Retirement Age 64 and Re-employment to 69: Employer Guide

Singapore's minimum retirement age has been 64 and the re-employment age 69 since 1 July 2026. Under the Retirement and Re-employment Act, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) says on its re-employment page that employers may not dismiss an employee because of age and must offer re-employment to eligible employees who reach retirement age, up to 69. For most small employers the change bites in two places over the next few months: re-employed staff now turning 68, whose re-employment no longer ends at 68, and the first employees who will retire at 64, from July 2027, whose consultations should start from January.

CPF rates for employees above 55 to 65 also rise on 1 January 2027. This guide sets out who retires when, what you must offer, how far you may adjust pay, worked examples with MOM's payment figures and a checklist.

Which employees retire when?

MOM's table sets retirement and re-employment ages by date of birth:

• Born 1 July 1958 to 30 June 1960: retirement age 62, re-employment age 69.
• Born 1 July 1960 to 30 June 1963: retirement age 63, re-employment age 69.
• Born on or after 1 July 1963: retirement age 64, re-employment age 69.

MOM's retirement page says an employee retires on the day they reach the minimum retirement age. The Tripartite Guidelines on the Re-employment of Older Employees (PDF), updated 1 July 2026, note that both ages are due to reach 65 and 70 by 2030. If your own contracts set a higher retirement age, that higher age applies.

Who must be offered re-employment?

MOM lists four conditions. The employee is a Singapore citizen or permanent resident; has served you for at least two years before turning 64 if hired at 55 or older; has at least satisfactory performance, as you assess it; and is medically fit to continue working. The guidelines clarify that fitness means fit for any suitable role, not just the current one.

The contract should run at least a year and be renewable each year up to 69, starting on the day the employee reaches retirement age. The guidelines encourage five-year contracts for certainty. An employee who simply carries on past retirement age without a new contract is treated as re-employed on the same terms.

If you cannot offer a job, you have two options: transfer the obligation to another employer, with that employer's and the employee's agreement, or pay a one-off EAP. Employees can turn down a transfer and still receive the EAP from you.

Can you change pay and benefits on re-employment?

Yes, within limits. The guidelines say any wage adjustment should rest on reasonable factors such as productivity, duties and the wage system. Where the employee stays in the same job, pay could move down to the level of a younger employee with the required experience, for example the mid-point of the salary range. Where there is no seniority element in your pay, adjustments are discouraged. Re-employed staff should not have to serve a new qualifying period for annual or sick leave, and those not at the top of their range should remain eligible for increments; variable payments are a matter for agreement. For lower-wage staff the guidelines point to the Public Service practice of re-employing at the last drawn salary.

Worked examples (illustrative)

1. A re-employed storekeeper turning 68. Mdm Lim, born 10 December 1958, has been re-employed since she turned 62 and earns S$2,400. She turns 68 on 10 December 2026. Under the previous re-employment age her re-employment could have ended then; from 1 July 2026 it runs to 69, so if she remains eligible she must be offered another year. The guidelines ask for consultation at least six months before an extension; that point has passed, so start the conversation now and confirm the outcome in writing.

If there is genuinely no suitable job, which EAP applies? Her re-employment period runs from 62 to 69, seven years, and the guidelines' "two equal halves" approach puts the midpoint at 65 and a half. Their table for employees born from 1 July 1958 to 30 June 1960 says the same: the regular EAP if employment ends from 62 to below 65.5, the stepped-down EAP from 65.5 to below 69. She is past the midpoint, so the stepped-down EAP of two months is the one the guidelines point to: 2 × S$2,400 = S$4,800, inside the S$4,000 to S$8,500 range.

2. A supervisor in the first age-64 cohort. Mr Krishnan, born 15 September 1963, earns S$3,500. His retirement date is 15 September 2027.

1. Start consultation by 15 March 2027 and make the re-employment offer by 15 June 2027.
2. If you cannot re-employ him, the regular EAP is 3.5 × S$3,500 = S$12,250. On S$5,000 it would be S$17,500, capped at S$14,750; on S$1,600 it would be S$5,600, raised to the S$6,250 minimum.
3. CPF: the rates CPF announced for 2027 put the employer's share for employees above 60 to 65 at 13%, so S$455 a month on S$3,500, up from S$437.50 at the 2026 rate of 12.5%.
4. Support: MOM's retirement page says the Senior Employment Credit offsets up to 7% of monthly wages for Singaporean workers aged 60 and above earning below S$4,000, so up to S$245 a month in his case if he is a citizen. The page gives no end date, so confirm the credit still applies in 2027 before counting on it.

Can a small firm get help with part-time re-employment?

MOM's Part-time Re-employment Grant pays S$2,500 per resident senior worker aged 60 and above, up to S$125,000, and has been extended to 2027. To claim, a company must offer part-time re-employment to eligible seniors who ask for it, adopt the Tripartite Standard on Age-Friendly Workplace Practices, have flexible work and structured career planning in its HR policy, and send one senior manager and one HR person to a funded workshop run by the Singapore National Employers Federation. Companies that have received it before cannot apply again. For part-time re-employment, MOM says the EAP minimum and maximum can be pro-rated by weekly hours.

Checklist for the next three months

1. List every employee aged 60 and above with date of birth, citizenship, hire date, salary and contract end date.
2. Mark anyone turning 68 before mid-2027 whose re-employment would previously have ended at 68, and schedule a conversation now.
3. Mark anyone born from 1 July 1963 to mid-1964; their retirement dates start on 1 July 2027 and consultations six months earlier.
4. Check each person against the four eligibility conditions and record the performance and fitness assessment.
5. Prepare re-employment terms using the guidelines, and work out the EAP each person would receive as a fallback.
6. Update payroll for the 2027 CPF rates for staff above 55 to 65.
7. Check whether the Senior Employment Credit and the Part-time Re-employment Grant apply to you.
8. Keep written confirmation from anyone who declines re-employment.

Disputes go to the Commissioner for Labour within a month of the last day of employment, or to the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management within six months over terms or the EAP amount, so a clear grievance route helps; see our guide to setting up grievance handling before the Workplace Fairness Act. Age milestones are easy to automate in HR software, and CPF on year-end payments for older staff is in our AWS and CPF guide. If a re-employment contract is ended with notice, our salary in lieu of notice calculator shows the sum. More under operations.

Common questions