The Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (EFMA) is the law that decides what it costs to hire a foreigner in Singapore and what it costs to get it wrong. If you employ anyone on an Employment Pass, S Pass, Work Permit or a domestic helper's permit, this Act is the one MOM uses to fine you, jail you, or bar you from hiring foreign staff for good. The money side has two halves. First, the legitimate bill: a 2026 work pass carries a salary floor (S$5,600 a month for a new Employment Pass), a monthly levy of up to S$950 for Work Permit holders, a S$5,000 security bond and at least S$60,000 of medical insurance. Second, the penalty bill: deduct the levy from a worker's pay and you face up to S$20,000; declare a phantom worker and it climbs to S$20,000 and two years' jail per charge. This guide puts both halves in one place, with the current figures and the rule behind each one.
EFMA covers every person working in Singapore on a pass issued by the Ministry of Manpower. That means Employment Pass and S Pass professionals, Work Permit holders in construction, manufacturing and services, and migrant domestic workers. Singapore citizens and PRs sit outside it. So does anyone here on a visit pass who is not allowed to work.
One quirk trips people up. A migrant domestic worker is protected by EFMA, not by the Employment Act. Her rest days, off-day compensation and deployment rules all sit under this Act and the work permit conditions, which is why the rules read differently from a normal local hire.
The Act does two jobs at once. It sets the conditions an employer must keep (pay the salary you declared, buy the insurance, pay the levy yourself) and it lists the offences and infringements MOM prosecutes when those conditions break. Get the difference clear: an infringement is the lighter civil track, an offence is the criminal track with jail on the table.
Before any penalty enters the picture, EFMA-compliant hiring already carries a fixed cost stack. The salary floor is the gate. Below it, MOM will not issue the pass at all. These numbers moved in 2026 and move again in 2027, so the figure you budget depends on when the pass is applied for or renewed.
Work Permit holders carry no salary floor but the heaviest recurring cost: a monthly levy tied to sector and your foreign worker share, plus a security bond and medical insurance. The S Pass sits in the middle with a flat S$650 monthly levy. The Employment Pass carries no levy at all, which is part of why it has the highest salary gate.
| Pass type | Minimum monthly salary | Monthly levy | Other employer costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employment Pass (EP) | From S$5,600 (S$6,200 financial services), rising with age | None | COMPASS 40-point pass; no quota |
| S Pass | From S$3,300 (S$3,800 financial services), age-adjusted | Flat S$650 | Counts against the S Pass sub-quota |
| Work Permit (WP) | No statutory floor; must meet Local Qualifying Salary rules for headcount | S$250 to S$950 by sector and tier | S$5,000 security bond, S$60,000 medical insurance |
| Migrant domestic worker | No floor; negotiated salary | S$300 (S$60 with concession) | S$5,000 security bond, insurance, 6-monthly medical |
The Employment Pass minimum for a new application is S$5,600 a month in 2026 (S$6,200 in financial services), and it scales up with age to roughly S$11,500 for a candidate at 45. From 1 January 2027 the base rises to S$6,000 (S$6,600 financial services). The S Pass floor is S$3,300 (S$3,800 financial services) for new applications and renewals from 1 September 2026, climbing to S$3,600 and S$4,000 from 1 January 2027.
The Local Qualifying Salary (LQS) rises to S$1,800 a month from 1 July 2026. It does not set a foreigner's pay. It sets how many of your local staff count toward the quota that lets you hire S Pass and Work Permit holders. Underpay your locals and your foreign headcount entitlement shrinks. You can sanity-check a take-home figure against the local floor with the salary calculator before you commit to a hire.
These are the criminal-track breaches. MOM treats them as the serious end of EFMA, and the fines run per charge, so a scheme with a dozen workers stacks a dozen penalties.
The headline one is employing a foreigner without a valid work pass. The fine runs from S$5,000 to S$30,000, with up to 12 months' jail. Do it again and jail becomes mandatory: one to twelve months plus a S$10,000 to S$30,000 fine.
Infringements sit on the civil track. No jail, but the financial penalties bite and several come with a hidden cost: MOM can suspend or permanently revoke your privilege to hire foreign workers. For a business that runs on foreign labour, the ban is the real punishment.
The one that catches honest employers is the levy deduction. The Work Permit and S Pass levy is your cost as the employer. Quietly clawing it back from the worker's pay is an infringement worth up to S$20,000, and it is exactly the kind of thing payroll automates by accident.
EFMA enforcement is active, not theoretical. On 28 May 2026 MOM charged two Singaporeans and an employment agency over a phantom-job scheme. The agency staffer faced 14 charges for declaring workers as food processing staff when they were sent to massage parlours and salons, and for declaring a S$2,000 salary the workers never saw. A co-accused was charged with abetting the false declarations and with collecting a S$500 kickback from a worker.
Each false-declaration charge carries up to S$20,000 and two years' jail; the kickback up to S$30,000 and two years. Stack 14 charges and the exposure runs into hundreds of thousands of dollars before the permanent bar on hiring foreign workers even applies. That bar is the part most businesses underestimate.
If you suspect an EFMA breach, MOM takes reports on 6438 5122. Workers who feel a determination was wrong can apply for a review or go to the Appeal Board. The same fairness rules that protect a worker's declared salary sit alongside the broader pay-protection ideas in our guide to salary in lieu of notice.
Most EFMA trouble is not malice. It is sloppy payroll and stale paperwork. A few habits keep you clean.
Pay what you declared, in full, into a bank account in the worker's name, and never net off the levy. Keep the medical insurance and security bond live for the whole permit. Deploy the worker only to the job and site on the pass. Renew before expiry, because a lapsed pass is the no-valid-pass offence, not a paperwork slip. If you are sizing up the total bill of a foreign hire, our breakdown of the cost of hiring a domestic helper shows how levy, bond and insurance add up in practice.
It applies to anyone employing a foreigner on an MOM-issued pass, covering Employment Pass and S Pass professionals, Work Permit holders, and migrant domestic workers. Citizens and permanent residents fall outside the Act, and domestic workers are protected under EFMA rather than the Employment Act.
No. The levy is the employer's cost under EFMA, and clawing it back from the worker's pay is an infringement that can cost up to S$20,000. The same rule applies to the security bond and any agency or insurance fees tied to the employment.
The fine runs from S$5,000 to S$30,000 with up to 12 months' imprisonment for a first offence. On a repeat offence jail becomes mandatory, between one and twelve months, alongside a fine of S$10,000 to S$30,000. A lapsed or expired pass counts as no valid pass.
An offence is the criminal track and can carry imprisonment, used for things like false declarations, kickbacks or hiring without a pass. An infringement is the civil track with financial penalties only, used for breaches like levy deduction or illegal deployment, though it can still trigger a ban on hiring foreign workers.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.