Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA) Singapore: Employer’s Complete Guide 2026

Last reviewed: 12 September 2026

What Is WICA, and Who Is Covered

The Work Injury Compensation Act gives employees a faster, cheaper route to compensation after a workplace injury than suing their employer in court. Instead of proving negligence in a civil suit — which can take years and requires a lawyer — an injured employee files a claim with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) or their employer’s insurer, and compensation is paid according to a fixed formula, regardless of who was at fault. MOM describes it as “a low-cost and quicker alternative to common law for settling compensation claims” (MOM, What is WICA).

Coverage is broad by design. WICA covers any local or foreign employee under a contract of service or apprenticeship — full-time, part-time, temporary or casual — “regardless of salary, age or citizenship” (MOM, Who Is Covered). There is no salary ceiling: a $20,000-a-month executive and a $1,500-a-month cleaner have exactly the same right to claim.

A narrow set of workers fall outside WICA: independent contractors and the genuinely self-employed (unless they’ve voluntarily opted into coverage), domestic workers, and uniformed personnel in the SAF, Police, Civil Defence Force, Central Narcotics Bureau and Prisons Service, who are covered under separate government schemes. Everyone else working under a contract of service in Singapore is in.

What Counts as a Work Injury Claim

WICA covers accidents “arising out of and in the course of employment,” plus occupational diseases listed in the Act’s Fourth Schedule (occupational asthma and noise-induced deafness are common examples). In practice, MOM’s guidance confirms this covers more than the factory floor: a traffic accident while using company transport, a work-related trip on any mode of transport (provided the employee didn’t detour for personal reasons), an injury on an approved overseas work assignment, a fight where the employee was a victim or acted in self-defence, and even a heart attack or stroke where the medical event was triggered by work conditions can all be eligible claims (MOM, Eligible Claims). Injuries sustained during an approved flexible or remote-work arrangement are covered too — relevant for any employer that has adopted the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests.

What’s excluded is just as important for employers to know: accidents during an employee’s ordinary commute in their own vehicle, injuries suffered while running a personal errand, injuries sustained while intoxicated, self-inflicted injuries, and non-work incidents that happen to occur during a remote-working day are not eligible claims.

Reporting Deadlines: What Employers Must Do First

The clock starts the moment an employer is notified of a workplace accident. Under MOM’s work accident reporting rules, employers must report to MOM within 10 days of the accident for a fatality, and within 10 days of first being notified for a non-fatal accident that results in outpatient or hospitalisation leave, light duty, or death (MOM, What and When to Report). Occupational disease diagnoses must also be reported within 10 days of the diagnosis, whether by the employer or the diagnosing doctor.

Fatal accidents carry an extra obligation: MOM’s Commissioner for Labour must be notified “as soon as reasonably practicable,” ahead of the formal 10-day report. Missing these deadlines is a standalone offence, separate from any compensation dispute — a first offence draws a fine of up to $10,000, and a repeat offence up to $20,000, imprisonment of up to 6 months, or both.

Alongside the MOM report, the employer must notify its work injury compensation insurer immediately and start paying the employee’s medical leave wages by the next payday once original medical certificates are received — this obligation exists independently of whether MOM or the insurer has finished assessing the claim.

How Compensation Is Calculated (2025 Increases)

WICA compensation falls into three categories: medical leave wages, medical expenses, and lump-sum compensation for permanent incapacity or death. MOM raised the lump-sum and medical expense limits from 1 November 2025, and the new figures apply to any accident occurring on or after that date (MOM press release, Higher Compensation Limits Under WICA):

Compensation type	Before 1 Nov 2025	From 1 Nov 2025
Death (lump sum)	$76,000 – $225,000	$91,000 – $269,000
Permanent incapacity (lump sum)	$97,000 – $289,000	$116,000 – $346,000
Medical expenses cap	$45,000	$53,000

Death and permanent incapacity payouts aren’t flat amounts — they’re calculated as average monthly earnings × an age-multiplying factor, and for permanent incapacity, also multiplied by the percentage of incapacity assessed by a doctor. A younger employee attracts a higher age multiplier than an older one, since the compensation is meant to reflect lost future earning capacity. An employee assessed at 100% permanent incapacity receives an additional 25% on top of the calculated sum, to help cover ongoing care costs.

Medical leave wages are paid at the employee’s full average monthly earnings for the first 14 days of leave, then at two-thirds of average monthly earnings from day 15 up to a maximum of one year, whether the employee is hospitalised or on outpatient leave. Medical expenses (treatment, medication, ward charges) are reimbursed up to the cap above, or within one year of the accident date, whichever comes first.

The Claims Process, Step by Step

1. Immediate medical treatment. The employee gets treated; the employer arranges this and keeps records of every clinic visit.
2. Report and notify. The employer files the accident report with MOM within the 10-day deadline and tells its insurer immediately.
3. Pay medical leave wages upfront. Due by the next payday after receiving the original medical certificate — employers can’t wait for the claim to be assessed first.
4. Medical report and computation. The insurer (for policies from 1 January 2021 onward) issues a Notice of Computation, or MOM issues a Notice of Assessment for older policies, setting out the compensation due.
5. 21-day payment window. If neither party objects to the computation or assessment, compensation must be paid within 21 days of it being served.
6. Reimbursement of employee-paid bills. Any medical bills the employee paid out of pocket must be reimbursed within 14 days of the employer receiving proof of payment.

A claim remains valid for up to one year after the accident, and either party can formally object to a computation or assessment — that dispute is what eventually escalates to the Work Injury Compensation Division or, in narrow circumstances, the courts (see the MOM types of compensation page for the underlying formulas).

Mandatory Insurance and Penalties for Non-Compliance

Every employer in Singapore must buy and maintain work injury compensation insurance covering all employees doing manual work, and all non-manual employees earning $2,600 a month or less — in practice, most employers insure their entire workforce, since the cost of a single uninsured claim can dwarf years of premiums. This insurance covers the employer’s liability both under WICA and under common law.

Failing to maintain the required insurance is a criminal offence, not just a compliance gap: it carries a fine of up to $10,000, imprisonment of up to 12 months, or both. Separately, failing to pay compensation that’s due carries penalties of up to $15,000, up to 12 months’ imprisonment, or both. These are personal exposures for the responsible officers of a company, not just a corporate fine line-item.

WICA vs Suing for Common Law Damages

An injured employee generally has to choose one path: claim under WICA, or sue the employer under common law for negligence. WICA is faster and doesn’t require proving fault, but the payout is capped at the formula above. A common law suit can produce a larger award (including for pain and suffering, which WICA doesn’t compensate), but requires proving the employer was negligent, takes considerably longer, and carries legal costs and litigation risk. Most employees choose WICA precisely because it’s predictable and doesn’t require a lawyer — MOM’s guidance on WICA versus common law sets out the trade-off in full.

Real Case: What Happens When Employers Get It Wrong

In MTM Ship Management Pte Ltd v Devaswarupa and Others [2022] SGHC 178, a seafarer employed by MTM Ship Management died in a workplace accident. The employer had already paid the deceased’s family a USD 144,000 settlement before the Commissioner for Labour assessed statutory WICA compensation at S$190,703.96. The High Court had to decide whether the earlier settlement could be offset against the statutory award — it ruled that it could, reducing the employer’s remaining liability to nil, since the voluntary payment exceeded the assessed compensation. The case is a reminder that WICA claims and private settlements interact in ways that aren’t always intuitive, and that getting professional advice before making a voluntary payment can materially change what an employer still owes.

A harsher lesson comes from Public Prosecutor v Manta Equipment (S) Pte Ltd [2022] SGHC 157, where an employee was killed after a suspended crane jib — rigged incorrectly against manufacturer specifications — struck him during erection work. This was prosecuted as a Workplace Safety and Health Act offence rather than a WICA dispute, and the company was fined S$250,000 (down from an indicative S$300,000 given its guilty plea and remedial action). The High Court used the case to set a tougher sentencing benchmark, directing courts to weigh both the potential and the actual harm from a safety breach, not just what could have happened. It’s the clearest illustration of why WICA compensation and WSH Act prevention duties are two separate exposures — paying out a WICA claim doesn’t close the door on a criminal prosecution for the underlying safety failure. See our Workplace Safety Act guide for what those prevention duties require.

A worked example. Say a 35-year-old warehouse worker earning $2,800 a month suffers a workplace accident from 1 November 2025 and is assessed with 40% permanent incapacity. The insurer applies the formula — average monthly earnings × age multiplier × percentage of incapacity — against the new $116,000–$346,000 band for permanent incapacity, prorated to the 40% assessed. A younger worker’s age multiplier is higher than an older colleague’s would be for the identical injury and salary, which is why two employees hurt in the same incident, at different ages, can receive different payouts even with an identical incapacity assessment. This is also why getting the accident date right matters for employers: an injury on 31 October 2025 is assessed under the old, lower limits, while one occurring the next day falls under the higher band.

Common Employer Mistakes That Turn a Claim Into a Prosecution

• Treating the 10-day reporting deadline as a formality. It’s a standalone criminal offence if missed, independent of how the compensation claim itself is resolved.
• Waiting for the insurer’s assessment before paying medical leave wages. The obligation to pay by the next payday after receiving the medical certificate exists regardless of where the claim stands.
• Assuming a foreign employee on a Work Permit is less protected. WICA draws no distinction by nationality, pass type or salary — treating a foreign worker’s claim as optional is a compliance and reputational risk in equal measure.
• Confusing WICA compensation with WSH Act liability. Paying out a WICA claim settles the employee’s compensation; it does nothing to prevent MOM or the Public Prosecutor from separately pursuing a Workplace Safety and Health Act charge over the underlying safety failure, as the Manta Equipment case above shows.
• Letting insurance lapse between renewals. A gap in cover on the date of an accident exposes the company — and potentially its directors — to the full compensation liability out of pocket, on top of the criminal penalty for not being insured.

WICA compensation is one half of the picture. Preventing the accident in the first place — and the criminal exposure employers face if they don’t — is covered in our Workplace Safety and Health Act guide. For the pay obligations that continue alongside a WICA claim, see our Pay & CPF hub.