JAKARTA - Singapore's Local Qualifying Salary rose to S$1,800 a month for full-time local workers on July 1, the Ministry of Manpower said. The threshold decides how many local employees a company can count toward its quota for Work Permit and S Pass hires.
A local employee earning at least S$1,800 a month counts as one full headcount toward that quota. Workers paid between S$900 and S$1,799 count as half a headcount, and anyone below S$900 doesn't count at all. The hourly floor for part-time local staff rose from S$9.00 to S$10.50.
The Local Qualifying Salary applies only to employers that hire foreign workers. It sets the local pay level a worker needs before that employer can count them toward the quota behind Work Permit and S Pass hiring.
Services firms face the tightest cap: S Pass holders can make up at most 10% of total workforce, so a drop in local headcount from unmet salaries can push a company over that limit at renewal.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced the increase in his Budget 2026 speech to Parliament back on February 12. "We will continue to strengthen support for lower-wage workers," Wong said of the measure.
Singapore's foreign workforce, excluding migrant domestic workers, stood at 1,318,800 as of December 2025, according to Ministry of Manpower data. S Pass holders accounted for 178,900 of that total. Work Permit holders in construction, marine and process sectors, the group most exposed to the new threshold, accounted for 482,600.
Singapore draws Work Permit labor from a Ministry-approved list of source countries that includes Malaysia, China, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. MOM added Bhutan, Cambodia and Laos to that list in June 2025 to widen the pool of eligible workers.
MOM last raised the Local Qualifying Salary from S$1,400 to S$1,600 in July 2024. To offset the new cost, the government raised co-funding under the Progressive Wage Credit Scheme from 20% to 30% for 2026 and extended the scheme through 2028, according to Newland Chase, an immigration advisory firm. The scheme covers part of the wage increase employers give lower-paid local staff to reach the new S$1,800 floor.
A related threshold moves next. The minimum qualifying salary for new S Pass applications rises from S$3,300 to S$3,600 in general sectors, and from S$3,800 to S$4,000 in financial services, starting January 1, 2027, with renewal applications following from January 1, 2028.