Singapore being a gastronomical country, is well known for its eateries. Everyone wants to be a boss and many would scratch their heads and ask questions like “ What roles does my F&B business need? “How many employees should I hire for my F&B business?” “How much do I have to pay my employees?”
Fret not, we will be guiding you along the way so sit back, relax and read on to solve those burning questions in your minds! Let’s start with the employees that an F&B business would typically need to operate smoothly.
Employee Roles and Salaries
High-end restaurants with specialized skill requirements may offer higher salary scales. The salary ranges indicated here are not determined or recommended by iCHEF but rather indicators based on these sources: Gumtree, Trabajo, JobStreet, JobCentral, Indeed, Glassdoor
2. Payment of Salaries
Employers must pay their employees once a month for their service.
Salary must be paid:
1. Within 7 days after the end of each salary period.
2. For overtime work, within 14 days after the end of the salary period
There is no minimum salary for Singaporeans/ PR. However, it is important to bear in mind that there is always a demand for local F&B employees so the salaries you offer have to be competitive.
On the other spectrum, there is a minimum salary for foreign employees.
The minimum salaries are as follows:
Employment passes: S$3,900
S passes: S$2,400
Work Permit passes: S$1400
Employer CPF Contributions are only applicable to Singaporeans and PR. Employers are required to contribute their monthly share of CPF on top of their employee’s CPF.
The contributions for CPF are based on the employee’s age and total wages earned for the month.
F&B businesses fall under the private sector, as such below is the CPF contribution rates table for all F&B’s to take note of:
Example:
Jacob’s age: 20 years old.
He earns a total of S$600 per month as a Barista. As such, his employer has to contribute 17% of $600 which is S$102.
To better manage your employees salary and CPF, you can consider adopting a human resource software that will ease the steps required for payroll management.
3. Consequences of Inflating Salary and Not paying CPF
Inflating Salary: Fine up to S$20,000 per offence
Not paying CPF (First-time offence): Fine up to S$5,000 and/or up to 6 months imprisonment
Inflating Salary
It is against the law to inflating salary to secure foreign passes and the employer will be fined if found guilty. Employers MUST pay their employees based on the agreed sum in the contract
Not paying CPF
If employers do not pay their employees (SG/PR) CPF, there will be:
18% Interest charged starting from the first day of the following month after contributions are due
First-timers: A fine of S$5,000 and/or up-to 6 months imprisonment
Repeat offenders: A fine of S$10,000 and/or up-to 12 months imprisonment
If employers deduct employee share of CPF but fail to submit, the employer will receive a fine of up to $10,000, and/ or imprisonment of up to 7 years.
4. Applications of employee roles in F&B establishments
Putting what we have mentioned above together, let’s apply it to some F&B establishments.
Cafes
To run a sizable cafe serving freshly prepared meals as well as coffee, you would need to have an average of 10-15 staff to operate smoothly.
Here is the breakdown: 1 General Manager, 2 Supervisors, 1 Executive Chef, 1 Sous Chef, 1 Cook, 2 Service Staff, 1 Part-Time Dishwasher, 2 Barista
Restaurant
To run a restaurant, you would need to have an average of 15-25 staff to operate smoothly.
Here is the breakdown: 1 General Manager, 2 Restaurant Supervisor, 1 Head Chef, 1 Sous Chef, 3 Cooks, 3 Service Staff, 2 Dishwashers, 2 Barista/Bartenders.
“TOO MANY COOKS SPOILS THE BROTH ”
To sum it up, I would like to end with this principle of “ Too Many Cooks Spoils The Broth”. New F&B owners need to understand that getting the right amount of employees required for your F&B business is sufficient to operate their F&B business. Also, remember to pay your staff on time, else you won’t be spared from fines coming your way!
This article is written in collaboration with HRMLabs, a HR system for SMEs, that streamlines attendance-taking, shift-scheduling, leave management and more.
Caroline Yap is the editor and intern at iCHEF Singapore. She manages iCHEF Club, a growing community of F&B owners in Singapore – organising events, an online newsletter and the F&B Entrepreneur Bootcamp, the only regular workshop on opening a new restaurant in the country. In her spare time, she loves drawing, painting and creating new visuals. Her love for Korean food runs deep such that you can spot her at any famous Korean Restaurants in Singapore.
