Full time employees in the administrative and support services clocked up the most paid overtime hours in Singapore last year, with an average of 14.4 hours per week.
The Ministry of Manpower’s “
Singapore Yearbook of Manpower Statistics, 2015” was released last night, with figures on Singapore’s labour force including income, wages and earnings; and employment, including hours worked and conditions of employment, to name a few.
Of the administrative and support services sector, the industry with the highest number of average overtime hours worked by full-time employees was ‘security and investigation’, with an average of 18.5 hours a week.
| Industry |
Average Weekly Paid Overtime Hours |
| Information and Communications |
4.7 |
| Financial and Insurance Services |
4.8 |
| Community, Social and Personal Services |
5.6 |
| Accommodation and food services |
7.7 |
| Wholesale and retail trade services |
7.4 |
| Transportation and storage services |
8.5 |
| Real Estate Services |
8.9 |
| Other |
8.9 |
| Professional Services |
10.4 |
| Manufacturing |
12.3 |
| Construction |
13.5 |
| Administrative and Support Services |
14.4 |
This was followed by ‘other administrative and support services’ at 10.5 hours per week, and ‘cleaning and landscaping’ at 9.9 hours.
Coming in at second place overall was the construction sector, with full-time employees working an average of 13.5 hours paid overtime a week.
This was closely followed by the manufacturing sector, with full-time employees working an average of 12.3 hours paid overtime a week.
Of the manufacturing sector, those full-time employees dealing with fabricated metal products, machinery and equipment, and transport equipment worked the most paid overtime hours last year, with an average of 13.5 hours per week.
The industry with the third highest average of paid overtime hours completed by full-time employees was the professional services sector, with 10.4 hours per week.
Of that sector, workers in architectural and engineering services clocked up the most paid overtime hours – with an average of 11.1.
‘Other professional services’ had an average of 10.4, while, surprisingly, those in legal, accounting and management services had the lowest in the sector – an average of 8.5 paid overtime hours per week.
The industry with full-time employees completing the lowest overall number of paid overtime hours was information and communications, with an average of 4.7 per week.
This was closely followed by the financial and insurance services sector, with full-time employees working an average of 4.8 paid overtime hours per week.
According to Part IV of the Employment Act, Singapore-based employees are entitled to overtime pay, with a rate at least 1.5 times the hourly basic rate of pay.
Payment must be made within 14 days after the last day of the salary period.
Employees are not permitted by law to work more than 12 hours a day, unless there is an accident or threat of accident, it is work that is essential to the life of the community, national defence or security, it is urgent work to be done to machinery or plant, or there has been an interruption of work that was impossible to foresee.
By law, employees can only work up to 72 overtime hours a month, but employers can apply for an exemption from this.
