Salary floor for Employment Pass holders in finance to be raised to S$5,000

MINIMUM salaries for Employment Pass (EP) holders in the financial services sector will be raised to S$5,000 from December, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Thursday, setting the bar S$500 higher than the tightened criteria for other sectors in the economy.

This is the first time that the Singapore authorities have set higher qualifying salaries for a specific sector to hire foreign professionals.

Like the other sectors, the monthly salary requirement for entry-level EP holders in financial services will be raised first to S$4,500 from September. The benchmark specific to the finance services sector will then be raised again to S$5,000 from December.

The increase in December will be the third for the financial services sector this year. It comes in the wake of recent concerns around discriminatory hiring practices, especially in the financial and professional-services sectors.

The EP salary threshold for all sectors was last raised in May this year, from S$3,700 to S$3,900 for new applicants.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it has worked closely with the MOM in determining the new minimum qualifying salary for the financial services sector, which "takes into account the higher local salary levels in the (sector)".

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"The calibrated increase in the (minimum qualifying salary) will continue to allow financial institutions to complement their local workforce by tapping a global talent pool for the specialised skill sets that the financial sector needs," the MAS said in a statement on Thursday.

"These include deep capabilities in areas like cyber security, machine learning and full-stack development, as well as expertise in new growth segments like green finance, pandemic risk insurance and family offices."

The qualifying salaries for older and more experienced EP candidates in their 40s - across all sectors - will also be raised correspondingly; it will remain around double the minimum salaries required for the youngest applicants. For renewal applicants, these new salary criteria will take effect on May 1, 2021.

MAS deputy managing director for markets and development Jacqueline Loh said the move to tighten salary criteria for EP candidates complements the authority's manpower-development programmes to expand job opportunities and deepen local capabilities.

"A high-quality workforce with a strong Singaporean core, complemented by EP holders with specialised skills, will best enable our financial services sector to compete internationally and seize new growth opportunities as the Asian and global economies recover," she said.

The MAS has in recent weeks reiterated calls for financial institutions to continue identifying Singaporeans with potential for leadership roles. This comes after the MOM put 47 employers - of whom almost two out of three are in the financial services and professional services sectors - on a watch list for potentially discriminatory hiring practices.

Some were listed for "exceptionally high" shares of foreign PMETs relative to their industry peers. All 30 employers from financial and professional services were found to have a high concentration of PMETs from single nationalities.