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The Ministry said EP and S Pass qualifying salaries are benchmarked to the top one-third of resident PMET and APT wages, ensuring EP and S Pass holders are of good calibre relative to the improving wages of resident workers.
Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has responded to a parliamentary query on the impact of increased salary qualifications threshold of EP & S Pass holders on Singaporeans' pay.
The query, posed by Member of Parliament Jamus Lim, was on "whether the Ministry has studied if the increased salary qualification thresholds for Employment Pass and S Pass holders may have paradoxically led to a divergence in salaries paid to such work permit holders vis-à-vis Singaporeans as companies raise salaries to satisfy the qualification criteria for their existing workers."
In its written response on 15 October 2024 (Tuesday), MOM said that EP and S Pass qualifying salaries are benchmarked to the top one-third of local professional, manager, executive and technician (PMET) and associate professional and technician (APT) wages respectively, ensuring that EP and S Pass holders are of good calibre relative to the improving wages of resident workers.
"The salary benchmarks are based on actual resident wages from previous years. Thus, EP and S Pass qualifying salaries follow instead of lead resident wages," the ministry shared.
MOM also affirmed that it is "not a zero-sum game between foreign workers and local workers", noting that improving the quality of Singapore's foreign workforce would enable businesses to grow and move up the value chain. "By enlarging the economic pie, we create better jobs for locals," it added.
In fact, as the ministry went on to share, over the last decade, EP qualifying salaries increased from S$3,000 to S$5,000, and S Pass from S$2,200 to S$3,150. The number of EP and S Pass holders also grew by 30,300 and 17,600 respectively.
Over the same period, the median income of resident PMETs grew from $5,500 to $7,020, and the number of local PMETs rose by 381,100.
To this effect, the ministry highlighted that most employers "will not just raise the wages of their existing EP and S Pass holders to meet the qualifying salaries." Instead, they would either let these pass holders go, or convert them to another pass if their value-add to the business is not commensurate with the higher salaries.
This is reflected in data showing that qualifying salary increases are associated with upticks in the churn rate of foreign workers.
"To provide employers with lead time to plan for such changes, we typically implement qualifying salary increases to existing work pass holders around 18 months after announcing the new qualifying salaries," MOM concluded.
READ MORE: Parliamentary question addressed: Will Singapore increase work passes for specific job types?
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