Every Singapore employer who has ever submitted an Employment Pass or S Pass application has encountered the Fair Consideration Framework — even if they did not realise it at the time. The FCF is the regulatory architecture that requires employers to give Singaporeans and PRs a genuine opportunity to be considered for any role before a foreign hire is made. In 2026, with the Workplace Fairness Act now in effect and MOM’s scrutiny of hiring practices at an all-time high, understanding your FCF obligations is not optional.
This guide explains what the fair consideration framework Singapore 2026 obligations are, how they interact with COMPASS, what happens if you fall short, and how to build a hiring process that is both compliant and defensible.
What Is the Fair Consideration Framework?
The FCF was introduced by the Ministry of Manpower in 2014 and has been progressively strengthened. At its core, it requires employers to consider Singaporeans and PRs fairly for all job opportunities before hiring foreign nationals on work passes. Per the Ministry of Manpower, the FCF operates alongside the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices (TGFEP) and, since 2026, the Workplace Fairness Act.
The FCF applies to all employers hiring EP or S Pass holders for roles that pay below SGD 20,000 per month in fixed salary. For roles above this threshold, the advertising requirement is waived, though fair hiring practices still apply.
The MyCareersFuture Advertising Requirement
Before submitting an Employment Pass or S Pass application for an eligible role, the employer must advertise the position on the MyCareersFuture (MCF) jobs portal — Singapore’s national jobs portal operated by Workforce Singapore. The requirements are:
- The advertisement must remain live for at least 14 calendar days before the work pass application is submitted.
- The job description must be accurate and not written in a way that effectively excludes local applicants (for example, requiring a specific foreign university degree or a specific nationality).
- The employer must fairly consider all candidates who apply through the portal, including Singapore Citizens and PRs.
- Interview records and selection rationale must be documented and retained for at least two years for MOM audit purposes.
Note that with the retirement of the FCF Watchlist in 2023 (when COMPASS absorbed its workforce-profile checks), MOM now enforces fair hiring primarily through the COMPASS scoring framework and direct MOM audits triggered by hiring-pattern data. Our COMPASS Framework guide explains how the C3 (nationality diversity) and C4 (local PMET support) criteria within COMPASS specifically penalise companies with weak local hiring records.
Which Roles Must Be Advertised?
The MCF advertising requirement applies to all roles where the employer intends to hire an EP or S Pass holder and the fixed monthly salary is below SGD 20,000. This covers the vast majority of EP applications, as the qualifying EP salary for most sectors is SGD 5,600 per month as at 2026 (SGD 6,200 for financial services), rising to SGD 6,000 and SGD 6,600 respectively from 1 January 2027.
Roles exempt from the advertising requirement include:
- Intra-company transfers where the candidate is already an employee of the same corporate group and earning above SGD 20,000 per month.
- Roles where the employer obtains a specific MOM exemption (rare, and for genuine strategic situations only).
What Makes a Compliant Job Advertisement?
MOM reviews job advertisements for signs of discriminatory intent. Common red flags that trigger scrutiny include:
- Language that implies a specific nationality is preferred (“Mandarin-speaking preferred” where Mandarin proficiency is not genuinely required for the role).
- Requirements for overseas qualifications that do not correspond to a genuine business need.
- Salary ranges set unrealistically high to deter local applicants while staying below the SGD 20,000 threshold.
- Vague role descriptions that cannot credibly explain why a local candidate could not fill the position.
Under the Workplace Fairness Act 2026, discriminatory hiring practices based on protected characteristics — including nationality in the hiring context, CECA affiliation, and others — are now statutory offences, not merely advisory. Our Workplace Fairness Act employer guide covers the full scope of the Act’s obligations.
Documenting Your Hiring Process
The most important thing you can do to protect your company from FCF scrutiny is to document your hiring process thoroughly and consistently. For every EP or S Pass application, you should retain:
- A copy of the MCF advertisement with its live dates confirmed.
- A record of all applicants who applied, with notes on their qualifications and why each was progressed or not.
- Interview notes or scoring rubrics for candidates who were interviewed.
- A clear written rationale for why the selected candidate was preferred over local applicants who applied.
This documentation should be retained for at least two years. If MOM conducts a Fair Consideration Framework audit, you will be expected to produce this evidence promptly. Our MOM Compliance Calendar tracks all the key dates and obligations your HR team needs to manage across the year.
COMPASS and FCF: How They Work Together
Since September 2023, every new EP application is assessed through COMPASS — the Complementarity Assessment Framework. COMPASS checks four candidate attributes and two bonus attributes, with the employer’s workforce profile embedded directly in two of the four core criteria:
- C3 (Nationality Diversity): Employers with a disproportionately high concentration of a single foreign nationality in their PMET workforce score poorly here.
- C4 (Local PMET Support): Employers with a low ratio of local PMETs relative to the sector median score poorly here.
Together, C3 and C4 mean that the FCF’s fair-hiring purpose is now baked directly into every EP assessment. Employers who have historically hired heavily from a single nationality, or who have not invested in local PMET hiring, will see lower COMPASS scores and higher EP rejection rates. The solution is the same in both cases: a genuine, sustained commitment to fair and diverse hiring practices.
What Triggers an MOM Audit?
MOM does not publish its audit trigger criteria, but the data patterns that attract attention include:
- A high ratio of EP applications from a single foreign nationality in a short window.
- Multiple rejections of local applicants followed by repeated EP applications for the same or similar roles.
- Employee complaints filed with MOM’s Fair Hiring channels under the WFA.
- Low COMPASS C3 or C4 scores across multiple applications within a 12-month period.
- Advertising periods that are suspiciously short or job descriptions that are reused without modification across many applications.
If MOM contacts your organisation for an FCF audit, engage an employment lawyer or licensed agency immediately. The audit will typically require you to produce documentation for your last 12 to 24 months of EP applications. See our Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment guide for the full framework of practices MOM expects employers to follow.
How LBEA Helps Employers Navigate FCF and COMPASS
Singapore Employment Agency — operated by LBEA, a MOM-licensed employment agency (Licence 19C9790) — assists employers in structuring EP and S Pass applications that meet FCF requirements, COMPASS scoring thresholds, and MOM’s documentation expectations. We review your hiring process before submission and flag potential compliance gaps.
For businesses incorporating in Singapore or managing their corporate secretarial and employment pass obligations together, our sister company Raffles Corporate Services provides integrated corporate services — from company incorporation through to ongoing HR compliance support.
— The Editorial Team, Little Big Employment Agency