Industry breakdown of salaries of non-resident PMETs in Singapore

“We peg the minimum costs of hiring EP and S Pass holders to the top one-third of resident PMETs and associate professionals & technicians respectively to ensure that companies are bringing in top tier talent”, the Ministry of Manpower shared.

The Ministry of Manpower Singapore has responded to a Parliamentary query on the salary breakdown of local and foreign professionals, managers, executives & technicians (PMETs) according to industry, from 2020 to 2023.  

The breakdown of wages of non-resident Employment Pass (EP) and S Pass holders by industry are reflected below:  

EP holders 

S Pass holders  

The Ministry has directed anyone keen on resident income data to refer to its statistics page. 

According to the Ministry, EP and S Pass holders account for the majority of non-resident PMET jobs. 

“We peg the minimum costs of hiring EP and S Pass holders to the top one-third of resident PMETs and associate professionals & technicians respectively to ensure that companies are bringing in top tier talent”, the Ministry commented. 

The Ministry also addressed a separate Parliamentary query on the annual percentage of companies with more than 30% of foreign PMETs employed and employees of a single foreign nationality accounting to over 20% of all employed PMETs.   

The Ministry said: “We have made a distinction in the statistics for small firms with fewer than 25 PMETs, and larger firms with 25 or more PMETs.  

“This is because small firms have a very small PMET base and their proportion of foreign PMETs will be prone to fluctuations.” 

The Ministry highlighted that the median number of PMETs in small firms that hire PMETs "is only two." Thus, if even just one foreign PMET is employed, the median small firm would surpass the 30% threshold for foreign PMETs or the 20% threshold for single nationality share. 

“It is important to look at the workforce profile of larger firms with 25 or more PMETs, as these firms tend to have more stable workforce profiles and hire the majority of Employment Pass (EP) holders. While small firms account for 96% of all firms, they only hire about 30% of EPs”, the Ministry added. 

Regarding the percentage of firms with employees of a single foreign nationality accounting for more than 20% of all employed PMETs, the Ministry shared that for bigger companies, the rate has stayed at 10% for the past ten years.  

For small companies, however, it's been around 20% on average during the last decade, and in 2023, it rose to 30%. 

The Complementarity Assessment Framework (COMPASS) allows employers to select high-quality foreign professionals whilst improving workforce diversity and building a strong local core.   

“This has been in place for new Employment Pass applicants since September 2023, and will apply to renewal applicants from September 2024. MOM will continue to closely monitor the workforce profile of all firms and adjust our policy levers where appropriate.” the Ministry added.  

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