Fair Consideration Framework and Job Advertising

What the Fair Consideration Framework is

The Fair Consideration Framework, usually shortened to FCF, sets out requirements for all employers in Singapore to consider the workforce in Singapore fairly for job opportunities. Employers should not discriminate against candidates on non-job related characteristics such as age, sex, nationality or race.

It has two limbs, and confusing them is the root of most of the trouble employers get into.

The first limb applies to everyone. Every employer in Singapore is expected to adhere to the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices. That is a hiring standard, it applies whether or not you employ a single foreigner, and it applies to every stage of employment rather than only to recruitment.

The second limb is a procedural gate in front of work pass applications. Employers submitting Employment Pass or S Pass applications must first advertise the job on MyCareersFuture and fairly consider all candidates. That is the part with a fortnight attached to it, and it decides whether an application can be filed at all.

The two limbs are independent. Being exempt from the advertising requirement does not exempt you from fair hiring. MOM says this in terms: all employers must practise fair hiring even if their vacancies are exempt from advertising on MyCareersFuture.

Why this is where Employment Pass applications actually fail

Employers tend to think of an Employment Pass application as a test of the candidate. Salary, qualifications, COMPASS points. Those are the visible tests, and the ones people prepare for.

The advertising duty is different in kind. It is not a matter of degree, it is a gate. An advertisement that ran for 13 days, or that stated a salary range of S$5,000 to S$12,000, or that named an occupation different from the one in the application, does not produce a weaker application. It produces an application MOM will reject on that ground alone, whatever the candidate’s merits. MOM states plainly that it will reject any Employment Pass application linked to advertisements that are discriminatory or do not represent the job accurately.

The consequences are also collective. A candidate who falls short on COMPASS affects one application. An employer who advertises in bad faith risks debarment that reaches every pass in the company, including renewals.

Who must advertise, and who is exempt

The requirement bites on employers submitting Employment Pass or S Pass applications. It does not apply to Work Permit applications, and it does not apply to pass types outside that pair.

MOM sets out the exemptions as a list of alternatives. You do not have to advertise if you meet any one of them.

Table 1. Exemptions from the MyCareersFuture advertising requirement

Situation	Exempt from advertising	Applies to	Still subject to fair hiring
Company has fewer than 10 employees	Yes	EP and S Pass	Yes
Fixed monthly salary for the vacancy is S$22,500 and above	Yes	EP and S Pass	Yes
Role is short-term, not more than 1 month	Yes	EP and S Pass	Yes
Role is to be filled by a local transferee, meaning an existing employee transferring to a related branch, subsidiary or affiliate in Singapore	Yes	EP and S Pass	Yes
Role is to be filled by a candidate choosing to apply as an overseas intra-corporate transferee	Yes	EP. MOM’s S Pass exemption list does not include this item	Yes
Work Permit applications	Not applicable, the FCF advertising duty attaches to EP and S Pass applications	Work Permit	Yes
Everything else	No	EP and S Pass	Yes

Three points about the table are worth dwelling on.

The fewer than 10 employees exemption is counted on employees, not on pass holders or on locals. A company that grows past ten during a hiring round loses the exemption partway through.

The S$22,500 figure is the same number as the COMPASS exemption threshold, and that coincidence causes real damage. A COMPASS exemption is not an advertising exemption and an advertising exemption is not a COMPASS exemption. They share a number in one case, and the other COMPASS exemptions do not map cleanly onto the advertising exemptions across both pass types.

Being exempt is not the same as being wise. MOM strongly encourages employers to advertise on MyCareersFuture even where a vacancy is eligible for exemption, in order to reach a larger pool of candidates. An exempt employer that advertises anyway is also in a better position if its hiring is ever questioned.

The 14 consecutive day rule and what restarts it

The MyCareersFuture advertisement must be open for at least 14 consecutive days so that job seekers can view and apply for the vacancy. The same applies if you repost an advertisement that has closed.

Consecutive is the operative word. Fourteen days means fourteen days running, not fourteen days of accumulated posting across two attempts. A posting taken down on day 9 and put back up later starts again.

What restarts the clock

MOM requires a new advertisement, kept open for at least another 14 consecutive days before the application can be submitted, if you change any advertisement details. The examples MOM gives are the unique entity number of the hiring organisation, the occupation, the salary and the number of vacancies. The reason given is that job seekers should be aware of the updated job details and have a chance to apply.

In practice, the changes that restart the clock are the ones an employer is most likely to want to make mid-posting. The candidate has negotiated the salary upwards. A second headcount has been approved. The job title has been refined after the hiring manager saw the first applicants. Each of those is another fortnight. The discipline is to settle the occupation, the salary range and the vacancy count before the posting goes up, and to build the range wide enough for the negotiation you expect, within the salary range rule below.

No job offer during the window

MOM states that employers should not make a job offer to a candidate during the mandatory FCF job advertising duration of at least 14 consecutive days. The purpose is to allow enough time for job seekers to respond and for the employer to consider all candidates fairly.

This is the provision employers most often treat as a formality, and it is the one that most directly exposes the difference between advertising and consideration. MOM has said openly that some employers go through the motion of advertising after pre-selecting a foreigner and do not review the MyCareersFuture applicants at all, and that this breaches the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices and can lead to debarment.

The salary range rule

MOM requires the salary offered to be clear, specific and consistent. The salary range advertised must be visible to all candidates and cannot be hidden. It cannot be too broad: the maximum salary cannot exceed two times the minimum salary. MOM’s own example is that if the minimum is S$4,500, the maximum should not exceed S$9,000. The range must also contain the salary actually offered to the Employment Pass or S Pass candidate.

Three failures follow, in descending order of frequency. The range is too wide: an employer advertising S$5,000 to S$12,000 because it genuinely does not know what it will pay has breached the rule at the point of posting, and will only discover it when the application is assessed. The offered salary sits outside the advertised range, usually because the range was set before the negotiation and the successful candidate came in above the top of it, which means a fresh posting and another 14 days. Or the salary is hidden: a posting that shows salary on request, or omits it, does not satisfy the requirement that the range be visible to all candidates.

The planning point is to choose the minimum with the maximum in mind. If you expect to pay S$9,000, a minimum of S$4,500 is the widest defensible base, and it is also an advertisement that will attract the wrong applicants. A tighter range around the real figure is both compliant and more useful.

The three month staleness rule

Job advertisements that have expired for more than 3 months, or closed for more than 3 months, cannot be used for Employment Pass or S Pass applications. The vacancy must be advertised again.

This catches two situations. A role that was advertised, filled by nobody, and then revived when the budget came back. And a role where the advertisement was run promptly but the candidate’s notice period or personal circumstances delayed the application past the window. The second is the one that hurts, because the employer did everything in the right order and is still caught. If you know a candidate cannot start for six months, time the advertisement so the application can be filed within three months of it closing, rather than advertising the day the offer is accepted and then waiting.

Matching the advertisement to the application

MOM will reject Employment Pass and S Pass applications linked to advertisements that are discriminatory or that do not represent the job accurately. The specific requirements are these.

The advertisement must not contain discriminatory words or phrases. TAFEP publishes examples, and the category is wider than most employers assume: it takes in age framing, nationality preferences, gender-coded language and requirements for a language ability the job does not need.

The job advertised must match the occupation in the application. This is a match on the occupation, not on the marketing title. A posting for a growth lead against an application for a marketing manager invites a question that need not have been asked.

The employer submitting the application must be the same as the one in the advertisement. In a group structure the advertisement must be posted under the unique entity number of the entity that will employ the person and file the application, not the parent and not a shared services entity.

Where one advertisement is used for multiple applications, the total number of applications cannot exceed the number of vacancies advertised. An employer who advertises one vacancy and then likes two candidates has one advertisement and two applications, and the second is not supportable.

The Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices and TAFEP’s role

The Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices, generally abbreviated to TGFEP, are the standard all employers in Singapore are expected to adhere to. They are guidelines rather than legislation. That distinction is real but it is not comforting: MOM enforces adherence administratively through work pass privileges, so a breach of guidelines produces a consequence that feels statutory even though the instrument is not.

The Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices, TAFEP, publishes guidance on the guidelines, runs education and self-assessment tools for employers, and receives reports of discriminatory job advertisements and discriminatory HR practices. MOM directs employers and members of the public to report to TAFEP where they see either.

Employment agencies are held to the same standard. MOM states that employment agencies are equally expected to uphold the Tripartite Guidelines and the Fair Consideration Framework when they undertake work for clients. An employer instructing an agency does not push the standard onto the agency, and an agency asked to run an advertisement in bad faith is being asked to breach its own obligations.

The Workplace Fairness Act 2025, and what is not yet in force

This is the part of the subject most often reported inaccurately, so the sequence matters.

The Workplace Fairness Act 2025, Act No. 8 of 2025, was passed by Parliament on 8 January 2025 and assented to by the President on 3 February 2025. Its long title describes an Act to protect against certain discriminatory behaviour relating to employment and to establish fair employment practices, and to make related amendments to the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act 1990. Section 1 provides that the Act comes into operation on a date that the Minister appoints by notification in the Gazette. As at 15 September 2026 it remains uncommenced on Singapore Statutes Online.

A second Bill followed. The Workplace Fairness (Dispute Resolution) Bill was passed in Parliament on 4 November 2025, and establishes the framework through which a worker who experiences workplace discrimination can seek redress. In that press release MOM said it aims for the Act to take effect in end-2027.

So the position today is straightforward. The Fair Consideration Framework and the Tripartite Guidelines apply now. The Workplace Fairness Act does not yet apply.

The protected characteristics

The Act prohibits adverse employment decisions on the grounds of a protected characteristic, covering decisions on hiring, appraisal, training, promotion and dismissal. TAFEP sets out the five categories of protected characteristics as follows.

Table 2. The five categories of protected characteristics under the Workplace Fairness Act

Category	What it covers
1	Age
2	Nationality
3	Sex, marital status, pregnancy status, and caregiving responsibilities
4	Race, religion, and language ability
5	Disability and mental health conditions

The Tripartite Guidelines will continue to cover workplace discrimination based on other characteristics, complementing the Act rather than being replaced by it.

Coverage and the small employer exemption

The Tripartite Committee on Workplace Fairness recommended, and the Government accepted, that employers with fewer than 25 employees be exempted at the start, on the basis that smaller firms may not have the expertise and resources to implement the legislated requirements immediately, with the exemption to be reviewed in five years. Exempted firms remain subject to the Tripartite Guidelines as they are today. Employers close to that threshold should assume they will be covered eventually rather than plan around the exemption.

Dispute resolution

The Act emphasises resolving disputes amicably. Employers will be required to put grievance handling processes in place so disputes can be addressed at firm level. Where that does not resolve matters, the worker and employer must attempt mediation through a third-party mediator before a claim can proceed to the Employment Claims Tribunals or the High Court. The Employment Claims Tribunals have been designated to hear workplace discrimination claims up to and including S$250,000, with a judge-led approach, simplified procedures and no legal representation. All such claims will be heard in private at both the Tribunals and the High Court.

There are safeguards against frivolous and vexatious claims. Employers can apply to strike out such claims and judges may strike them out of their own motion, costs may be awarded against individuals who bring them, such individuals can be investigated by the Police for abusing the Court’s processes, and those who persistently pursue them can be restrained from commencing further proceedings.

For the small group of employers who breach the Act, MOM has said the State will be able to take calibrated enforcement action including directions, administrative financial penalties and civil penalties, and that most employers should not see an increase in obligations under the new law.

What employers should already be doing

Three things, none of which requires waiting for commencement.

Write down the grievance handling process. It will be required, and a process written calmly in advance is better than one improvised during a complaint. TAFEP publishes sample policies, procedures and lodgement forms.

Audit the recruitment paperwork. Job advertisements, application forms and interview question sets are where the protected characteristics most often appear without anyone intending them to: a date of birth field, a question about family plans, a language requirement that is really a nationality preference.

Record hiring decisions with reasons. The defence to a discrimination allegation is a contemporaneous record of why the successful candidate was chosen on merit, and that record cannot be reconstructed afterwards.

The FCF Watchlist

MOM operates a Fair Consideration Framework Watchlist. Employers are placed on it where their workforce profiles suggest they may have discriminatory hiring practices. The indicators MOM has described are an exceptionally high share of foreign professionals, managers and executives compared with industry peers, and a high concentration of professionals, managers and executives from a single nationality. Complaints that a firm may have nationality-based unfair hiring practices can also lead to additional scrutiny.

Being on the Watchlist is not itself a penalty. It means Employment Pass and S Pass applications are examined closely and additional questions are asked to determine whether fair consideration has genuinely been practised. In practice it lengthens processing, invites requests for evidence, and makes the quality of the advertisement record matter more than usual. Work pass privileges can be curtailed where the concerns are borne out.

The useful insight is that the Watchlist indicators are workforce-profile indicators, so they are visible to you before MOM acts on them. A company whose professional headcount has drifted towards one nationality can see that in its own records, and the remedy is a hiring pattern that changes over quarters, not a better-worded advertisement filed next month.

Debarment and penalties

MOM strengthened the administrative penalties from January 2020 for greater deterrence against workplace discrimination.

Table 3. Consequences of breaching the framework

Consequence	Detail	Instrument
Work pass debarment, minimum	12 months, raised from 6 months in January 2020	Administrative penalty
Work pass debarment, maximum	24 months for more egregious cases	Administrative penalty
Scope of debarment	Covers work pass renewals as well as new applications	Administrative penalty
Practical effect, 12 month debarment	Because most work passes run 2 to 3 years, one third to half of a firm’s passes cannot be renewed	MOM’s own illustration
Practical effect, 24 month debarment	Up to all passes cannot be renewed, and the firm cannot hire new foreign employees	MOM’s own illustration
False declaration of fair consideration	Fine up to S$20,000, imprisonment up to 2 years, or both, on conviction	Employment of Foreign Manpower Act 1990
Rejection of the application	Applications linked to discriminatory or inaccurate advertisements are rejected	MOM assessment

Two observations on the legal character of these. The debarment is administrative, imposed by MOM in the exercise of its control over work passes, and it is not a criminal penalty. The false declaration exposure is criminal, prosecuted under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act 1990, and MOM has said it will prosecute errant employers or key personnel who make false declarations that they have considered all candidates fairly. Key personnel are named as well as the employer entity.

Work pass applications and the conditions attached to them sit under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act 1990 and the Employment of Foreign Manpower (Work Passes) Regulations 2012, which set out the categories of work pass the Controller of Work Passes may issue. The Act defines debarment by reference to being debarred from applying for, or being issued with, a work pass.

A practical compliance checklist

Run this before each Employment Pass or S Pass application.

Before the advertisement goes up

Confirm whether any exemption genuinely applies, and write down which one and why. Settle the occupation you will declare and use it in the advertisement. Settle the salary range, checking that the maximum does not exceed twice the minimum and that the figure you expect to pay falls inside it. Settle the number of vacancies against the number of applications you may file. Confirm the advertisement will be posted under the unique entity number of the employing entity.

While the advertisement is running

Keep it open for at least 14 consecutive days. Do not amend the unique entity number, occupation, salary or vacancy count, because any of those means a new posting and another 14 days. Do not make a job offer during the window. Review the applicants who come through MyCareersFuture and record that you did, with the reason each was or was not taken forward.

Before filing

Check the advertisement has not expired or closed more than 3 months ago, that the occupation in the application matches the advertisement, that the salary you are declaring falls within the advertised range, that the number of applications does not exceed the vacancies advertised, and that the declared fixed monthly salary matches the offer letter to the cent.

Standing practice

Review advertisement templates against TAFEP’s guidance on discriminatory words and phrases. Review application forms for fields that capture protected characteristics you do not need. Prepare a written grievance handling process ahead of the Workplace Fairness Act. Watch your own workforce profile for the concentration patterns that drive Watchlist placement.

Record keeping

There is no single prescribed retention period covering all of this, so keep the evidence for as long as the pass it supports could still be questioned, which in practice means the life of the pass plus its renewals.

For each application, keep the MyCareersFuture posting reference and a dated copy of the advertisement as posted, including the salary range and vacancy count as displayed. Keep the posting and closing dates so the 14 consecutive days and the three month window can be evidenced. Keep the list of applicants received through MyCareersFuture and a short record of the shortlisting decisions with reasons. Keep the interview notes, the offer letter and signed contract showing the fixed monthly salary declared, and the job description used.

MOM’s published guidance addresses whether companies must keep records of interviews and job offer decisions, and the practical answer for any employer that may face scrutiny is yes. The cost of keeping this material is a folder per hire. The cost of not having it is trying to reconstruct, two years later, why a local applicant was not taken forward.

Frequently asked questions

How long must a job be advertised on MyCareersFuture?

At least 14 consecutive days, and the same applies if you repost an advertisement that has closed. The application can only be submitted after that period.

Which employers are exempt from the advertising requirement?

You are exempt if you meet any one of these: your company has fewer than 10 employees, the fixed monthly salary for the vacancy is S$22,500 and above, the role is not more than 1 month, or the role is being filled by a local transferee. For Employment Pass applications there is also an exemption where the candidate applies as an overseas intra-corporate transferee. All employers must still practise fair hiring.

Does the advertising requirement apply to S Pass applications?

Yes. The requirement applies to employers submitting Employment Pass or S Pass applications. The S Pass exemption list published by MOM is the same as the Employment Pass list except that it does not include the overseas intra-corporate transferee item.

What changes force me to restart the 14 days?

A change to any advertisement detail, including the unique entity number of the hiring organisation, the occupation, the salary or the number of vacancies. You must post a new advertisement and keep it open for at least another 14 consecutive days before submitting the application.

How wide can the advertised salary range be?

The maximum cannot exceed two times the minimum. MOM’s example is that a minimum of S$4,500 means a maximum of no more than S$9,000. The range must be visible to all candidates and must contain the salary actually offered to the candidate.

Can I interview and make an offer during the 14 days?

You should not make a job offer during the mandatory advertising period. The window exists so that job seekers can respond and so that all candidates can be fairly considered.

If I am exempt from COMPASS, am I exempt from advertising?

No. They are separate tests. The S$22,500 fixed monthly salary figure appears in both, which is why people confuse them, but a COMPASS exemption on another ground does not carry an advertising exemption with it.

What lands a company on the FCF Watchlist?

MOM has described the indicators as an exceptionally high share of foreign professionals, managers and executives compared with industry peers, and a high concentration of such staff from a single nationality. Complaints about nationality-based unfair hiring can also trigger additional scrutiny. Applications from Watchlisted firms are examined more closely and additional questions are asked.

What is the penalty for breaching the Fair Consideration Framework?

Work pass debarment of at least 12 months and up to 24 months for more egregious cases, covering renewals as well as new applications. Separately, conviction for false declaration under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act carries imprisonment of up to 2 years, a fine of up to S$20,000, or both.

Is the Workplace Fairness Act in force?

Not yet. The Workplace Fairness Act 2025 was passed on 8 January 2025 and assented to on 3 February 2025, but it commences on a date the Minister appoints by notification in the Gazette and remains uncommenced. MOM has said it aims for the Act to take effect in end-2027.

Are the Tripartite Guidelines law?

No. They are guidelines, and all employers in Singapore are expected to adhere to them. MOM enforces adherence administratively through work pass privileges, so a breach can still cost you debarment even though the instrument is not a statute.

Does my employment agency carry the compliance duty instead of me?

No. The duty and the declaration remain the employer’s. Employment agencies are separately expected to uphold the Tripartite Guidelines and the Fair Consideration Framework when they act for clients, so the obligation sits on both parties rather than moving from one to the other.

How we can help

Little Big Employment Agency Pte Ltd is an employment agency licensed by the Ministry of Manpower, EA Licence 19C9790. Fair Consideration Framework compliance is part of every Employment Pass and S Pass application we handle.

What we do

We determine whether an exemption genuinely applies and record the basis. We draft advertising copy that matches the occupation, salary and vacancy count we will declare in the application. We track the 14 consecutive days and tell you when a proposed change would restart them. We keep the posting reference and the evidence file. And we reconcile the advertisement against the application before anything is filed.

What stays with you

The hiring decision, the salary and the genuine consideration of the candidates who apply. We can build the process and hold the record. We cannot consider your applicants for you, and an employer who wants an advertisement run as a formality should engage someone else.

Talk to our team about an Employment Pass or S Pass application. For the underlying pass rules see our Employment Pass guide, for outsourcing a single application see our Employment Pass application service, and for the whole function see work pass administration outsourcing.

Official sources

• MOM: Fair Consideration Framework
• MOM: Consider all candidates fairly before you apply for an Employment Pass
• MOM: Consider all candidates fairly before you apply for an S Pass
• MOM: Workplace Fairness (Dispute Resolution) Bill press release, 4 November 2025
• TAFEP: Guide to Workplace Fairness for employers
• TAFEP: Writing job advertisements
• Workplace Fairness Act 2025 on Singapore Statutes Online
• Employment of Foreign Manpower Act 1990
• Employment of Foreign Manpower (Work Passes) Regulations 2012
• Employment Act 1968

Figures checked against MOM, TAFEP and Singapore Statutes Online on 15 September 2026. Eligibility and approval depend on the individual application, and the Ministry of Manpower decides every case. This page is general information and not legal advice. See our legal and referral information.