Nanny Costs in Singapore: Build a Clear Care Budget
EduNanny® by BUTLER · Parent guide
To budget for a nanny, start with the care you need and the arrangement you are considering. An hourly service fee and a monthly employee salary describe different things. Neither tells you the full cost until the hours, duties and additional terms are clear.
This guide helps you build a household care budget from a written quote or agreement. It does not provide a market salary survey or promise that a starting rate will cover every booking.
Write down the care before the price
List the dates, start and finish times, your child’s age, the number of children and the care tasks you want covered. Note whether you need a regular arrangement or occasional sessions. Count the actual hours on the calendar, including any handover time you need to agree.
Describe duties clearly. Childcare, preparing a child’s meal and general household cleaning are different requests. Ask what is included rather than assuming an hourly charge buys any task you might need. Our nanny duties guide can help you prepare that brief.
Separate a service fee from an employment budget
For a private care service, obtain its booking rate, minimum session, included duties and payment terms. For a direct employment arrangement, establish who the employer is and which employment requirements apply before agreeing salary and benefits. Do not transfer a service provider’s hourly rate into a supposed standard monthly salary.
Employing a migrant domestic worker is a specific arrangement. MOM’s MDW employer guide covers salary, rest days, contracts and other responsibilities. MOM also states that an MDW employer pays a monthly levy. Those requirements should be assessed for that route; they are not an automatic list of charges for every private nanny service.
Keep these arrangements separate when comparing costs. An agency placement fee, a private care booking fee and an employee’s salary are different budget lines. The agency and independent care comparison explains the questions to ask about the contracting party and support.
Use a starting rate as a starting point
EduNanny® private nanny care currently lists rates starting from S$25 per hour, with schedule, care scope, applicable fees and booking terms confirmed before care begins. This is our own service’s published starting rate, not a Singapore-wide nanny salary benchmark.
Illustrative arithmetic: five sessions of four hours would total 20 hours. At an assumed S$25 hourly rate, the care-time calculation would be 20 × S$25 = S$500. This is an example, not a quote or confirmation that those sessions are available at that rate. Replace the assumed rate with the written rate offered for your booking, then add any confirmed charges.
For ongoing care, calculate the hours for the actual month. Do not assume every month contains four identical care weeks. Put one-off charges and refundable deposits on separate lines so they do not become confused with regular care spending.
Ask about charges before they become surprises
- Minimum booking hours and any registration, matching or placement fee.
- Travel, meals or other allowances where agreed.
- Overtime, public-holiday or last-minute booking terms, if applicable.
- Cancellation deadlines, refunds, deposits and replacement arrangements.
- Applicable taxes, excluded tasks and how additional work is authorised.
Not every arrangement has each charge. Mark a line “not applicable” when it has been confirmed, and leave unresolved items visible. An incomplete quote is a reason to ask a question, not to fill the gap with a general online estimate.
Keep a three-line monthly care budget
- Regular cost: the agreed salary or the quoted care hours multiplied by the confirmed rate, plus agreed recurring charges.
- Occasional cost: booked extra sessions and any other charges actually agreed for that month.
- Cash needed now: payments due and any upfront deposit or one-off fee, with refund terms recorded separately.
Review the budget when the hours or duties change. Discuss the revised arrangement openly and record what both sides have agreed. Our care agreement checklist can help turn those decisions into a clear written brief.
Private nanny care, the ECDA childminding pilot and licensed childcare have different terms. Verify any subsidy or eligibility question for the specific arrangement before subtracting it from your budget.
Featured image: a conceptual illustration of planning materials, not an actual salary agreement or quote. Care for every little chapter.
