CPF for New Permanent Residents (Singapore Employers)

A new Permanent Resident does not pay full CPF rates straight away. For the first two years of PR status, both the employer and employee shares are charged at lower, graduated rates; from the third year, the PR moves onto the full Citizen CPF rates. The default is the Graduated/Graduated scheme, and it applies automatically — no application needed (CPF Board).

Last reviewed 4 June 2026 · Source: CPF Board. The graduated rates below are the default scheme for monthly wages above $750 — use the CPF Board calculator for lower wage bands.

Why new PRs pay less at first

The graduated rates exist to ease the jump into full CPF. A new PR's take-home pay would drop sharply if the full employee share applied from day one, so CPF phases it in over two years — lower in Year 1, higher in Year 2, full from Year 3 (CPF Board). For you as the employer, it also means a lower employer contribution for those first two years.

The catch is that "lower" is not "off." A first-year PR still contributes — switching CPF off because someone "just got PR" is one of the most common and most expensive payroll mistakes there is.

The default scheme: Graduated/Graduated

CPF gives a new PR three possible rate schemes, but one is the default and the other two need an application (CPF Board):

• Graduated/Graduated (G/G) — a graduated employer share and a graduated employee share. This is the default, and it applies automatically with no paperwork.
• Full/Graduated (F/G) and Full/Full (F/F) — the employer pays the full rate (and, under F/F, so does the employee) earlier than the two-year ramp. Both require a joint application to the CPF Board.

Unless you and the employee have applied otherwise, a new PR sits on G/G. The tables below are the G/G rates.

PR Year 1 rates (Graduated/Graduated)

These apply from the day PR is granted through the first year, on monthly wages above $750 (CPF Board).

Employee age	Employer	Employee	Total
Below 55	4%	5%	9%
55 to below 60	4%	5%	9%
60 to below 65	3.5%	5%	8.5%
65 and above	3.5%	5%	8.5%

PR Year 2 rates (Graduated/Graduated)

In the second year both shares step up — still below the full rate, but much closer (CPF Board).

Employee age	Employer	Employee	Total
Below 55	9%	15%	24%
55 to below 60	6%	12.5%	18.5%
60 to below 65	3.5%	7.5%	11%
65 and above	3.5%	5%	8.5%

From the third year onward, the PR is on the full Citizen rates — read live, by age band, in our CPF contribution rates guide.

Take a 40-year-old new PR earning $4,000 a month. In Year 1 the combined CPF is 9% — $360 a month. In Year 2 it rises to 24% — $960. From Year 3 they are on the full Citizen rate. The same employee costs you progressively more in CPF across three years, so budget for the step-ups rather than being caught out by them.

When the PR clock starts and stops

The graduated rates start on the date PR is granted, not the first of the following month — so a mid-month grant puts part of that month already on PR rates (CPF Board). That is the opposite of the age-band rule, where a higher rate waits until the month after the birthday, and mixing the two up is a frequent error.

Year 1 and Year 2 each run as a full year from the grant date; the move to full Citizen rates happens from the third year. Put the exact grant date into payroll and the scheme transitions on its own.

Paying full rates earlier

Some employees would rather have more of their pay going into CPF sooner, and you can accommodate that. You and the employee jointly apply to the CPF Board to move onto F/G or F/F rates ahead of the two-year ramp (CPF Board).

Two things to weigh before you do. It raises your employer cost immediately, so treat it as a real budgeting decision, not a rubber stamp. And the arrangement is tied to the current job — it does not travel with the employee to their next employer, who starts them on the default G/G again.

Getting it right

Two errors dominate. Switching CPF off for a first-year PR, when they in fact contribute at the graduated rate. And reading the grant date as "next month," when PR rates actually start on the grant day itself.

When a PR joins or an employee converts to PR, put the exact PR grant date into payroll and let the system apply Year 1, then Year 2, then the full rate. If you are setting payroll up around a new PR hire, this sits on top of your first CPF submission — the same submission and the same 14th-of-the-month deadline, just a different rate band for two years. The grant date is the one field that drives all of it, so capture it exactly and check it once a year later when the employee crosses into full rates.