Ordinary Wages
Wages that are due or granted to an employee (wholly and exclusively) with respect to that employee's employment for the month.
Wages that are payable before the due date for payment of CPF contributions for that month. (14th of every month).
Examples of this would be Monthly Basic Salary and Fixed Allowances.
The amount of Ordinary Wages that attract CPF contributions each month is capped at $6,800 (from 1 January 2024 onwards)**.
**Please see "What are the changes to the CPF salary ceilings from 1 September 2023?" section below for more details
Additional Wages
Wages not granted wholly and exclusively for the month - made at intervals of more than a month.
Examples of AW would be Annual Bonus, Leave Pay, Commissions.
The amount of CPF contributions payable on AW is capped at $102,000 minus the total ordinary wages subject to CPF for the year. (Additional Wage Ceiling)
This Additional Wage ceiling is applied anew for each new employer in a year.
In Talenox, the pay items chosen and keyed into payroll are automatically categorised into Ordinary and Additional Wages accordingly. Generally, these are the classifications:
Monthly Payment/Deduction tab pay items
All pay items except 2 under this tab are grouped as Ordinary Wage.
Only "Bonus" and "Commission (AW)" pay items under this tab are grouped under Additional Wage.
Ad Hoc Payment/Deduction tab pay items
Pay items like "Allowance", "Deduction", "Housing/Rental Allowance", "Meal Allowance" and "Tips" are all considered Ordinary Wage.
Every other pay item under this tab are categorised under Additional Wage.
What are the changes to the CPF salary ceilings from 1 September 2023?
CPF monthly salary (i.e. Ordinary Wage) ceiling will be gradually raised from $6,000 to $8,000 by 2026 for all employees. The increase will take place in four steps, as shown in the Table below, to allow employers and employees to adjust to the changes.
| CPF Ordinary Wage Ceiling | CPF Annual Salary Ceiling |
Current | $6,000 | $102,000 (no change) |
From 1 September 2023 | $6,300 (+$300) | $102,000 (no change) |
From 1 January 2024 | $6,800 (+$500) | $102,000 (no change) |
From 1 January 2025 | $7,400 (+$600) | $102,000 (no change) |
From 1 January 2026 | $8,000 (+$600) | $102,000 (no change) |
The annual salary ceiling, which limits the total amount of Ordinary Wages and Additional Wages that attract CPF contributions, will remain at $102,000 at this point. The CPF Annual limit will also remain at $37,740.
=====
How will this affect my CPF calculation in Talenox by end of 2023?
Due to the update, the supposed AW ceiling should be $28,800 instead of $30,000 in 2023.
With our previous flow that follows the CPF guide, it will be a challenge to ensure that the AW ceiling will be capped at $28,800 to prevent CPF over-contribution until September 2023. If this happens, Admins wouldn't want to over-contribute and go through the CPF refund process by submitting IR8S form.
Original year-end calculation:
$102,000 - ($6,000 * 12 months) = $30,000 [until August 2023]
New year-end calculation:
$102,000 - ($6,000 * 8 months) - ($6,300 * 4 months) = $28,800
With the recommendation from CPFB, Talenox will project September, October, November and December 2023 with S$6,300 Ordinary Wage (OW), so the total Additional Wage (AW) ceiling will be capped at S$28,800. This will take effect starting from April 2023.
----
However, if some employees did already contribute the AW ceiling of S$30,000 before April 2023, Admins will need to do a refund at year end and submit IR8S form.