This OFW salary guide opens with the enforceable numbers. An Irish care worker on a General Employment Permit must earn at least €34,000 a year under the government’s own permit rules — €34,000 that will rise to €36,605 on March 1, 2026, by official decree. A Filipino domestic worker heading to the Gulf cannot be contracted below $500 a month under a policy the Department of Migrant Workers issued in August 2025. A worker headed to Japan can look up the exact prefecture minimum wage the Philippine Overseas Labor Office posts publicly, and a government-to-government program posting in Croatia states a minimum of €1,079 gross monthly for cooks on its official form RSF 250020. These are not salary estimates scraped from job boards. This OFW salary guide compares them side by side: the enforceable salary floors of the overseas deployment system, in Philippine pesos. The full OFW salary guide below is built on those floors.
Key Takeaway
- 💰 The OFW salary guide floor is a legal number, not a guess: every legitimate OFW contract carries a Philippine-agency-approved minimum — from the DMW’s $500/month Gulf domestic-worker floor to Ireland’s €34,000 permit minimum (€36,605 from March 1, 2026).
- 🇯🇵 Japan and Korea anchor the Asia lane: Japan’s prefecture minimums run ~¥1,121/hour national average (2025), while Korea’s official 2026 minimum wage is ₩10,700/hour — both posted through official Philippine labor offices.
- 🇮🇪 Ireland and New Zealand anchor the West: Ireland’s permit thresholds and NZ’s $23.95/hour adult minimum are both official government figures, verifiable before you sign anything.
- 📊 The peso comparison matters more than the headline currency: at the October 2026 reference zone (USD 1 ≈ ₱62.9), a $500 Gulf floor is about ₱31,400 — which is why country choice, not just job choice, decides household income.
- 🧾 Verify, never assume: the contract must exceed the published floor; if an offer quotes a number below the official minimum for that country and role, that is the loudest red flag in recruitment.
Table of Contents
How an OFW Salary Is Actually Set
Any honest OFW salary guide has to start with the mechanism, because the number on an overseas contract is never one number. It is the top of a stack, and each layer underneath is enforceable:
- The destination country’s legal minimum wage — set by the host government, applying to every worker hired there, local or foreign. Ireland’s permit floors, Korea’s national minimum wage, and New Zealand’s hourly minimum live at this layer.
- The Philippine government’s contract minimum — DMW’s country-and-category minimums that no Philippine recruitment agency may undercut. The $500/month Gulf domestic-worker floor (up from $400) lives here, as do the per-category floors DMW publishes with every approved job order.
- The posted job order’s own minimum — each Recruitment Specification Form states the employer’s committed minimum monthly salary. The Croatian government-to-government posting is a public example: every category on the form carries an explicit EUR minimum.
- The negotiated offer — which should sit above all three floors, never below any of them.
Reading that stack matters because the search traffic around OFW salaries mostly asks one question — “what does an OFW actually earn per month?” — and the honest answer is: at least the floor, and only that floor is knowable in advance. What a specific worker earns depends on overtime, accommodation, allowances, and certification premiums. What a contract must earn is public policy. This guide maps the policy layer, country by country.
The Salary Floors by Country: The 2026 OFW Salary Guide Table
All peso conversions use the mid-October 2026 reference zone of USD 1 ≈ ₱62.9 (rounded, dated, and re-checkable against the BSP’s published reference rate before each use). Tables like this age quickly — the floors are law, the conversions are weather.
| Country | Official floor (worker category) | In PHP, approx/month | Primary source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | ¥1,121/h national average minimum (2025); higher in Tokyo | ~¥194,000/mo full-time ≈ ₱76,000 | MHLW; MWO advisories |
| South Korea | ₩10,700/h official 2026 minimum | ~₩2.05M/mo ≈ ₱85,000 | Minimum Wage Commission / Yonhap |
| Ireland | €34,000/yr GEP minimum → €36,605 (Mar 2026) | ~€2,833/mo ≈ ₱178,000 (gross) | DETE official roadmap |
| New Zealand | NZ$23.95/h adult minimum | ~NZ$3,830/mo ≈ ₱79,000 | Employment NZ official |
| Canada | TFWP must beat provincial median wage (varies by province) | ~CAD 4,000-4,600/mo ≈ ₱165,000-190,000 | ESDC official |
| Gulf (domestic work) | USD 500/mo DMW minimum (new contracts, Aug 2025 policy) | ≈ ₱31,400 | DMW |
| Croatia (G2G example) | €1,079/mo gross minimum for cooks (RSF 250020) | ≈ ₱64,000 | DMW posting |
The spread is the story: the same Filipino worker, same work ethic, lands anywhere between a ₱31,000 floor in Gulf domestic service and a ₱178,000 gross permit minimum in Irish healthcare. Country selection is the single largest salary decision an OFW household makes — larger than role selection in most cases. The rest of this guide explains how each floor works and what sits above it.
Japan OFW Salary: The Prefecture System
The Japan lane of this OFW salary guide starts with a complication: Japan has no single nationwide minimum wage. Each prefecture sets its own, and the national figure (~¥1,121/hour in 2025) is just an average — Tokyo sits well above (¥1,226), rural prefectures below. The Philippine government’s own labor offices in Japan — the MWOs — publish these regional tables as official advisories, which is exactly how a TITP trainee or a Specified Skilled Worker candidate verifies the number that should appear in their contract. Wages rise annually (the FY2025 revision was the largest jump on record), so a 2026 contract priced with 2023 numbers is a warning sign on its own.
Above the floor: overtime pay rates, night differentials, and in the Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) track, wages that employers must certify against the regional standard. The official path is documented in our Japan OFW salary deep-dive, and the certification layer that raises the number is covered in our TESDA certification guide.
South Korea OFW Salary: The EPS System
The Korea lane of the OFW salary guide is the most standardized: Korea runs foreign blue-collar hiring through the Employment Permit System, and EPS earnings track the national minimum wage directly — ₩10,700/hour from 2026 (up 3.7% from ₩10,320), after the 2025 wage was set at ₩10,320. At full standard hours plus modest overtime, that stacks to roughly ₩2.0-2.3M monthly before deductions — and EPS contracts are standardized, which does two things at once: it makes undercutting harder, and it makes the published wage the dominant wage (less dispersion than any other lane in this guide).
The practical consequence for a Filipino EPS applicant: the exam and language lane (EPS-TOPIK) is free or near-free to attempt, and the contract wage is public knowledge before application. Few labor corridors offer that transparency.
Ireland OFW Salary: The Permit Thresholds
The Ireland lane of this OFW salary guide sets its floors at the visa layer. The government’s official roadmap (published December 2, 2025) is unambiguous: General Employment Permit minimums rise from €34,000 to €36,605 on March 1, 2026; Critical Skills Employment Permits from €38,000 to €40,904; and the agri-food and healthcare sub-thresholds (meat processors, horticulture, healthcare assistants, home carers) from €30,000 to €32,691, with the full ladder phased through 2030.
The GEP search traffic in the export — “ireland ofw salary per month”, “ireland salary per month in peso” — resolves exactly to this ladder: €34,000 today is about ₱159,000 a month gross, rising with the March 2026 step. These are gross figures; deductions and the Irish cost of living separate them from take-home, which is why permit minimums are floors, not offers.
New Zealand and Canada: OFW Salary Baselines
The West-lane rows of the OFW salary guide share one design: both countries tie worker visas to wage tests, and both publish the tests. New Zealand’s Accredited Employer Work Visa requires wages meeting or beating the median-wage threshold (moved upward in August 2025), while the country’s legal minimum — $23.95/hour adult ($19.16 for starting-out workers and trainees) — applies underneath everything. Employment New Zealand publishes the table; Immigration New Zealand publishes the visa test.
Canada runs the Temporary Foreign Worker Program on a provincial median-wage test: an employer hiring a foreign worker must offer at least the median wage for that occupation in that province, and ESDC — the responsible department — publishes the exact table. The search pattern in the export (“canada ofw salary per month”, “ofw salary in canada per month”) has a structured answer: a range by province, not one number — which is the entire difference between a guide that estimates and a guide that maps official floors.
The certification premium that separates Gulf salaries runs on the trade credentials profiled in our AI-proof careers feature — the trades AI cannot replace are also the trades that price above the floor.
The Gulf States: OFW Salary and the DMW Floor
The Gulf rows of this OFW salary guide matter most for deployment volume: the Gulf is the deployment center of the export’s home audience, and its salary structure is unique: most Gulf countries publish no general minimum wage that covers migrant domestic and service workers, which is precisely why the Philippine government’s own contract floor carries the protective weight. In August 2025, DMW raised that floor for newly hired domestic workers from $400 to $500/month (about SAR 1,875), effective on contracts processed after a 60-day window, alongside seven reforms: free annual medical check-ups, mandatory know-your-employer video calls before signing, the “Kumusta Kabayan” welfare check-in system, stricter recruitment-agency housing rules, agency whitelisting, expanded legal and welfare aid, and TESDA reskilling tracks. A separate caregiver category with its own minimum is planned.
For skilled Gulf categories — construction trades, hospitality, healthcare — the floor mechanism is the approved job order itself: every RSF states an explicit minimum monthly salary, and contracts below the stated minimum are challengeable through the MWO. The Gulf floor in pesos (₱31,400) is the lowest in this guide — the honest arithmetic matters, and it is also why the certification premium does the heavy lifting in Gulf careers: the certified electrician prices multiples above the uncertified floor, and the gap widens with international certification.
Converting to Pesos: The Rate That Decides Your Income
No OFW salary guide survives a currency move; every remittance decision starts with the conversion, and the guide’s peso framing (“ireland salary per month in peso”, “denmark salary per month in peso”) deserves a section of its own. The rule: use the BSP’s published reference rate on the day you compute — never a single static number. The October 2026 zone (USD 1 ≈ ₱62.9, sourced at the time of writing) swings household income more than any single country-floor revision does; a ₱2 move in the dollar rate changes a $1,500 Ireland-equivalent take-home by ₱3,000 a month, before any employer does anything.
Two disciplines follow. First, compare offers in their own currencies against their own floors, then convert for the household budget — never negotiate against a peso figure alone. Second, keep the remittance layer competitive: the spread between banks, mobile wallets, and stablecoin rails regularly moves effective income by 1-3%, a bigger monthly lever than most floor adjustments. Our OFW tax filing guide and SSS OFW contribution guide cover the after-salary layers: mandatory deductions, voluntary contributions, and the minimum monthly salary credit rules that keep benefits intact while abroad.
The Filipino and OFW Playbook Before You Sign
To compress the whole OFW salary guide into a five-step signing checklist:
- Identify the job category and country. The floor differs by both — the same “kitchen worker” title prices differently in Croatia’s G2G posting and a private Gulf contract.
- Look up two numbers before any interview: the host country’s official minimum (or permit threshold) and the DMW minimum for that country-category pair. Both are published.
- Convert the offer at a dated BSP reference rate — and record the rate you used, because a contract dispute later will ask what was promised and when.
- Check the four contract essentials: base salary at or above both floors, overtime rate, accommodation and food terms, and the ticket/insurance clauses. A contract passing below the published floor is voidable leverage — raise it before departure, when correction is cheap.
- Verify on the official systems: the E-Registration portal, PEOS certification, and the posted RSF numbers. Every legitimate deployment already lives in those systems; a job that does not is not deployed, it is merely offered.
What to Do When an Offer Passes Below the Floor
The final pages of this OFW salary guide cover enforcement. When a quoted salary is below the official minimum for the country and category: stop, document, and route through the system — never route through the recruiter’s promises. DMW operates direct channels for illegal recruitment and contract violations, and the MWO at the destination can verify and enforce contract floors on current workers too. The floor system only protects workers who use it; an unreported violation protects nothing but the violator. Reporting also compounds: every verified violation strengthens the next country-category floor negotiation, which is how the domestic-worker minimum moved 25% in one policy cycle.
Frequently Asked Questions About OFW Salaries
What is the minimum monthly salary credit for OFWs?
This OFW salary guide tracks floors, not contribution math; for the SSS side, the minimum monthly salary credit for OFW members follows the official SSS contribution schedule for land-based OFW members, with declared monthly earnings setting the MSC at or above the schedule’s minimum. The full table and the why-it-matters rundown live in our dedicated SSS OFW contribution guide.
How much is the salary of an OFW in Japan per month?
A full-time worker paid exactly the prefecture minimum in Japan earns roughly ¥194,000 a month before deductions (~₱76,000 at October 2026 rates), with Tokyo’s higher minimum lifting the floor further. Actual OFW contract wages typically sit above the floor through overtime and allowances, and the official regional tables are published through Japan’s MWO advisories.
How much does an OFW earn in South Korea under EPS?
EPS contract wages track Korea’s national minimum wage — ₩10,700/hour from 2026 (₩10,320 in 2025) — stacking to roughly ₩2.0-2.3 million won a month at standard hours with typical overtime, before deductions. EPS contracts are standardized, so the published minimum dominates the actual pay distribution.
What is the minimum salary for an Ireland work permit in pesos?
The OFW salary guide number for the General Employment Permit minimum is €34,000 a year (about ₱159,000 a month gross at October 2026 rates), rising to €36,605 a year on March 1, 2026 under Ireland’s official roadmap, with Critical Skills permits higher at €40,904 after the increase.
What is the DMW minimum salary for domestic workers in the Gulf?
The Philippine Department of Migrant Workers set a $500/month (SAR 1,875) minimum for newly hired Filipino domestic workers, effective for contracts processed 60 days after the August 2025 policy issuance — about ₱31,400 a month, with a separate caregiver category and its own minimum planned.
Are peso conversions in this guide permanent?
No — the currency floors are the stable part; conversions move daily. This guide uses the mid-October 2026 zone (USD 1 ≈ ₱62.9) and readers should always recompute at the BSP’s reference rate on their own signing or remittance date.
Sources
Primary government sources
Department of Migrant Workers — news releases and issuances (domestic-worker minimum salary policy, RSF postings); DMW Compendium deployment statistics. Philippine labor offices abroad publish host-country wage advisories — MWO-Osaka Advisory No. 9, s.2025 (Japan FY2025 regional minimum wages).
Ireland Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment — Employment permit salary threshold roadmap (Dec 2, 2025); Employment New Zealand — minimum wage rates; Immigration New Zealand — AEWV wage-threshold changes (Aug 2025); Employment and Social Development Canada — TFWP median wage tables.
News corroboration
Yonhap News — Korea’s 2026 minimum wage set at ₩10,700/hour (+3.7%); PNA/Gulf News — DMW domestic-worker minimum raised to USD 500 (Aug 2025); The Register of official RSF postings (Croatia G2G example, RSF 250020).
Conversion note: peso figures in this guide are computed at a dated reference zone (mid-October 2026, USD 1 ≈ ₱62.9) for comparability. Always re-check the BSP reference rate at the time of any contract or remittance decision.
Financial Disclaimer
This salary guide is general information, not financial or legal advice. Salary floors, permit thresholds, and exchange rates change; verify current figures with DMW, the relevant MWO, the SSS, and the destination country’s official sources before signing any contract or making financial decisions based on this content.
