What is the MOM formula for incomplete month salary in 2026?

MOM's official formula is: **Gross monthly salary ÷ total working days in the month × actual days worked (including paid leave and public holidays falling on working days)**. This applies when an employee starts mid-month, leaves mid-month, takes unpaid leave, or is absent without paid leave. Working days means Mondays to Saturdays for most 5.5-day-week roles, or Mondays to Fridays for 5-day-week roles — count only the days the employee was contracted to work.

Do public holidays count in the calculation?

Yes — public holidays that fall on a normal working day count as days worked (and are paid). They go into the numerator. Public holidays that fall on rest days (e.g. a Sunday for a 5-day week) don't count as working days. The total-working-days-in-month denominator should also reflect the actual working-day pattern of the role.

How is incomplete month salary calculated for unpaid leave?

Unpaid leave days are excluded from the days-worked numerator but still reduce salary against the same denominator. Example: a $4,800/month employee on a 22-working-day month who takes 3 days unpaid leave gets $4,800 × (22 − 3) / 22 = $4,800 × 19 / 22 = **$4,145.45** for that month.

Does the formula apply to mid-month joiners and leavers?

Yes — the same formula applies whether the employee started part-way through the month or left part-way through. Count only the working days from the start date (or up to the last day) and divide by the total working days in that calendar month.

Is the incomplete-month salary formula governed by the Employment Act?

Yes. Section 20 of the Employment Act and MOM's pro-ration guidance set out the formula. It applies to all employees covered by the Employment Act, including PMEs earning up to $4,500/month (Part IV protections) and most rank-and-file workers. Higher-earning PMEs are typically covered by their employment contracts — check what your contract says.

Are bonuses and AWS pro-rated the same way?

AWS (Annual Wage Supplement) and contractual bonuses are usually pro-rated on a similar basis — the bonus amount × actual months/days worked in the qualifying year — but the exact calculation depends on the employer's policy or collective agreement, not the MOM incomplete-month formula. Always check your employment contract or HR handbook.

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Incomplete Month Salary Singapore 2026: MOM Formula & Worked Examples

verifiedBy Smart Calculator Editorial·Verified against official .gov.sg sources·29 May 2026

The official MOM formula for incomplete month salary in Singapore — gross monthly salary ÷ total working days in the month × actual days worked. Plus pro-rated leave, public-holiday rules and a free calculator.

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The Singapore incomplete-month salary formula is set by MOM and codified in the Employment Act: gross monthly salary ÷ total working days in the month × actual days worked. It governs how much an employee is paid when they start mid-month, leave mid-month, or take unpaid leave. This guide covers the formula, every common edge case, and a worked example for the most-asked scenarios.

Use the Incomplete Month Salary Calculator to compute your exact figure.

The MOM incomplete-month formula (quick reference)

Variable	What it means	Example
Gross monthly salary	Basic salary + fixed allowances (not OT, not bonuses)	$4,800
Total working days in the month	Mon–Fri count for 5-day weeks; Mon–Sat for 5.5-day weeks. Excludes rest days.	22 (5-day week in a typical month)
Actual days worked	Days physically worked + paid leave + public holidays falling on working days	14
Formula	(Gross monthly × actual days worked) ÷ total working days	$4,800 × 14 ÷ 22 = $3,054.55

The formula sits in Section 20 of the Employment Act and is what MOM points to whenever there's a dispute over partial-month pay.

When does the incomplete-month formula apply?

Four common situations:

Mid-month start. Employee joins on, say, the 11th of the month. The formula pro-rates salary from day 1 of work to month-end.
Mid-month resignation / last day. Employee's last working day falls before month-end. Salary is pro-rated for the days worked.
Unpaid leave. Paid leave days remain in the numerator (employee is paid for them). Unpaid leave days are excluded — they reduce the days-worked count without reducing the denominator.
No-pay absence (e.g. unauthorised absence). Same effect as unpaid leave: removed from the numerator only.

It does NOT apply to:

Maternity / paternity / childcare leave — paid in full by GPML/GPPL/GPCL scheme rules, not the incomplete-month formula
Hospitalisation leave — paid in full per the Employment Act sick-leave entitlement
Public holidays falling on rest days — they don't add or subtract from anything because they don't count as working days

Worked example: mid-month joiner, 5-day week

Scenario: Sarah starts a new job on 15 July 2026. Her gross monthly salary is $4,800. Her work week is Mon–Fri.

Step 1 — Count total working days in July 2026. July 2026 has 23 weekdays (Mon–Fri). One public holiday falls on a weekday (Hari Raya Haji, Friday 22 July). PH on a working day still counts as a working day from the denominator's perspective. Total working days = 23.

Step 2 — Count actual days worked. Sarah works from 15 July through 31 July. That's 13 weekdays (15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31). The 22 July PH (Friday) is a paid public holiday — it counts. Actual days worked = 13.

Step 3 — Apply the formula. $4,800 × 13 ÷ 23 = $2,713.04.

That's Sarah's gross pay for July — before CPF deduction and tax.

Worked example: unpaid leave mid-month

Scenario: Marcus earns $6,000/month on a 5-day week. He takes 4 days of unpaid leave in August 2026 (which has 21 weekdays).

Calculation: $6,000 × (21 − 4) ÷ 21 = $6,000 × 17 ÷ 21 = $4,857.14 gross for August.

(The 4 unpaid days reduce the numerator, not the denominator. The denominator stays at 21 because August still had 21 working days in total — Marcus just wasn't paid for 4 of them.)

Edge cases MOM clarified

Public holiday on a rest day. Doesn't count as a working day. Doesn't add to numerator or denominator.

Public holiday on a working day (paid). Counts in BOTH numerator (for an employee who was present and entitled to the PH) and denominator. Net effect: no impact on the per-day rate.

Saturday worked under a 5.5-day week. Half-day Saturday counts as 0.5 in both numerator and denominator. Some employment contracts treat Saturday as a full working day — check your contract.

Last working day on a Friday but contractual notice covers the weekend. If notice is "served" through the weekend, the days don't count as worked (they're rest days), but they may still affect notice-period pay separately.

Employees with fixed monthly + commission/OT. The incomplete-month formula applies only to the fixed monthly basic + fixed allowances. Variable components (commissions, OT, performance bonuses) are calculated under their own rules, not pro-rated by this formula.

Common mistakes employers make

Using calendar days instead of working days. A common error — gives a different result. MOM's formula is working-day based, not calendar-day based.
Including non-working public holidays in the denominator. Don't. Only working days count.
Pro-rating CPF separately. CPF is calculated on actual wages paid (the pro-rated amount), so it's already correct as a flow-through. No separate pro-ration needed.
Counting unpaid leave in the denominator. Wrong — only excludes from the numerator. The denominator stays at the total working days in the month.

Pro-rating other entitlements

The incomplete-month formula is for salary. Other entitlements pro-rate differently:

Annual leave — pro-rated by months of service (e.g. 14 days entitlement × 6 months ÷ 12 months = 7 days for half-year employment).
AWS / 13th-month bonus — typically pro-rated by complete months of service in the qualifying year, per the employer's policy or collective agreement.
Notice pay — paid in full for the contractual notice period, regardless of how the working days fall.

For pro-rated leave specifically, see our Prorated Annual Leave Singapore 2026 guide.

How CPF interacts with incomplete-month salary

CPF is computed on the gross wage actually paid for that month — meaning the pro-rated amount. There's no separate "incomplete-month CPF" formula:

Employee CPF = pro-rated gross × employee CPF rate (e.g. 20% for under-55s)
Employer CPF = pro-rated gross × employer CPF rate (e.g. 17% for under-55s)
Ordinary Wage ceiling ($8,000/month from 1 Jan 2026) still applies to the pro-rated amount in that month

Use the CPF Contribution Calculator to model the CPF split on a pro-rated salary.

Sources

Employment Act (Singapore), Section 20 — incomplete-month pro-ration rules
Ministry of Manpower — pro-ration of monthly salary guidance (mom.gov.sg/employment-practices/salary/salary-deductions)
Audit #3 (MOM / Leave & Workforce, May 2026) — Perplexity Deep Research verification against primary sources
CPF Board — 2026 contribution rates and OW ceiling