Singapore Employment Pass Salary & COMPASS Checker

For most sectors, it starts at S$5,600/month for candidates aged 23 or below, and rises progressively with age to S$10,700/month at 45 and above. Financial services roles start higher: S$6,200/month at 23 or below, rising to S$11,800/month at 45+. This is Stage 1, a hard bar, applications below it are rejected regardless of COMPASS score.

COMPASS (Complementarity Assessment Framework) is Stage 2, a separate points-based assessment candidates must pass after clearing the Stage 1 salary floor. It scores across criteria including salary vs occupation median (C1), qualifications (C2), workforce diversity (C3), support for local employment (C4), and a shortage-occupation skills bonus (C5), with a minimum pass score of 40 points. Meeting the Stage 1 salary floor does not guarantee a COMPASS pass, and a strong COMPASS score can't rescue an application that fails Stage 1.

Because the two stages aren't averaged together, they're sequential gates. MOM's system rejects any application below the age-and-sector qualifying salary automatically, before COMPASS is even evaluated. A candidate scoring a perfect 90 on COMPASS with a S$5,000/month offer at age 35 (well under the $8,382 floor at that age) still fails outright; the COMPASS score never gets the chance to compensate. This trips up employers who assume a hard-to-fill role or an impressive CV can offset a below-market salary, it can't, not at this stage.

Candidates on a fixed monthly salary of S$22,500 or more are fully exempt from COMPASS scoring; only the Stage 1 salary floor applies to them. This exemption threshold is unchanged for 2026.

Only your fixed monthly salary, basic pay plus any fixed monthly allowances stated in your contract. Variable bonuses, commissions, and other non-guaranteed pay are excluded from the Stage 1 test, though they may factor into other parts of an application.

MOM benchmarks the EP qualifying salary against the salaries of the top one-third of local Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs) by age group, so the floor rises to reflect what an experienced local professional in a similar age bracket would typically earn. This prevents employers from using younger, cheaper foreign hires to undercut older local PMETs in the same role.

MOM's qualifying-salary check happens at application and renewal, not continuously, so a mid-contract pay cut doesn't automatically void an already-issued EP. But if your employer applies to renew the pass, or MOM flags the role during a compliance check, your salary at that point needs to clear whatever the qualifying floor is by then, and EP salary floors have risen at nearly every review since the framework launched, so a salary that cleared the bar at issuance can fall behind by renewal time even with no pay cut at all. Check the current floor for your age band each renewal cycle rather than assuming last year's number still applies.

Stage 1 uses MOM's published 2026 age-band endpoints (S$5,600 to S$10,700 non-finance; S$6,200 to S$11,800 finance) with linear interpolation between them, which tracks MOM's exact published age-by-age table closely. The COMPASS section is an ILLUSTRATIVE, simplified points checklist using toggles, not MOM's official Self-Assessment Tool (SAT): it doesn't model the required minimum split between individual and firm-level criteria, or the C6 Strategic Economic Priorities bonus. Always confirm your actual eligibility using MOM's SAT before submitting an application.