Singapore: EP Qualifying Salaries Increase for Financial Services Sector, Job Portal Includes New Features

Further to the Ministry of Manpower’s (MoM) increases to the employment pass (EP) qualifying salary levels announced earlier this year, the minimum monthly salary requirement for those in the financial services sector will increase again on December 1, 2020.

Additionally, employers should be aware that the Singaporean government has implemented new features on the MyCareersFuture portal, intended to improve alignment with the Fair Consideration Framework’s focus on reducing hiring and workplace discrimination.

EP Salary Requirement Changes

Minimum salary requirements for applicants for EPs were increased by the MoM in September to 4,500 SGD per month. Beginning in December, there will be a further increase in the minimum monthly salary requirement for EP applicants within the financial services sector, up to 5,000 SGD per month. This is in line with the consistently higher salary levels within this sector, and as the industry continues to attract strong interest from highly qualified local jobseekers. The qualifying salaries for older or more experienced EP applicants will also be raised accordingly, with individuals in their 40s needing to earn approximately double the minimum qualifying salary for the youngest applicants. With regards to EP renewals, the new salary thresholds will apply to those renewing EPs that would expire on or following May 1, 2021.

Who is affected?

The following non-exhaustive list provides details on many of the areas considered to be part of the financial services sector:

• Fund management activities
• Holding companies regulated by MAS, or which have a nexus with MAS-regulated firms
• Insurance agents and brokers
• Insurance and reinsurance underwriting
• Monetary intermediation (e.g. banks or finance companies)
• Provident and pension funding
• Risk and damage evaluation
• Securities and commodities exchange
• Security and commodity contracts brokerage
• Trusts, funds, and similar financial entities
• Other financial services activities, such as financial leasing, credit granting, factoring companies, representative offices of foreign banks, money-changing or remittance services)
• Other activities auxiliary to financial service activities (e.g. trustee, fiduciary and custody services; corporate finance advisory services; clearing and settlement of financial instruments; transaction/payment processing services etc.)
• Other activities auxiliary to insurance and pension funding (e.g. representative offices of foreign insurers and professional reinsurers, captive managers etc.)

New Portal Features

The Singapore government has implemented three new features on the national job portal MyCareersFuture:

1. Employers must stick to the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices (TGFEP), and recruit employees based on their merit, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, marital status and family responsibilities, or disability.
2. A monitoring feature has been added which will allow the government to screen all job postings and encourage employers to improve postings so that they are more attractive to suitable candidates.
3. A new feature has been added to allow the reporting of any discriminatory job posting found on the MyCareersFuture portal

For further information on minimum salary requirements for EPs in Singapore, please contact the Sterling Lexicon immigration team.