Singapore Employment Pass: the salary minimum is only stage one, and COMPASS also scores your employer
Singapore · Employment Pass (EP)
Income required
SGD 5,600 per month
Minimum fixed monthly salary for an Employment Pass in every sector except financial services, at age 23 or under; it rises progressively with age to S$10,700 at 45 and above
Also on file
SGD 6,200 per month
Minimum fixed monthly salary for an Employment Pass in financial services, at age 23 or under; it rises progressively with age to S$11,800 at 45 and above
Government fee
SGD 330
Government fees on file, main applicant, initial application
Announced, not yet in force
Eligibility criteria, from 1 Jan 2027: Qualifying salary SGD 6,000 a month (rising with age to SGD 11,500 at 45 and over); financial services SGD 6,600 (to SGD 12,700). Applies to new applications from 1 January 2027 and to renewals of passes expiring from 1 January 2028.
Official source · Threshold checked 26 Oct 2026 · Last rule change in force: Eligibility criteria, 1 Jan 2025 (1 year ago) · Figures read from the official rules on file at the time this page was served.
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Earning the salary shown above only gets an application to COMPASS, the ministry's points test, which needs 40 points. Two of its four scored criteria measure the employer's workforce, not you, so the same offer can pass at one company and fail at another.
A candidate can clear the minimum, hold a good degree, and still fall short because of who the company already employs. The Ministry of Manpower checks the qualifying salary first; it rises with age from 23 to 45, and financial services has a higher scale, also shown above. Then COMPASS (the Complementarity Assessment Framework) scores four criteria at 0, 10 or 20 points each.
Where the 40 points come from
- Your salary, compared with local professional pay in the employer's sector at your age: 10 points from the 65th percentile, 20 from the 90th.
- Your qualifications: 10 points for a degree-level qualification, 20 for one from a top-tier institution.
- Diversity: 20 points if people of your nationality are under 5% of the firm's professional staff, none at 25% or more.
- Local hiring: how the firm's share of local professionals ranks against others in its sector.
A firm with fewer than 25 professional staff gets 10 points by default on each of the last two. A job on the ministry's shortage list can add bonus points. Three cases skip COMPASS: a very high fixed monthly salary, set by the ministry, an overseas intra-corporate transferee, and a role lasting a month or less.
Each renewal is scored again
The salary tables are updated once a year. The August 2026 table applies to new applications from 1 January 2027 and to renewals of passes expiring from 1 July 2027. A renewal must also meet the qualifying salary then in force; the higher scale announced for January 2027 reaches renewals of passes expiring from 1 January 2028.
The ministry's fees, and an agent's
To the ministry:
- An application fee and an issuance fee, together the government fee shown above. A renewal pays the issuance fee again.
To the agent or relocation firm:
- Its service charge, listed on its own.
Ask the employer or agent:
- How many points does the application expect under each criterion?
- What share of the firm's professional staff already holds your nationality?
- Which year's salary table will your renewal be scored on?
- Does the agent keep its fee if the pass is refused or the rules change first?
An employment agent's fee quote or a relocation firm's service agreement belongs in the box above: say yes to its first question, and the document is read line by line against the published rules and the prices firms on file publish for this route. Job offers are not read there: holding only an offer, choose no, type its fixed monthly salary and pick per month. The check compares a document or a figure with the published rules, and does not look at your application or advise on it; for advice on your own case, speak to a qualified immigration lawyer.
General information, not legal advice.
