Forum: Fine-tune new Employment Pass salary thresholds based on industries

Budget 2026’s decision to significantly hike foreign worker salary thresholds reflects a thoughtful attempt to balance openness with opportunity for locals (

Budget 2026: Salary threshold for new Employment Pass applicants to be raised to $6,000 from 2027, Feb 12

). At the same time, it brings into focus a deeper question about how we calibrate such policies.

While a higher threshold already exists for the financial services sector, a broad threshold still applies to other sectors. Such a wide-reaching benchmark is easy to communicate, but it may not fully account for the inherent diversity of our industries.

A universal threshold within the non-financial sectors can risk being too blunt an instrument for industries where there is simply an inadequate local supply. Similarly, for areas of national interest where the upgrading of local labour is desired, a specifically calibrated threshold to reflect this ambition would be commendable.

The Government’s intent to nudge firms into deeper workforce planning and skills development is helpful. What might be equally necessary now is a conversation about how future criteria can be fine-tuned to sector realities, encouraging both local participation and targeted foreign workers where truly complementary.

Such nuances won’t dilute the policy’s purpose, but will enrich it.

Goh Eck Hong