Ministry of Manpower sets higher minimum salary requirement for EP and S Pass applicants

The move comes into effect as companies face shortages for skilled manpower critical for recovery and growth.

Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has revisited the minimum salary and other requirements for employment pass (EP) and S Pass, as there is now more slack in the job market, a press release has revealed.

According to the new regulations, the minimum qualifying salary for EPs will be $4,500 for all new applicants from 1 September. The qualifying salaries for older and more experienced EP candidates in their 40s will be raised correspondingly, and will remain around double the minimum qualifying salary for the youngest applicants. For renewal applicants, these new salary criteria will come into effect from 1 May 2021.

MOM has, for the first time, decided to raise the salary threshold of financial services sector employees more than others with a minimum qualifying salary of $5,000 from 1 December. The provision for older and more experienced EP candidates and renewal applicants will be just as same as the other sectors.

For the S Pass applicants, the minimum qualifying salary will be $2,500, with qualifying salaries for older and more experienced S Pass candidates revised accordingly. The changes to S Pass qualifying salaries will apply to new applicants from 1 October 2020, and to renewal applicants from 1 May 2021.

The Manpower Ministry has also said they have no intention of changing levies and quotas in this round of adjustments with the previously announced S Pass sub-Dependency Ratio Ceiling (sub-DRC) remaining the same.

The government is putting more emphasis on companies to recruit local PMETs and wants to make sure that the companies are exercising Fair Consideration Framework (FCF). As such, MOM has planned two new steps – extension of FCF job advertising requirement to S Pass applications from 1 October and the increase of such advertising duration to 28 days.

MOM also warned the companies not to have a bias against locals while selecting their PMET workforce or they would be put on the FCF watchlist, the press release added.