Starting pay of local bus drivers to rise by $450 from Jan 2027; average monthly pay will cross $4k

Aqil Hamzah
The Straits Times
June 3, 2026

To attract more locals to the profession, the Government will fund a $450 monthly salary increase for new Singaporean and permanent resident bus drivers from January 2027, along with an additional $2,000 in sign-on bonuses.

This will effectively increase the average monthly pay for new bus drivers from about $3,600 now to more than $4,000, after including overtime pay and allowances.

Existing bus drivers will get a one-time pay bump to ensure fairness, boost retention, and recognise their hard work, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced on June 3 in a joint statement with the National Transport Workers’ Union (NTWU) and four public bus operators.

The statement did not give details of the one-time pay adjustment, which will be funded by the operators: Go-Ahead Singapore, SBS Transit, SMRT Buses and Tower Transit Singapore.

The move by the Government to partially fund new bus driver pay comes amid difficulties in attracting and retaining new drivers as the existing workforce ages, even as the number of bus routes has increased.

More bus drivers are needed as the authorities improve the bus network under the $900 million Bus Connectivity Enhancement Programme, which entails rolling out new bus services, deploying express feeder buses and extending bus routes, among other measures.

Since the programme was launched in July 2024, 33 bus routes have been introduced or extended, with changes made to more than 60 existing bus services.

In a social media post, Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow noted that the median age of local bus drivers is 56, with many due to retire in the coming years.

“Even just to sustain the current levels of service, we will need to recruit many more new drivers,” he said, adding this was why starting salaries and sign-on bonuses will be increased to attract more locals to join the profession.

Siow noted that a larger pool of drivers will also allow the operators to improve working conditions and make bus driving a more sustainable career.

He had in February highlighted the challenges of recruiting local bus drivers, saying then that more has to be done to make the job more attractive, including potential adjustments to salaries.

During the debate on the Transport Ministry’s budget in March, Siow said the authorities were in discussions with bus operators and the NTWU to raise salaries as well as improve working conditions and career progression.

A Tower Transit Singapore spokesman said basic salaries for its local bus drivers would range from $2,360 for new joiners to $4,152 for those in more senior positions, without accounting for overtime pay and allowances. The operator currently employs about 1,600 bus drivers.

In the joint statement, the authorities and operators noted that the sector loses two bus drivers to resignation or retirement for every new local recruit.

Over the years, the percentage of local bus drivers has also fallen from 54 per cent in 2021 to 41 per cent in 2025.

There were about 9,700 bus drivers in Singapore in 2024, based on a parliamentary reply in October 2025.

NTWU executive secretary Yeo Wan Ling told ST that the increments come after years of advocacy by the union.

“It marks a very important step to improving the attractiveness and sustainability of a profession that keeps Singapore moving every day,” said Yeo, who is also an MP for Punggol GRC.

The increment that existing bus drivers will get is the same across all four operators, owing to the need for parity, she said. However, individual operators will likely have their own incentives, she added.

According to the operators’ websites, SBS Transit is currently offering a sign-on bonus with training incentives, up to $25,000 for local bus drivers; and SMRT is offering a bonus of up to $30,000, with an additional $3,000 for those who join between April and June.

Go-Ahead offers a sign-on bonus of up to $20,000, while Tower Transit Singapore’s sign-on bonus is set at $10,000 and paid in quarterly instalments over two years.

Beyond salaries, however, Yeo stressed that it is also important to improve job conditions for bus drivers.

She said: “A bus captain’s role is physically and mentally demanding. Currently, we have a situation where we don’t have enough bus captains, leading to longer working hours and shorter rest times.

“If this works well (in attracting more people), we might be able to provide better welfare for our workers.”

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