreign employees holding a work pass are covered by the Employment Act and also by the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. That second layer catches out employers who assume a pass holder sits outside the local employment framework. An Employment Pass holder, an S Pass holder and a Work Permit holder all receive KETs and payslips on the same footing as a Singaporean colleague.

Part 4 and why the salary bands matter

Coverage by the Act is one question. Coverage by Part 4 of the Act is a separate one, and it changes what you owe on hours of work, rest days and overtime.

Table 1. Part 4 coverage by monthly basic salary

Employee	Covered by Part 4 if monthly basic salary is
Workman, meaning mainly manual work	S$4,500 or less
Non-workman covered by the Act	S$2,600 or less
Manager or executive	Not covered by Part 4

Basic salary for this test excludes overtime, bonus, annual wage supplement, productivity incentive payments, reimbursement of special expenses and all allowances. MOM publishes a self-assessment tool for employers who are unsure. The distinction matters for KETs and payslips alike, because the overtime items can be left out where overtime pay does not apply.

Key Employment Terms, item by item

Employers must issue KETs in writing to every employee who meets all three of the following: the contract of service was entered into on or after 1 April 2016, the employee is covered by the Employment Act, and the employee is employed for 14 days or more. That last test refers to the length of the contract, not the number of days actually worked.

The deadline is 14 days after employment starts. MOM’s own worked example is plain: an employee who starts on 1 January must have their KETs by 15 January.

The required items

Table 2. Items that must appear in Key Employment Terms

No.	Item
1	Full name of employer
2	Full name of employee
3	Job title, main duties and responsibilities
4	Start date of employment
5	Duration of employment, if on a fixed-term contract
6	Working arrangements: daily working hours, working days per week, rest day
7	Salary period
8	Basic salary, with the basic rate of pay for hourly, daily or piece-rated workers
9	Fixed allowances
10	Fixed deductions
11	Overtime payment period, if different from the salary period
12	Overtime rate of pay
13	Other salary-related components, such as bonuses and incentives
14	Types of leave, such as annual, outpatient sick, hospitalisation, maternity and childcare leave
15	Other medical benefits, such as insurance, medical and dental benefits
16	Probation period
17	Notice period
18	Place of work (optional, but strongly encouraged where it differs from the employer’s address)

Where the employee is a professional, manager or executive and overtime pay does not apply, items 11 and 12 can be left out. Any item that genuinely does not apply to the employee can be left out.

Format, and the handbook concession

KETs may be issued in soft or hard copy, and handwritten is acceptable. There is a useful concession for larger employers: common KETs such as the leave policy and medical benefits can be provided in an employee handbook or on the company intranet rather than repeated in every individual letter. The individual-specific items still have to be given to the individual. MOM provides a blank sample form, a version with explanations, and a KETs verification tool that generates the work arrangements and salary sections and checks them against the Act.

Who does not need KETs

Three exclusions follow from the rule rather than from a separate list. An employee whose contract is for less than 14 days. An employee not covered by the Employment Act, so a seafarer, a domestic worker or a public officer. A contract of service entered into before 1 April 2016.

Worth saying clearly: MOM does not publish any exemption based on the size of the employer, and none for foreign employees. A company with two employees carries the same KETs, payslip and record-keeping obligations as a company with two thousand. Small employers sometimes assume otherwise, and that assumption is where most non-compliance starts.

Itemised payslips

Since 1 April 2016, all employers must issue itemised payslips to all employees covered by the Employment Act.

Timing

Table 3. When a payslip must be given

Situation	Deadline
Normal salary payment	Together with the payment
Where it cannot be given together with payment	Within 3 working days of payment
Termination or dismissal	Together with the outstanding salary
More than one payment in a month	Payslips may be consolidated, covering all payments since the last payslip

The required items

Table 4. Items that must appear on an itemised payslip

No.	Item
1	Full name of employer
2	Full name of employee
3	Date of payment, or dates where the payslip is consolidated
4	Basic salary, plus the basic rate of pay and the hours, days or pieces for hourly, daily or piece-rated workers
5	Start and end date of the salary period
6	Allowances paid for the salary period, fixed and ad hoc
7	Any other additional payment, such as bonuses, rest day pay and public holiday pay
8	Deductions for the salary period, fixed and ad hoc
9	Overtime hours worked
10	Overtime pay
11	Start and end date of the overtime payment period, if different from item 5
12	Net salary paid in total

Items 9 to 11 can be left out where overtime pay does not apply to the employee. Payslips may be soft or hard copy, including handwritten, and MOM publishes a blank sample form.

The employee’s CPF contribution is a fixed deduction and belongs in item 8. CPF administration itself sits outside our scope. Our affiliate Raffles Corporate Services handles payroll processing, CPF submissions and IR8A reporting for Singapore employers.

Employment records and retention

Since 1 April 2016, employers must also maintain detailed employment records for all employees covered by the Employment Act. MOM splits these into employee records and salary records.

Employee records are: address; NRIC number, or work pass number and expiry date for non-citizens; date of birth; gender; date of starting employment; date of leaving employment; working hours including the duration of meals and tea breaks; and the dates and details of public holidays and leave taken. Salary records contain the same twelve items as the itemised payslip, so a well-kept payslip archive satisfies most of that half.

Table 5. Retention periods

Whose records	How long to keep
Current employees	Latest 2 years
Former employees	Last 2 years, kept for 1 year after the employee leaves
Payslips issued	Same periods as above, a record of all payslips issued must be kept

What happens if you do not comply

MOM’s published enforcement position on payslips is graduated. In a written parliamentary answer of 2 July 2024, MOM said it receives an average of 670 complaints a year about non-issuance or late issuance of itemised payslips, that it engages and guides those employers to start issuing within one month, and that where they fail to do so and complaints surface again it issues caution letters and can impose an administrative penalty of up to S$400 for each repeated infringement.

MOM does not publish a single consolidated penalty schedule for KETs and record-keeping breaches on its guidance pages, and we will not invent one. What can be said is that these are statutory duties under the Employment Act, that MOM inspects, and that a failure to keep records tends to be fatal to an employer’s position when an employee brings a salary claim to the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management. The practical cost of poor records is usually the lost claim, not the fine.

Getting this right in practice

Three habits cover almost all of it. Issue the KETs with the appointment letter rather than waiting, because the 14-day clock starts at day one and nobody remembers to chase it. Run payroll on a system that produces a compliant payslip automatically. Archive both, along with leave and hours records, for the full retention period, and do not delete a leaver’s file on their last day.

Employers hiring foreign staff have a further reason to be tidy. MOM can ask for employment records when assessing or reviewing a work pass, and inconsistency between a declared salary and the salary shown on payslips is a serious matter. We cover the wider obligations in our employer compliance guide.

Frequently asked questions

When must Key Employment Terms be issued?

Within 14 days after the employee starts work. An employee who starts on 1 January must have their KETs by 15 January.

Do I have to issue KETs to an employee on a two-week contract?

The requirement applies to employees employed for 14 days or more, measured by the length of the contract rather than the number of days worked. A contract of exactly 14 days is caught. A contract of fewer than 14 days is not.

Can KETs and payslips be given electronically?

Yes. MOM accepts soft copy or hard copy for both, and handwritten documents are acceptable. Common KETs such as leave policy and medical benefits can sit in an employee handbook or on the company intranet.

Do foreign employees get KETs and payslips?

Yes. The Employment Act covers local and foreign employees under a contract of service. Employment Pass, S Pass and Work Permit holders are all entitled to written KETs and itemised payslips.

How long must payslips and employment records be kept?

For current employees, the latest two years. For former employees, the last two years, kept for one year after the employee leaves.

What if I pay salary more than once a month?

Payslips may be consolidated. The consolidated payslip must contain details of all payments made since the last payslip.

Are managers and executives entitled to payslips?

Yes. All employees covered by the Employment Act receive itemised payslips. What changes for a manager or executive is Part 4 coverage, which governs hours of work, rest days and overtime, not the payslip duty.

Is there a penalty for not issuing payslips?

MOM has said it guides employers first, then issues caution letters, and can impose an administrative penalty of up to S$400 for each repeated infringement. MOM does not publish a single penalty table covering every KETs and records breach.

How we can help

Little Big Employment Agency Pte Ltd is an employment agency licensed by the Ministry of Manpower, EA Licence 19C9790. We work with Singapore employers on the work pass side of hiring, and we review the employment documents that sit underneath a pass application.

We check that the appointment letter, the KETs and the declared salary line up with what is filed with MOM, because a mismatch between the three is one of the avoidable causes of trouble in an application or renewal. We flag where a contract is missing required items. Where payroll, CPF, IR8A or accounting support is what you actually need, we refer you to Raffles Corporate Services under a separate engagement. We do not give legal advice, and where a matter needs it we refer it to an independent Singapore law firm.

Talk to our team about employment documentation for a work pass hire.

Official sources

• MOM: About the Employment Act
• MOM: Employment Act, who it covers
• MOM: What is a contract of service, including the KETs 14-day rule
• MOM: Key employment terms (KETs)
• MOM: Itemised pay slips
• MOM: Employment records
• MOM: Templates and resources for KETs and pay slips
• MOM: Written answer on non-issuance or delay in issuance of itemised payslips, 2 July 2024

Figures checked against MOM guidance on 15 September 2026. This page is general information and not legal advice. See our legal and referral information.