Singapore Employment Pass: New Salary Requirements from 1 January 2025
The Singapore Employment Pass is a commonly applied work visa by employers for their professional and specialized skilled foreign employees to work in Singapore.
As at June 2023, there are about 187,000 Employment Pass holders in Singapore out of a total resident population of 5.92 million. See Figures Below on the numbers of Employment Pass holders in relations to the other categories of work passes and Singapore local workforce.
No local employee quota for is required for approval but the eligibility of each company/employer to hire and the eligibility of applicants are subject to the latest Complementarity Assessment Framework COMPASS. This was implemented since 1 September 2023 to provide better clarity for employers and applicants on approval criteria/process.
Apart from salary requirements, other criteria such as verifiable qualifications, employee profile diversity and support for local employment, occupations in demand with skills shortage are considered when assessing each application.
During the latest parliamentary sittings on 4 March 2024, Manpower Minister, Dr Tan See Leng announced further refinements to the salary criteria and new salary requirements for Singapore employment pass. The change will take effect from 1 Jan 2025 to provide employers with sufficient notice and timeline to prepare for the change.
The main announcement about the change is an increase in salary requirements of about 10% to 12% from the existing minimum monthly salary requirement from SGD5,000.00 to SGD5,600.00 (12%). For foreigners employed in the financial services sector, the minimum salary threshold is being raised from SGD5,500.00 to SGD6,200.00 (10.9%). For renewal cases, the change will take effect from 1 January 2026.
It is also important to highlight that these new minimum salary requirements and thresholds are applicable to young graduates in their early to mid-20s. For more experienced and mature applicants in their 30s and 40s, the salary requirements would be higher in the range of SGD10,000.00 to SGD12,000.00. The salary requirements are age appropriate and benchmarked against the current market salaries of local staff with similar skills and age profiles.
Similarly, for applicants without education qualifications, the new employment pass salary in Singapore would also be higher.
Employment Pass minimum qualifying salary
The new figures will kick in from Jan 1, 2025, for new applicants and from Jan 1, 2026, for renewals.
| Table with 3 columns and 3 rows. | ||
| Current | New | |
| All sectors except financial services | $5,000 | $5,600 |
| Financial services | $5,500 | $6,200 |
Table: STRAITS TIMES GRAPHICS Source: MINISTRY OF MANPOWER
Indeed, the above will not be the last update in the ever-changing Employment Pass framework and as the employment landscape in Singapore evolves and as the country promotes businesses that are involved with Artificial Intelligence, Carbon Trading, Cyber Security, Aerospace, Bio-Medical and other highly specialized skills required to support a maturing and developed economy.
