Employment Pass minimum qualifying salary to be raised to $3,900; tighter rules on hiring foreign workers
Rules for hiring foreign workers will be tightened as part of efforts to assure Singaporeans that they are competing on a level playing field.
From May this year, the minimum salary for foreign professionals to qualify for an Employment Pass (EP) will be raised to $3,900 per month, up from $3,600.
"This increase is in line with improving wages of fresh graduates of local autonomous universities," said Manpower Minister Josephine Teo at the debate of her ministry's budget on Tuesday (March 3).
The salary criteria for older and more experienced EP candidates will also be increased - for example, an EP applicant in his early 40s will need to earn around double the new minimum qualifying salary of $3,900.
"This is only fair, considering the skill sets he or she is expected to have," Mrs Teo said. "It helps to ensure a level playing field for experienced local mid-career PMETs (professionals, managers, executives and technicians)."
The new salary requirement will only take effect for EP renewals from May 1, 2021, "to moderate the impact on businesses", she added. The minimum EP-qualifying salary was last raised in 2017 from $3,300 to $3,600 a month.
In addition, the "local qualifying salary" or the minimum salary a local worker must earn to count towards a firm's quota for hiring foreigners on work permits and S Passes will be raised from $1,300 to $1,400. This will take effect in July.
It was last raised from $1,200 in July last year, and has been regularly updated "to ensure that it keeps pace with rising local wages at the local end", Mrs Teo said.
She noted that most employers of foreign workers are not affected because they do not have local workers earning below $1,400, but those who are should receive some relief from the extension of the Wage Credit Scheme.
Published On : 2020-03-05