COMPASS explained: how salary, sector, age and education decide your EP.

The pass mark, and the salary that skips it

Every new Employment Pass application, and from 1 January 2026 every renewal, is scored under COMPASS. You need at least 40 points. There is one shortcut: a candidate on a fixed monthly salary of around SGD 22,500 or more is exempt from COMPASS and qualifies on salary alone. Most founders are not paying themselves that in year one, so the points are what matter.

Before COMPASS even applies, you must clear the qualifying-salary floor for eligibility. As of 2026 that floor is SGD 5,600 a month for most sectors and SGD 6,200 for financial services, rising with age. The Ministry of Manpower has confirmed the floor rises again to SGD 6,000 (SGD 6,600 in financial services) on 1 January 2027, with renewals assessed against the new floors from 1 January 2028. Meeting the floor only makes you eligible; COMPASS then decides whether you score.

COMPASS at a glance (2026). Pass mark: 40 of a possible 90.

Criterion	What it measures	Points
C1 Salary	Your fixed salary vs local PMET pay in your sector, by age	0 / 10 / 20
C2 Qualifications	Tier of your degree-awarding institution	0 / 10 / 20
C3 Diversity	Your nationality's share of the firm's PMETs	0 / 10 / 20
C4 Local support	Firm's share of local PMET employees vs its industry	0 / 10 / 20
C5 Skills bonus	Role on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL)	0 / 10 / 20
C6 Strategic priorities	Firm in a strategic economic partnership with the government	0 / 10

C1: salary, benchmarked to your sector and age

Your fixed monthly salary is compared against what local professionals in your sector earn, and the benchmark rises with age. You score 20 only if your salary reaches the 90th percentile of local PMET pay for your sector and age, 10 from the 65th percentile upwards, and 0 below that. For most founders a credible salary lands in the 10-point band, and that is fine; the framework is built so other criteria make up the rest. The SGD 22,500 figure is not the bar for 20 points: that is the level at which COMPASS stops applying altogether. The qualifying-salary floor (the eligibility minimum, not the points benchmark) scales by age as follows.

2026 EP qualifying-salary floor by age. Financial-services roles use the higher column. Source: Ministry of Manpower.

Age	Most sectors	Financial services
23 and below	SGD 5,600	SGD 6,200
Around 30	~SGD 6,800	~SGD 7,600
Around 40	~SGD 9,000	~SGD 10,500
45 and above	SGD 10,700	SGD 11,800

The trap is assuming a bigger salary is always better. It is benchmarked to your industry. In a sector that does not pay highly, an unusually large salary can look inconsistent and invite questions, even when you own the company. The aim is a salary that is credible for your business and still strong on points. We cover this in detail in EP salary benchmarks by sector.

C2: qualifications, in tiers

Qualifications are scored in tiers. A degree from a top-tier institution scores 20, a standard recognised degree scores 10, and no recognised degree scores 0 on this criterion. MOM refreshed the lists of recognised institutions from 1 January 2026, so a qualification that scored a tier in the past should be re-checked against the current list rather than assumed.

If you do not hold a degree, you are not blocked, but you must make up the points elsewhere, usually with a higher salary or a Shortage Occupation List role. This is why upgrading a qualification can be such a practical move: lifting C2 can lower the salary you need to reach 40, which often makes the whole application easier and cheaper to sustain.

C3 and C4: the firm-level criteria

Two criteria look at your company rather than you. C3 rewards nationality diversity: if your nationality makes up less than 5 percent of the firm's PMETs you score 20, with fewer points as that share rises, so a team dominated by one nationality scores poorly. C4 rewards support for local employment, measured by your firm's share of local PMETs against its industry peers. There is an important relief for founders: a firm with fewer than 25 PMET employees receives a default score of 10 points each on C3 and C4, so a brand-new company usually starts with 20 points from the firm-level criteria rather than zero. Once the team grows past 25 PMETs the real ratios take over, which is one more reason that genuine local hiring over time strengthens your position, and your later PR case.

C5: the Shortage Occupation List bonus, revised for 2026

This is the criterion most people overlook, and it can be decisive. If the role sits in an occupation on Singapore's Shortage Occupation List, the application earns 20 bonus points (or 10 if your nationality already makes up a third or more of the firm's PMETs). A revised SOL took effect on 1 January 2026 and applies to both new and renewal applications.

The 2026 list widened well beyond technology. Occupations now span:

• Healthcare: registered nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists, diagnostic radiographers, podiatrists and medical social workers
• Agri-tech: alternative-protein food application scientists and novel-food biotechnologists
• Financial services: investment advisers and relationship managers serving ultra-high-net-worth clients
• Green economy: carbon project managers, carbon traders and carbon verification specialists

At the same time, several roles were removed, including Cyber Risk Specialist, Cybersecurity Operations Specialist and Product Manager (Digital), so a role that earned the bonus in 2024 may no longer qualify. There is an important condition: the candidate must genuinely perform the key duties of that shortage occupation, the job title in the application must match the MyCareersFuture advertisement, and you cannot simply relabel a job. Where it applies, the bonus is powerful: certain technology roles on the SOL can even receive an EP valid for five years rather than the usual two or three, and being in an in-demand sector also strengthens a later PR case.

C6: strategic economic priorities

A further bonus of up to 10 points is available to firms in a recognised strategic economic partnership with the government, tied to certain investment, innovation or internationalisation activities. It is narrow in scope, but where it applies it adds points on top of the foundation criteria.

Worked examples

Two illustrations of how the criteria interact:

Illustrative only. Actual scores depend on MOM's current benchmarks.

Profile	C1	C2	C3	C4	C5	Total
Founder, top-tier degree, salary in the 65th-percentile band, new firm under 25 PMETs	10	20	10	10	0	50 (pass)
Founder, no degree, lower-paying sector, new firm	10	0	10	10	0	30 (fail)
Same founder, but role is on the 2026 SOL	10	0	10	10	20	50 (pass)

Two lessons sit in this table. The small-firm default means a new company starts from 20 points, not zero, so the fight is really over salary, qualifications and the SOL. And while the SOL bonus can turn a borderline case into a pass, as in the third row, the strongest applications still stack a credible salary and a recognised qualification on top of it, backed by real firm substance.

How to improve your score

• Set a salary that is credible for your sector and as high as the business can credibly support
• Upgrade your qualification if C2 is your weak point, and re-check it against the 1 January 2026 list
• Check whether your role actually qualifies for the 2026 Shortage Occupation List
• Build a truly diverse team and hire locally over time to lift C3 and C4
• Keep the company real, because a high COMPASS score on a shell still invites scrutiny

COMPASS rewards a real business with a credible founder. That is exactly the kind of case we build, and we confirm the current thresholds and Shortage Occupation List for your situation before we file. See how it fits the whole application in why MOM reviews EP applications, or start with the complete Employment Pass guide.