Singapore offer letter checklist: the Key Employment Terms

The rule and where it comes from

The duty sits in the Employment Act 1968. The detailed content is set by the Employment (Employment Records, Key Employment Terms and Pay Slips) Regulations 2016, which came into operation on 1 April 2016 and are published on Singapore Statutes Online, the official site run by the Attorney-General's Chambers. The Second Schedule of those Regulations lists the key employment terms. The Tripartite Guidelines on Issuance of Key Employment Terms in Writing, published by MOM, explain how the terms should be given. Under those guidelines, the terms should go to the employee before work begins where possible, and no later than 14 days after the start of employment.

The Guidelines also encourage employers to get the employee's written acknowledgement of the terms, where practicable. They also ask employers to tell staff about changes in advance and then give them the updated terms in writing.

The rule applies to employees covered by the Employment Act who are employed under a contract of service for 14 days or more. Freelancers on a contract for services fall outside it. Domestic workers, seafarers and civil servants are the main groups outside the Act, according to the common summaries of the coverage rules. Check the Act's own definitions before you rely on that summary for a particular role.

The 18 items and the offer letter field that carries each one

The Regulations name 18 items. Most are plain facts you already know when you make the offer. A few need a decision from you, such as whether there is a probation period, what counts as a fixed allowance, and whether a bonus is discretionary. The table below groups the items into the fields most offer letters already have. Place of work is optional under the list, but it is strongly encouraged where it differs from the company's registered address.

If an item does not apply, you can leave it out. A sales manager on a fixed monthly salary with no overtime may not need a line for overtime pay. Write a short note in the file explaining why the line is absent, so that HR can answer a question later.

How the 14-day deadline is worked out, step by step

The deadline is set by the start date, not by the date you draft the letter. Work through these steps for each new hire.

1. Confirm the person is covered by the Employment Act. Non-managerial staff are generally covered regardless of salary. Managers and executives are covered only within the salary limits set in the Act, so check the current figure on Singapore Statutes Online before you assume.
2. Confirm the contract runs for 14 days or more. The rule counts the length of the contract, not the number of days the person actually works. A contract that ends before 14 days does not trigger the rule.
3. Set the start date and aim to issue the terms before the first working day. MOM's guidelines encourage this.
4. Count 14 days forward from the start date. Treat the 14th day as the last safe date, and count conservatively if the start date falls near a public holiday.
5. Issue the terms in writing, in soft or hard copy, and keep a dated copy with the signed acknowledgement, if you obtained one.

Keep the employee's record of the terms for as long as the Regulations require. Employee records and salary records have a two-year retention period for current staff, and for former staff the last two years must be kept for one year after they leave.

Worked example: an executive starting on 2 November 2026

Take a finance executive, Mei Ling, hired on an open-ended contract to start on Monday 2 November 2026. The company pays a fixed monthly basic salary of S$3,800 on the last working day of each month. She has a fixed transport allowance of S$150, and CPF deductions apply because she is a Singapore citizen. She works five days a week, 8.5 hours a day, with Saturday and Sunday as rest days. The probation period is three months and the notice period is one month for both sides.

The 14-day count runs forward from 2 November 2026, so the last safe date is 16 November 2026. The better target is to issue the offer letter with the terms before 2 November. The offer letter fills the fields as follows. The parties block carries the company's legal name and Mei Ling's name as on her NRIC. The position and duties are set out. There is no end date. Hours show 8.5 hours a day over five days, with Saturday and Sunday as rest days. Pay shows the monthly salary period, the basic salary of S$3,800, the transport allowance, and the CPF deduction. Probation shows three months and notice shows one month.

Overtime is the item that needs a decision. Whether the overtime rules reach a role at this salary is a question for the Act's current thresholds and the employer's HR adviser. If they do not, the letter should say so in the overtime line, so the employee knows there is no overtime pay line on the payslip.

Cases that change the answer

Resignation or early exit

The 14-day deadline applies when the employment begins, so a resignation later does not reopen it. If someone resigns during probation, the notice that applies is the one in the terms you gave them. Where the contract is silent, section 10 of the Employment Act sets default notice periods by length of service, running from 1 day for under 26 weeks up to 4 weeks for five years or more. The notice must be the same for both sides. Check the current text of section 10 on Singapore Statutes Online before you rely on those figures.

Fixed-term contracts

A fixed-term contract needs the duration in the terms. The end date appears in the offer letter, and the notice and probation terms should still be stated. Renewing a fixed-term contract on different terms means issuing updated terms in writing, so the file shows the change.

Coverage, exclusions and salary limits

The rule covers employees under the Act, not every worker. Domestic workers, seafarers and civil servants fall outside the Act. For managers and executives, the Act's coverage depends on salary limits. A 2016 law firm note gave the managerial limit as S$4,500 a month, while a later guide describes the Part IV limits for non-workmen as S$2,600 a month. These figures differ across sources, so confirm the current thresholds on Singapore Statutes Online before you decide whether a manager's overtime line is needed.

Foreign hires and work passes

A foreign employee's terms should match what was declared in the work pass application made to MOM. If the offer letter promises a salary or role that differs from the pass application, the two documents need correcting before the employee starts. Check the pass conditions with MOM rather than relying on the offer letter alone.

Penalties and why the figure differs

Failing to give the terms is a breach that can lead to an administrative penalty. In a 2018 written answer to Parliament, the Minister for Manpower stated a penalty of up to S$200 for each breach. Some commercial guides quote up to S$2,000 per charge. The official figure is the one in MOM's current guidance, so check the MOM site before you quote a penalty to anyone.

Common mistakes

• Treating the offer letter as a sales document and leaving out notice, probation or leave.
• Writing "to be confirmed" in a field that the Regulations require, then never sending the final version.
• Counting the 14 days from the date the offer was accepted, not from the first day of work.
• Changing pay or hours after the terms were issued without giving updated terms in writing.
• Using an old template for a foreign hire, so the terms no longer match the work pass.
• Writing the terms only in English when the employee reads another language more easily. MOM encourages a language the employee understands, with a verbal explanation alongside the written copy.

What to check with HR or a lawyer

Some items are simple facts, but others need a judgement. Ask HR or a lawyer to confirm the coverage position for managers and executives, the current overtime thresholds, and the notice period for a probation period that differs from the main notice period. Restraint of trade and confidentiality clauses belong in a full contract, not in the list of 18 items. They should be reasonable in scope, and a lawyer should draft them. A full contract is not strictly required by law, but a complete contract is the most practical way to hold all the terms in one place.

This explains the rule in general terms; it is not legal or tax advice for your case.

Where routine HR and payroll paperwork fits

Much of this work is repetitive. Someone copies the hire record into an offer template, counts the 14 days, chases the signed acknowledgement, and files the copy. AiStaffo builds AI workers that take on routine HR and payroll paperwork of this kind, so the person in charge of hiring spends less time on the fields and more time on the decisions that need judgement, such as overtime coverage and probation terms.