Every month, a Singapore employer pays CPF for each employee who is a Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident: a share from the employer, and a share deducted from the employee's pay. The rules are clear once you have seen them worked through. This guide does that with CPF Board's own tables and rounding steps, then shows what changes on 1 Jan 2027.
All figures below are for private-sector employees and come from CPF Board (sources listed with this post, checked 21 Oct 2026). For an official answer on a specific case, CPF Board's contribution calculator is the reference.
Step 1: who gets CPF
CPF is for Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents. Employees on an Employment Pass, S Pass or Work Permit do not get CPF, from either side. (The Skills Development Levy still applies to them: see Step 7.)
If an employee's total wages for the month are SGD 50 or less, no CPF is payable.
Step 2: split the pay into Ordinary and Additional Wages
CPF Board splits wages in two:
- Ordinary Wages (OW): wages for the employee's work in that month, payable by the 14th of the following month. The monthly salary is the usual example; regular allowances such as transport and meal allowances count as wages too.
- Additional Wages (AW): any wages that are not Ordinary Wages for the month, such as an annual performance bonus.
Business expense reimbursements (up to what was actually spent), termination benefits such as retrenchment benefit, and non-cash gifts are not wages for CPF.
Step 3: find the rate for the employee's age
From 1 Jan 2026, for Citizens and for PRs from their third year, with total wages above SGD 750 a month:
| Employee's age | Employer | Employee | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55 and below | 17% | 20% | 37% |
| Above 55 to 60 | 16% | 18% | 34% |
| Above 60 to 65 | 12.5% | 12.5% | 25% |
| Above 65 to 70 | 9% | 7.5% | 16.5% |
| Above 70 | 7.5% | 5% | 12.5% |
When the age band changes. New rates apply from the first day of the month after the employee's 55th, 60th, 65th or 70th birthday. Someone who turns 55 on 15 Mar keeps the "55 and below" rates for all of March and moves to the next band on 1 Apr.
PRs in their first two years contribute at lower, graduated rates. The first year starts on the day of PR conversion; the second year starts on the first day of the month after the first anniversary, and the third year (full rates) on the first day of the month after the second anniversary. In the first year, at the default graduated rates (called G/G), an employee aged 55 and below pays 5% and the employer 4%. Employer and employee can jointly apply to CPF Board for higher rates (F/G or F/F).
Step 4: apply the Ordinary Wage ceiling
CPF is only charged on Ordinary Wages up to the OW ceiling of SGD 8,000 a month (from 1 Jan 2026; it was SGD 7,400 in 2025). Salary above SGD 8,000 attracts no CPF on the OW side. For an employee aged 55 and below, the most CPF on OW in a month is therefore SGD 2,960, of which SGD 1,600 is the employee's share.
Step 5: round the way CPF Board does
CPF Board's steps, in order:
- Work out the total contribution and round it to the nearest dollar (below 50 cents down, 50 cents and above up).
- Work out the employee's share and round it down to the nearest dollar.
- The employer's share is the total minus the employee's share.
- If there are both OW and AW in the month, work out the CPF on each, add them, then round.
Rounding is where spreadsheets most often go wrong, because the employer's share is never calculated on its own.
Worked examples (2026 rates)
1. Age 30, Singapore Citizen, salary SGD 5,000. Total: 37% × 5,000 = SGD 1,850. Employee: 20% × 5,000 = SGD 1,000, deducted from pay. Employer: 1,850 − 1,000 = SGD 850, paid on top of salary.
2. Age 40, salary SGD 9,500. The OW ceiling caps the wage at SGD 8,000. Total: 37% × 8,000 = SGD 2,960. Employee: SGD 1,600. Employer: SGD 1,360. The SGD 1,500 above the ceiling attracts no CPF.
3. Rounding: age 30, salary SGD 4,321.50. Total: 37% × 4,321.50 = 1,598.955, rounded to SGD 1,599. Employee: 20% × 4,321.50 = 864.30, rounded down to SGD 864. Employer: 1,599 − 864 = SGD 735.
4. Age 57, salary SGD 9,500. Capped at SGD 8,000. Total: 34% = SGD 2,720. Employee: 18% = SGD 1,440. Employer: SGD 1,280.
5. Age 62, salary SGD 3,400. Total: 25% = SGD 850. Employee: 12.5% = SGD 425. Employer: SGD 425.
6. PR in the first year, age 34, salary SGD 5,500 (G/G). Total: 9% = SGD 495. Employee: 5% = SGD 275. Employer: SGD 220.
7. Low wage: age 30, total wages SGD 700. Between SGD 500 and SGD 750 the employee's share is phased in. CPF Board's formula for this age band: total = 17% × TW + 0.6 × (TW − 500) = 119 + 120 = SGD 239; employee = 0.6 × (700 − 500) = SGD 120. Employer: SGD 119. Between SGD 50 and SGD 500, only the employer pays (17% for this age band).
Step 6: bonuses and the Additional Wage ceiling
Bonuses are Additional Wages, charged at the same percentage as the employee's age band, up to the AW ceiling:
AW ceiling = SGD 102,000 − total Ordinary Wages subject to CPF for the year
It applies per employee, per employer, per calendar year.
Example 8. Age 30, salary SGD 8,000 every month, December bonus SGD 10,000. OW subject to CPF for the year: 12 × 8,000 = SGD 96,000, so the AW ceiling is 102,000 − 96,000 = SGD 6,000. Only SGD 6,000 of the bonus attracts CPF: total 37% × 6,000 = SGD 2,220, employee SGD 1,200. December's CPF is then OW 2,960 + AW 2,220 = SGD 5,180 in total, of which the employee pays 1,600 + 1,200 = SGD 2,800 and the employer SGD 2,380.
CPF Board's guidance is to estimate the AW ceiling at the start of the year from the expected monthly salary, and to recalculate at year end, when an employee leaves, or when the salary changes. If you change payroll software in the middle of the year, the months already paid elsewhere still count towards the ceiling.
Step 7: SDL and self-help group funds
Two more amounts go to CPF Board with the month's CPF:
- Skills Development Levy (SDL), paid by the employer for every employee working in Singapore, foreigners included: 0.25% of the month's total wages, at least SGD 2 (for wages below SGD 800) and at most SGD 11.25 (for wages above SGD 4,500). On a salary of SGD 2,200, SDL is SGD 5.50.
- Self-help group (SHG) funds, deducted from the employee's pay: CDAC for Chinese employees, ECF for Eurasian employees (Citizens and PRs), MBMF for Muslim employees (including foreign employees) and SINDA for employees of Indian descent (including Employment Pass holders). An employee who does not wish to contribute, or wants to give a different amount, contacts the fund.
Step 8: pay on time
CPF contributions are due on the last day of the month they are for. CPF Board takes enforcement action against employers who have not paid by the 14th of the following month (or the next working day), and late payment interest is charged at 1.5% a month.
What changes on 1 Jan 2027
CPF rates rise again for senior workers (total wages above SGD 750):
| Employee's age | Employer | Employee | Total | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Above 55 to 60 | 16.5% | 19% | 35.5% | +1.5 points (employer +0.5, employee +1) |
| Above 60 to 65 | 13% | 13% | 26% | +1 point (+0.5 each) |
The other age bands do not change. Re-running examples 4 and 5 at the 2027 rates: the 57-year-old on SGD 9,500 pays SGD 1,520 and the employer SGD 1,320 (total SGD 2,840); the 62-year-old on SGD 3,400 pays SGD 442 and the employer SGD 442 (total SGD 884). If you budget for 2027, these are the lines to update.
Where Officaid helps
Officaid is a listed One-Stop Payroll (OSP) vendor, and its payroll applies the rules above for you:
- Rates by age band and PR year, including the month-after-birthday rule, the SGD 8,000 OW ceiling and the graduated rates for PRs in their first year. CPF, SHG and SDL are calculated by Officaid's server on every payslip, with CPF Board's rounding.
- The right self-help fund is picked from the employee's details, and SDL is charged for foreign employees too. We ran October 2026 payroll for an eight-person test team (ages 26 to 67; Citizens, first- and third-year PRs, an Employment Pass and an S Pass) and every CPF, SHG and SDL figure matched the 2026 rules to the cent.
- Wages paid before Officaid this year. Starting mid-year? Enter what each CPF member was paid before, and bonus CPF follows the AW ceiling for the whole year.
- Pay CPF Board in a few clicks. Generate the CPF EZPay file from Team → Payroll → Contributions, or log in with Corppass and submit to CPF from Officaid, paying by PayNow, Direct Debit or MEPS. Then Mark Selected As Paid and the month's CPF is an expense in the books.
- Payslips show the employee's CPF, the fund and the employer's contributions, and can be emailed to the whole team at once.
To see your own team's CPF worked out, start a 14-day free trial: no credit card is needed. The help centre walks through each step, from processing payroll to generating CPF files.
Officaid · Your Business in Harmony.
Rates and rules from CPF Board, checked 21 Oct 2026. This guide is general information, not advice for a specific case; CPF Board's calculator and pages are the official reference.
Read more: Payroll with CPF · CPF rates from 1 Jan 2027
