Singaporeans Employed by Multiple Companies at Less than $1,500 at Each Company for Headcount

Mr Leong Mun Wai asked the Minister for Manpower what is the current number of Singaporean workers who are employed by two or more companies and paid less than $1,500 per month at each company, where such companies are using their Singaporean worker headcount to compute its foreign worker quota for work permit and S Pass holders.

There are currently 53,200 locals who are working in two or more jobs. About half of them are paid less than $1,500 per month at each job on average. This includes locals who may be working on a part-time basis in two or more jobs.

We recognise that some locals may work in more than one job across different companies. To avoid disincentivising firms from hiring these locals, we allow locals to count towards the foreign worker quota of up to two companies.

Locals will count as one employee towards each employer’s foreign worker quota if they are paid at least the Local Qualifying Salary (LQS) of $1,400 a month. Locals will count as half an employee if they are paid at least half the LQS (i.e. $700 a month), such as in the case of a part-time worker. The use of the LQS ensures that employers do not hire locals on token salaries just to increase their foreign worker quota.

To uplift lower-wage workers, MOM will continue to work with tripartite partners through the Progressive Wage Model. The new Progressive Wage moves implemented on 1 September 2022 also include the new LQS requirement, which requires firms to pay all their full-time local workers at least the LQS, and not only those counting towards the quota, in order to be eligible to hire foreign workers. This move will secure fairer wage outcomes for a larger group of lower-wage workers. We will continue our efforts to ensure that our lower-wage workers are uplifted alongside the rest of Singapore.