High-Pay Part-Time Jobs in Singapore – 5 Gigs for a Decent Side Income

Most part-time jobs in Singapore suck. Flipping burgers at a fast food joint earns you about $5 to $6 an hour, thanks to the lack of a minimum wage. So what are cash-strapped people with willing hands and hearts to do? Luckily, there are a few high-paying part-time jobs in Singapore.

Whether you’re a student looking to earn some cash on the side or an office worker who needs to supplement your income, here are high-pay part-time jobs that don’t require you to get a PhD in rocket science.

 

1. Singapore tour guide ($250 to $600 per 4-hour tour)

This might surprise you, but there are tourists who are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a tour of Singapore.

To be a licensed tourist guide, you’ll have to go through a course provided by SkillsFuture-approved training provider (usually about 6 months) and pass all the exams required to obtain a General Tourist Guide Licence.

The exam is quite difficult, and you’ll have to not only be well-versed in Singapore’s history and heritage to pass, but have good delivery and tour conducting skills.

But the rewards are decent. Top-rated tourist guides can charge as high as 429 USD (594 SGD) for a four-hour tour with private transport, while other guides tend to charge around 200 USD (277 SGD) to 300 USD (416 SGD) for walking tours of the same duration.

Note that you do need to be licensed as a travel agent (not just a tourist guide) in order to conduct a tour by car or some other form of private transport. Those are the freelance guides who can command the highest fees.

 

2. Home tutor ($40 to $60 per hour)

Singapore’s tuition industry is worth over $1 billion for a reason. Good tutors charge very high hourly rates, and parents are willing to pay them if it means an improvement in their offspring’s grades.

Degree holders can easily earn $40 to $50 an hour teaching upper secondary students, and $60 an hour for JC students or those in the final two years of a 6-year through-train or IB programme. MOE-trained teachers can easily make 20% to 30% more.

 

3. Freelance web designer ($1,000 & above per project)

There’s no need to be a programming whiz to become a decent web designer. But if you were the type of person who’d create your own blog skins as a teenager, you might have a future as a web designer.

Virtually every business needs a website, and most just need simple sites that are easy to navigate. A very basic five-page website can be finished in a day, and most designers charge at least $1,000 for even the simplest of projects.

As your skills grow and you’re able to take on more complex projects (eg. e-commerce sites), you’ll get to charge much more.

Web design can be learnt relatively quickly, although you’ll have to spend some months practising your skills. If this is a route you want to pursue and you don’t have the patience to trawl through online tutorials, use your SkillsFuture credits to take a course. Newbies might want to check out the responses on this Quora thread.

 

4. Emcee ($500 to $thousands per event)

Emcees are hired not just to annoy people at obnoxious shopping mall roadshows, but also to host corporate events, private events and even weddings.

Emcees charge anywhere from $500 to several thousand bucks to host events, depending on how many participants there are and how long the event lasts.

Just register yourself with an agency, practise a few jokes in front of the mirror and you’re good to go. Not confident enough? Sign yourself up for a hosting or emceeing workshop courtesy of your SkillsFuture credits and you’ll hopefully not make a fool of yourself.

Interested to find out more? This article sheds some light on what it’s like to be an emcee.

 

5. Personal trainer ($50 to $70 per hour)

Does your body resemble a chunk of ripped protein? Do you try to sucker your friends into arm wrestling every single time you meet for drinks? Then you might have a future as a fitness trainer.

You’ll want to get Personal Trainer Certification before starting to look for clients. A typical course is about 3 to 4 weeks long and some can be partially paid for using your SkillsFuture credits.

You can join a gym part-time to get your first clients, but eventually you want to become a freelancer, as that’s where the money is. Fitness trainers charge about $50 to $70 an hour, which makes it a great alternative to breathing down tuition kids’ necks.

Do you have a side gig to supplement your income? Tell us about it in the comments!