ESL Teacher Salary in Singapore: What You Need to Know
ESL Teachers in Singapore earn an estimated $49,147 USD per year, which is approximately S$65,857 SGD at current exchange rates. This places Singapore at #7 out of 42 countries in our global salary ranking for this occupation.
Compared to the United States, where ESL Teachers earn an estimated $60,000 USD per year, the salary in Singapore is 18% lower. This difference reflects variations in local economies, cost of living, labor market conditions, and industry demand for ESL Teachers in Singapore.
Purchasing Power and Cost of Living
While nominal salary figures provide a useful starting point, they don't tell the full story. When adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), the salary for a ESL Teacher in Singapore is equivalent to $44,285 USD. This means that after accounting for differences in the cost of goods and services, the real buying power of this salary is actually lower than the nominal figure suggests, indicating a relatively higher cost of living in Singapore.
To put this in more tangible terms, using The Economist's Big Mac Index as an informal measure of purchasing power, a ESL Teacher's annual salary in Singapore could buy approximately 10,369 Big Macs per year. This everyday comparison helps illustrate the real-world purchasing power of this salary beyond abstract currency conversions.
How Singapore Compares Globally
Among the 42 countries we track, a ESL Teacher in Singapore earns more than 86% of ESL Teachers worldwide. The highest-paying country for this role is United States at $63,000 USD, while the lowest is India at $6,999 USD.
These estimates are derived from publicly available data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), OECD average wages, World Bank purchasing power parity factors, and The Economist's Big Mac Index. The salary for each country is calculated by adjusting the U.S. baseline salary using country-specific wage ratios and sector multipliers. While these figures provide a useful benchmark, actual salaries can vary significantly based on experience level, company size, specific city or region, education, and industry sector.