A380 jockey
How can you factored in housing and education allowances when yoou don't get that in the SQ mainline? The SQ Cargo guys does have a 3900 sgd of housing and 1500 per kids in school fees, and this school fees applies during school year(not paid during summer holiday).
The 10 year EK is simple. 40650 in basic, plus 60 per hour doing 75 hours per month(900 year) 4500, plus housing of 14950 is 60700aed then to add 200 for phoone allowance plus exchange rate protection depending on your currency from 0 to 3000 aed per month plus overrnight allowance so 62000-63000aed is a realistic figure. I am sure any of the EK pilots here can confirm my numbers for EK.
For your friend to pick up 4500 sgd in allowance that means he is with cargo. SQ mainline is also on a 3 meals allowance like EK while SQ Cargo is at 8sgd per hour. So his 4500 equals about 562 hours away from base. They fly about 50-55 hours per month.
I just hope the info here can be as accurate as possible for a valid comparison.