Amount of Salary Increase for Work Passes Announced & Companies With Many S Pass Holders from 1 Country Will be Scrutinised

Less than 24 hours ago, it was announced that the salary criteria for S Pass and E Pass will increase in an effort to encourage companies to engage more Singaporeans.

And now, the amount has been confirmed, together with a few new measures to make sure that there’s a fairer competition between foreigners and Singaporeans.

Currently, the minimum salary for an S Pass holder is $2,400, and for E Pass holder, it’s $3,900.

You can read more about what these passes are in our earlier article here.

So, what are the changes?

S Pass Holders

At this moment, the growth of S Pass holders has slowed, from an average of 17,500 annually in the first half of the last decade to less than 6,000 annually in the second half. And it might slow even more with this new change.

The minimum salary will be raised to $2,500 from 1 October 2020 for new applicants, and 1 May 2021 for renewal applicants. That’s an increase of $100.

The levy and quota will remain the same.

E Pass Holders

According to MOM, regular revisions to the salary criteria in recent years have slowed the growth of EP holders even as the economy expanded, from an average of 13,000 annually in the first half of the last decade to less than 3,000 annually in the second half.

From 1 September 2020, the salary requirement will be $4,500 for new applicants—an increase of $600 from the current amount. Renewal applicants will need to fit this salary requirement by 1 May 2021.

However, if you’re in the financial sector, it’ll be a tad different.

E Pass Holders in the Financial Services Sector

If you’ve downloaded our app and read all our not-so-informative and not-so-entertaining articles, you’d know that MAS, banks and people in Singapore have been talking about number of foreign talents in the financial sector.

For the first time, a specific sector will be different for E Pass requirement, and of course it has to be the financial services sector.

For this sector, the E Pass salary requirement will still be $4,500 from 1 September 2020, but it’ll increase to $5,000 from 1 December 2020.

MOM said that this complement MAS’ efforts to encourage and support financial institutions in developing a strong local pipeline of talent.

Some Changes to S Pass

From 1 October 2020 onwards, companies would have to advertise S Pass-equivalent job positions on the MyCareersFuture.sg first for local jobseekers for at least 28 days before submitting an S Pass application. This has been a requirement for E Pass-equivalent job position, but it’s currently for 14 days. From 1 October 2020, that’ll have to advertise to local jobseekers for 28 days.

Also, previously, companies would be subject to scrutiny by MOM if they’ve got too many E Pass holders from just one country. This scrutiny will now be extended to S Pass holders, too.

Not Because of General Election

If Trump is running for elections in Singapore, he’d definitely implement these before the elections.

So, did our recent GE play a role in these changes?

According to Manpower Minister Josephine Teo, it’s not the case, though she did mention that some people would link it to the GE and “claim credit” for these changes. As mentioned yesterday, these changes were made due to the changed economic conditions due to COVID-19.

She said, “In order to avoid this suspicion that it has something to do with the election, (if) we delay it by another six months, is that the right thing to do? I think in terms of looking at the necessity of these moves, we made the call, we decided that we have to move now we cannot move later.

“The reason to move is that the conditions have changed a lot since the last time we adjusted and the conditions will continue to change and there is slack in the job market already and if you choose not to move now in order to avoid that suspicion and then wait six months later to do so, have we done a better thing for Singaporeans? I think the answer is no.”

In the meantime, rumours have it that some people in Robertson Quay were suddenly worried about their jobs.

And by the way, if you’re wondering why Singapore doesn’t have a minimum wage, even for work permit holders, you might want to watch this video (and also subscribe to our YouTube channel, please?):