Singapore has been flagged as a city to avoid for software developers by US-based software developer mentorship company, Codementor.

According to a study on the top countries for software developers, it was found that Singapore developers are paid $440.74 on average, leading it to be ranked at the bottom of the top cities list at number 20. Codementor also found that an average Singapore developer earns $47,748 annually after taxes.

Besides income, the cost of living, rent and job openings were factors in ranking the top countries.

The study found that the Singapore software engineers’ average living cost per month is $1,136 (US$835), while monthly rent sat at at $2,806 (US$2,063). Additionally, Singapore was ranked 7th at job openings with 2,026 postings available.

Codementor’s tanking system is unique in that they utilise a “real earnings” formula to calculate income. They reported, “We used our real earnings formula (Real earnings = Income – Taxes – Social Security – Living Costs – Rent) to calculate the earnings of an average software engineer living alone in the city, and used that as a ranking metric. This leads to vastly different results.”

Seattle has been ranked the number city worldwide,with a real earnings average of $61,459. Oslo was found to be the best city for developers outside the US, with a real earning average of $38,337.