Impact of Rising Minimum Fixed Monthly Salary Required for Employment Pass and S Pass Holders

Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Minister for Manpower in light of the rising minimum fixed monthly salary required for employment pass and S-pass holders for the bringing of family members on dependant passes (a) whether this discourages the hiring of cheap foreign talent and favours expensive foreign talent; (b) how many employment pass holders and their families affected; and (c) how many SMEs and which sectors are most affected by this.

Mrs Josephine Teo: The qualifying salary threshold for bringing in dependants on Dependant’s Pass is regularly updated. This is to ensure that Employment Pass (EP) and S Pass holders continue to be able to upkeep themselves and their dependants in Singapore. To minimise disruptions to families who are already here in Singapore, Dependant’s Passes issued before the updated threshold takes effect remains valid, as long as the main pass holder remains with the same employer.

Most new EP and S Pass holders do not apply to bring in their dependants. However, for those who do, the salary thresholds are made known and consistently applied. Following the increase in qualifying threshold at the beginning of the year, about 1% of Dependant’s Pass applications did not meet the updated threshold and were therefore rejected, in the first half of 2018. These were distributed across sectors such as Professional Services, Infocomm and Construction. The rate of rejection was similar for those employed by SMEs and non-SMEs.