Hiring a Foreign Sommelier or Wine Director in Singapore (2026)

How much does a fine-dining group in Singapore need to pay a foreign wine director before Employment Pass approval even becomes possible? The answer sits well above what most restaurant owners assume, and it is not the same figure that applies to the S Pass hire pouring wine on the floor below. Hiring a foreign sommelier or wine director in Singapore means navigating two separate work pass tiers, and choosing the wrong one at the offer stage wastes months.

Unlike hiring a foreign chef, where the Non-Traditional Source Occupation List (NTS-OL) opens a Work Permit route, there is no separate licensing body or occupation list for sommeliers. A wine professional in Singapore is assessed purely against the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) standard pass criteria: qualifying salary, the COMPASS framework for Employment Pass applications, and the S Pass points-based framework for mid-tier roles. Restaurant groups and hotels that get this classification wrong at the point of offer typically lose weeks to a rejected application and a repeat submission.

This guide sets out, with figures and dates as published by MOM, how a senior sommelier or wine director clears the Employment Pass bar, how a junior wine steward is more realistically hired under the S Pass, and how to sequence the hiring process for both.

Why Sommeliers Sit Outside the Usual F&B Licensing Frameworks

Foreign chefs hired into Singapore kitchens can, since the 2025 and September 2026 NTS-OL expansions, often be brought in on a Work Permit rather than an S Pass or Employment Pass (see our companion guide, Hiring a Foreign Chef in Singapore). Allied health professionals have the Allied Health Professions Council. Sommeliers and wine directors have neither. There is no MOM occupation list carve-out and no separate Singapore professional register for wine service roles.

That means every foreign sommelier or wine director hire in Singapore is assessed on the same two criteria MOM applies to any other professional, managerial, executive or technical (PMET) role: the applicable qualifying salary for the pass type, and, for Employment Pass applications, the COMPASS framework introduced in September 2023. This is a straightforward exercise once the seniority of the role is correctly mapped to the right pass tier, but it catches employers who assume a “F&B hospitality work pass Singapore” pathway is somehow different from any other services-sector professional hire.

Employment Pass Route: The Wine Director and Senior Sommelier

A wine director overseeing cellar strategy, procurement and staff training across a multi-outlet group, or a head sommelier at a standalone fine-dining establishment with genuine supervisory and budget responsibility, is the profile that fits an Employment Pass (EP). As at MOM’s published position for 2026, the EP qualifying salary is S$5,600 a month for most sectors, rising in age-graduated steps for older, more experienced candidates, with the financial services benchmark (not applicable to F&B) higher still. This threshold is scheduled to rise to S$6,000 from 1 January 2027.

Clearing COMPASS as an F&B Employer

Meeting the qualifying salary alone is not enough. Since 1 September 2023, nearly every new EP application must also score at least 40 points under the COMPASS framework, MOM’s points-based framework built on four foundational criteria (salary, qualifications, workforce diversity and support for local employment) plus two bonus criteria. The salary criterion (C1) benchmarks the offered pay against the 65th and 90th percentile of local PMET salaries in a comparable role and sector; a wine director’s offer package should be checked against MOM’s published salary benchmarks before the offer letter goes out, not after. Candidates offered a fixed monthly salary of at least S$22,500 are exempt from COMPASS entirely and need only clear the base qualifying salary, which is a relevant planning point for wine directors joining five-star hotel groups or multi-outlet restaurant operators at senior director level.

Employers should also budget realistically for the total hiring cost of an EP-tier wine professional, not just the headline salary; our guide to the Real Cost of Hiring a Foreign Professional sets out the SDL, MOM fees and CPF-adjacent costs that sit on top of the offer.

S Pass Route: The Junior Wine Steward or Assistant Sommelier

A junior wine steward, assistant sommelier, or floor-level wine service specialist without the seniority, salary or scope of a wine director role will almost always sit under the S Pass rather than the EP. As at MOM’s 2026 published S Pass rates, the qualifying salary is S$3,300 a month for most sectors for new applications and renewals through 31 August 2026, rising to S$3,600 from 1 September 2026 (S$3,800 rising to S$4,000 for financial services, which is not the relevant benchmark for F&B). Critically, S$3,300 or S$3,600 is the entry point for the youngest candidates only; MOM scales the qualifying salary upward with age on a sliding scale, so an assistant sommelier in their thirties will need a materially higher offer than a 23-year-old graduate hire to qualify. Employers should run any specific candidate through MOM’s Self-Assessment Tool before extending an offer.

S Pass hires also sit inside the F&B sector’s S Pass sub-quota and levy structure, and inside the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) compliance chain that already applies to food services employers hiring foreign workers, which we cover in depth in Singapore Progressive Wage Model 2026: Work Pass Compliance. In short, an employer cannot renew or apply for new S Pass approvals if local PWM-covered staff in the same establishment are not being paid at or above the applicable wage floor.

Wine Director vs Wine Steward: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Factor	Junior Wine Steward (S Pass)	Senior Sommelier / Wine Director (Employment Pass)
Typical seniority	Floor-level wine service, no budget or hiring authority	Cellar strategy, procurement, training, multi-outlet oversight
2026 qualifying salary	S$3,300/month (rising to S$3,600 from 1 Sep 2026), age-graduated upward	S$5,600/month, age-graduated upward, rising to S$6,000 from 1 Jan 2027
Additional test	Sub-quota and levy under the services sector S Pass quota	COMPASS 40-point pass mark (or S$22,500+ salary exemption)
Local workforce link	Subject to Progressive Wage Model compliance for F&B employer	COMPASS local-employment criterion assessed at firm level
Typical salary benchmark in practice	Roughly S$3,500 to S$5,000/month depending on age and outlet tier	Roughly S$6,000 to S$12,000+/month depending on group size and portfolio

These figures are indicative benchmarks drawn from the pass thresholds above; actual offers should always be checked against MOM’s current published rates and, for EP roles, against COMPASS salary percentile data for the specific role and sector before an offer letter is issued.

Practical Hiring Sequence for Restaurant Groups and Hotels

Step 1: Map the Role Before Recruiting

Decide, before advertising or shortlisting, whether the role is genuinely a wine director/senior sommelier position or a junior wine steward position. This single decision determines the pass type, the salary floor, and the paperwork trail. Employers already using our sector guide to Singapore F&B Sector Hiring 2026 will recognise this as the same discipline applied to chef and kitchen hires.

Step 2: Benchmark the Offer Against MOM Thresholds

For an EP candidate, check the offered salary against both the flat qualifying salary and the COMPASS C1 percentile benchmark for the role. For an S Pass candidate, run the candidate’s date of birth through MOM’s Self-Assessment Tool, since the published headline figure is a floor for the youngest applicants only.

Step 3: Confirm PWM and Levy Exposure Before Submission

Before submitting an S Pass application for a wine steward, confirm the establishment’s local PWM-covered staff are compliant, since non-compliance blocks new S Pass approvals for the whole company, not just the pass in question. Groups new to Singapore, including a restaurant or wine business owner incorporating a Singapore entity for the first time, should also review the incorporation and compliance sequence in RCS’s Singapore Company Incorporation Guide for Entrepreneurs before the first work pass application is even lodged.

Step 4: Submit With Full Documentation

EP applications benefit from documented evidence of the candidate’s scope, such as an organisation chart showing cellar and procurement responsibility, prior payslips at comparable seniority, and any formal wine qualifications (WSET, Court of Master Sommeliers) that support the COMPASS qualifications criterion. S Pass applications should include clear evidence of relevant experience and, where available, service certifications.

Getting the Sommelier Work Visa Singapore Classification Right the First Time

The cost of misclassifying a sommelier work visa Singapore application is not just the MOM processing fee. A rejected Employment Pass application for a role that should have been offered at S Pass level, or an S Pass application for a candidate whose true seniority and pay warrant an Employment Pass and a higher COMPASS score, both cost a restaurant group or hotel weeks of delay during a hiring season where experienced wine talent does not sit idle. Getting the wine director Employment Pass classification and salary benchmarking right before the offer letter goes out is the single highest-leverage step in this whole process.

Conclusion

Hiring a foreign sommelier or wine director in Singapore comes down to an honest assessment of seniority and pay against MOM’s qualifying salary and COMPASS thresholds for the Employment Pass, or the age-graduated S Pass salary criteria for a more junior wine service hire. There is no sommelier-specific licensing shortcut and no NTS-OL equivalent; the F&B hospitality work pass Singapore question for wine professionals is answered entirely through the standard pass frameworks. Restaurant groups and hotels that map the role correctly, benchmark the offer against current MOM figures, and confirm PWM compliance before submission avoid the most common causes of rejection and delay.

For further guidance on structuring your F&B hiring pipeline, visit Singapore Employment Agency, and for company incorporation and compliance support for restaurant and hospitality groups establishing a Singapore entity, visit Raffles Corporate Services.

The Editorial Team, Little Big Employment Agency