This page used to carry a table of monthly salaries by sector in Suriname: agriculture, services, tourism, mining. Every one of those figures has been removed, because no current published statistic supports them. That is not our judgment call. It is the statistics office's own record, and it is worth reading before you plan a move around a salary expectation.
What can be measured is the other half of the question: what living here actually costs. Below is what we read, from whom, on what date, and over how many observations. Where a figure does not exist, this page says so instead of filling the gap.
The salary table is gone, and the statistics office's own matrix says why
The Algemeen Bureau voor de Statistiek publishes a Databeschikbaarheidsmatrix — an availability matrix listing each series, who is responsible for it, how far it runs, and when the next release is expected. The version on the site is dated June 2026 and was read on 25 October 2026. Four of its rows settle this question:
- Row 18, Lonen, salarissen en sociale lasten per bedrijfstak — wages, salaries and social charges by economic sector. Responsible: ABS. Available through 2021. Expected release: Mei 2026, with the remark Afhankelijk van interne en externe data verschaffers. That promised month has passed and nothing new is on the site.
- Row 17, jobs per economic sector: available through 2022, same expected month, same remark.
- Row 45, workers, unemployed and labor statistics for the whole of Suriname: available through Census 8 — the 2012 census — and marked as available only after the Census 9 data appear.
- Row 28, Lonen en Prijzen in de Bouwnijverheid, wages and prices in construction, carries the remark Wordt niet meer gepubliceerd: no longer published.
So the most recent official wage-by-sector series dates from 2021, and the countrywide labor statistics still rest on a census taken in 2012. Any article that gives you a 2026 salary range per sector in Suriname is not reading a source. The commercial salary sites that do publish such ranges are survey products with no stated sample for this country, and they disagree with each other by multiples.
The one wage figure that is published, straight from the Staatsblad
There is exactly one wage number here with a primary source behind it: the statutory minimum. The Beschikking of the Minister of Labor, Employment and Youth Affairs of 24 March 2025, no. 380/25, published as S.B. 2025 no. 33, decides Te rekenen van 01 april 2025, het algemeen minimum uurloon vast te stellen op SRD 52,47 — with effect from 1 April 2025, to set the general minimum hourly wage at SRD 52.47. It was issued in Paramaribo on 24 March 2025 and promulgated on 27 March 2025, on the advice of the Nationale Loonraad of 28 February 2025, under the Wet Minimumloon, S.B. 2019 no. 101 as amended by S.B. 2024 no. 31.
Two cautions, both of which matter more than the number. First, we are not converting that hourly rate into a monthly salary: the beschikking sets an hourly amount and states no number of hours, and multiplying it by a working week nobody published is how a sourced figure turns into an invented one. Second, a further increase effective 1 July 2026 is reported by a wage database, but we found no 2026 Staatsblad or ministerial decision for it, and the database cites the March 2025 decision as its own source. We therefore do not quote the later figure. Treat SRD 52.47 as the last floor we can verify, assume it has since risen, and ask the Ministry of Labor for the current beschikking.
What rent actually costs: asking prices, read as percentiles
These are advertised asking rents from five Surinamese agencies, aggregated by us, in euros per month. Read them as what they are. For each zone the three figures are the 25th percentile, the median and the 75th percentile of the same set of priced listings — they are not basic, comfortable and luxury market segments, and treating them that way is the most common error made with this kind of data. They are asking prices, not transaction prices, and not a national average; they skew high, and they skew toward the agency segment. Outliers were excluded using Tukey's 1.5 times IQR fence.
- Paramaribo-Noord, 83 priced listings (median over 81): EUR 706 at the 25th percentile, EUR 1,250 at the median, EUR 2,250 at the 75th percentile. Measured 16 October 2026, median 5 October 2026. Three listings excluded as outliers.
- Paramaribo-Zuid, 60 priced listings: EUR 789, EUR 1,417 and EUR 2,224. Measured 11 and 16 October 2026. No listings excluded.
- Paramaribo, remaining districts, 77 priced listings (median over 79): EUR 950, EUR 1,250 and EUR 2,500. Measured 16 October and 5 October 2026. Two listings excluded.
- Wanica, 22 priced listings: EUR 654, EUR 975 and EUR 1,734. Measured 8 and 11 and 16 October 2026. One listing excluded.
Note the sample size on Wanica. Twenty-two listings is a thin base for a percentile, and the gap between its median and the Paramaribo-Noord median should be read as a difference between two small samples of advertisements rather than as a measured discount for living outside the capital.
Groceries: shelf prices from one online supermarket
These are published shelf prices at Avoda, an online supermarket in Suriname, read from the shop's own category pages on 5 October 2026. Each staple below is a single product, so the sample size is one: it is a price per unit, not an average of the market.
- White rice, 1 kg: SRD 46.20. White sugar, 1 kg: SRD 45.60. Wheat flour, 1 kg: SRD 55.30.
- Sunflower oil, 800 ml: SRD 82.83. Table salt, 1 kg: SRD 22.22. Bottled water, 1.5 L: SRD 29.43.
Department medians from the same shop and the same date give a better sense of a basket, each over the number of priced products shown: staples SRD 54.05 per item over 24 products; tinned goods SRD 83.16 over 49; bread, spreads and cereal SRD 115.01 over 32; chilled and frozen SRD 125.40 over 21; coffee, tea and milk SRD 196.61 over 46; soup, sauce and seasoning SRD 64.05 over 31; snacks SRD 37.29 over 30. Where the shop states pack sizes, the median works out at SRD 77.70 per kilo for staples over 14 products and SRD 984.50 per kilo for coffee, tea and milk over 40.
We are not turning this into a monthly grocery bill. A monthly figure is a basket multiplied by quantities, and nobody publishes the basket. The medians are there so you can price your own.
Electricity, internet and fuel
Electricity from N.V. Energiebedrijven Suriname is a stepped tariff, which matters more than the unit price: a heavy user pays more per unit, not simply more units. For a single-phase domestic connection the standing charge is SRD 211.78 per month, payable before any consumption, and consumption runs at SRD 1.971 per kWh for the first 400 kWh a month, SRD 2.85 from 401 to 900, SRD 3.33 from 901 to 1,500 and SRD 4.68 above 1,500. These were measured as of 1 December 2024, which makes them the oldest figures on this page by a wide margin — confirm them with the utility before budgeting.
Fibre internet from Telesur, read from its own pricing page on 5 October 2026: the Basic package is SRD 1,124.96 a month excluding BTW for up to 400 Mbps, and the Streaming package SRD 1,899.95 a month excluding BTW for up to 1 Gbps. Both require a two-year contract, so these are monthly prices carrying a 24-month commitment. The page states the amounts exclude BTW and we have not added a percentage to them: the tax rate is a separate published fact from a separate source, and inventing a plausible-sounding addition is how a figure loses its provenance. A household pays more than the amounts shown.
Fuel at GOw2 Energy Suriname, from its own homepage, last changed 25 March 2026: gasoline SRD 48.32 per liter and diesel SRD 53.27 per liter. That is one retailer, so it describes GOw2 rather than every pump in the country, although fuel is price-capped here, so the spread is narrow. It is also a price per liter and not a transport budget: a monthly figure needs a distance nobody publishes.
Health cover and school fees
The state fund, Stichting Staatsziekenfonds, publishes base premiums for its voluntary personal insurance, headed Basispremie per July 2023: SRD 270 per person per month for ages 0 to 15, SRD 370 for 16 to 20, SRD 785 for 21 to 40, SRD 835 for 41 to 50, SRD 850 for 51 to 60 and SRD 1,650 for 61 and over. Read this as a floor and not the full premium: the fund's own page states that the monthly amount is the base premium plus a surcharge its medical department may set, and that pregnancy carries a separate charge of SRD 10,000.
Private cover sits well above that. Assuria publishes monthly premiums for its AZPAS plans in force from 1 January 2026. For a person aged 31 to 40 in the first class, the Basis plan is SRD 2,450 a month, Plus SRD 2,891 and Supreme SRD 3,027; the same Basis plan in the third class is SRD 2,010. The published discounts of 6, 4 and 2 per cent for annual, half-yearly and quarterly payment are not included in those figures, and administration costs of SRD 100 and a card fee of SRD 20 are charged separately. Supplementary dental, optical and medicine cover is published as an annual premium and is not in these amounts. Note too that somebody on an expatriate package usually buys private international cover, which costs materially more and publishes no tariff at all.
School fees, for the one mid-range private school with a readable schedule: Nassy Brouwer College in Paramaribo, for school year 2025-2026, read on 5 October 2026, publishes EUR 124.72 per child per month for years 1 to 5 and EUR 149.67 for year 6, quoted in dollars as USD 140.00 and USD 168.00. That is tuition only; registration adds a one-off USD 150 for book hire and SRD 250 in administration. Public education costs less and the international schools cost far more — the same record notes that the International Academy of Suriname quotes USD 6,380 to 10,956 a year and publishes no readable schedule.
What we left out on purpose, and what we will not convert
Our measured reference set for Suriname holds 164 approved values, and a good many of them do not belong on this page. One-way airfares between Amsterdam and Paramaribo, airline checked-baggage fees, sea-freight and removal costs per cubic meter, port handling, storage, customs clearance and residence-permit fees are all measured and all irrelevant to what a monthly salary buys once you live here: they are travel and relocation costs, not household costs. We also left out the World Bank's health-spending-per-head indicators for Suriname. They are national averages of what the country spends on health, not a bill anyone receives, and the record for them says explicitly that they belong in a basic tier with that label and never in an expatriate one.
And we have not converted anything. Rents are in euros, groceries and utilities in Surinamese dollars, school fees in both because the school itself publishes both. Those measurements were taken in their own currencies on dates between 1 December 2024 and 16 October 2026; laying a single exchange rate over them would hide exactly that, in a currency that has moved. Convert at the rate of the day you need, and keep the measurement date next to the amount.
How to find out what a job actually pays
With no published wage statistic, the number has to come from the employer. Ask for it in writing and ask for the parts that are usually left out: the gross amount and the net amount; the currency it is paid in and whether that can change; whether the employer registers you with the state fund or buys private cover, and who pays that premium; whether housing, schooling or flights are part of the package or reimbursed against receipts; and what the statutory minimum is at the time of the offer, which the Ministry of Labor can confirm from the current beschikking.
Then price your own life against the measurements above rather than against a sector average. Pick the zone you would actually rent in, use the median and the 75th percentile rather than the 25th if you want a cushion, add the standing charge and the band your consumption falls in, add the internet package plus BTW, add the health premium for your own age band, and add school fees per child. That gives you a floor you can defend in a salary conversation. A sector salary range that nobody published does not.
Sources: the ABS Databeschikbaarheidsmatrix and its June 2026 spreadsheet, the ABS pages on business statistics and the consumer price index, all read on 25 October 2026; and S.B. 2025 no. 33 for the minimum hourly wage. The price, rent, premium and tuition figures come from our own measured reference set for Suriname, with the source, measurement date and sample size stated beside each amount above.
Primary Sources
Last updated: October 2026