Work Permit vs S Pass for Restaurant Staff in Singapore: Quotas

Line cooks, kitchen assistants and dishwashers in a Singapore restaurant can hold Work Permits if they come from Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea or Taiwan, or, for listed jobs, from nine NTS countries. Japan is not a services source country, so a Japanese cook needs an S Pass or EP. Your locals set the numbers: 20 locals at the Local Qualifying Salary allow 10 foreign workers, at most 3 of them on S Passes.

Which pass each station can sit on

MOM counts restaurants, coffee shops and food courts in the services sector, but not hawker or food stalls. Only operators with an SFA food shop licence in the company's name can employ Work Permit holders.

Why a Japanese national cannot be on a services Work Permit

MOM lists the services sector source countries: Malaysia, the People's Republic of China, and the North Asian sources (Hong Kong passport holders, Macau, South Korea, Taiwan). The NTS list adds Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand, but only for listed jobs. Japan appears on neither. A Japanese kitchen assistant would have to meet the S Pass floor, which from 1 January 2027 is S$3,600 at age 23 or below, more than twice the S$1,620 median gross wage MOM recorded for kitchen assistants in June 2025.

Two narrow exceptions exist:

• DP Work Permit. A Dependant's Pass holder (the spouse or child of an EP or S Pass holder) can work on a DP Work Permit whatever their nationality, with no minimum salary and no security bond. It counts against Work Permit quota and pays levy at MOM's DP Work Permit rates, S$300 to S$600 in services.
• Work Holiday Pass. Up to six months for 18 to 25 year olds who study at or graduated from a recognised university in one of ten places, Japan included. A culinary vocational school does not qualify, and MOM caps the scheme at 2,000 holders at any one time.

How MOM counts your locals

Everything starts from your local count, which MOM takes from your CPF records as an average of three months:

• A Singapore citizen or PR earning at least S$1,800 a month counts as 1.
• One earning S$900 to below S$1,800 counts as 0.5. Two such part timers make one.
• Below S$900 they do not count. Sole proprietors and partners do not count either.

CPF declared by the 14th of a month feeds the next month's quota. Late CPF can be left out of the calculation even after you pay it, and it pushes workers into higher levy tiers. If a local leaves, the average falls over the following months, and once you are over quota MOM may refuse renewals and require you to cancel passes.

Locals in covered kitchen jobs must also be paid the Food Services Progressive Wage Model if you hire any foreign worker. For full service restaurants, from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 that is at least S$2,520 gross a month for a cook and S$2,320 for a kitchen assistant or waiter, rising to S$2,660 and S$2,460 on 1 July 2027. Senior cook pay is left to the market.

Headcount table: what your locals allow

MOM's formulas for services: maximum foreign workers (Work Permit plus S Pass) equals local count × 0.538462, rounded down. S Pass holders are capped at 10% of (total workforce + 1), where total workforce is locals plus Work Permit and S Pass holders; EP holders are left out. PRC and NTS workers are each capped at 8% of the same figure.

Our calculation from MOM's published formulas. Two readings matter. Without other foreign staff, each S Pass needs 9 more locals. Work Permit holders enlarge the workforce, so hiring them first can open one more S Pass, but they also use the same 35% ceiling. Check the live figure in WP Online before you apply.

Levies and other running costs

MOM fills tier 1 with S Pass holders first, then higher skilled and then basic skilled Work Permit holders. From 2028 tiers 1 and 2 merge at S$400 and S$600; MOM has not yet set the date. Non Malaysian Work Permit holders in F&B reach the higher skilled rate by a recognised qualification plus level 4 of the WPLN listening and speaking test, or by at least S$1,600 fixed salary and four years on a Work Permit in Singapore.

Beyond levy: a S$5,000 security bond for each non Malaysian Work Permit holder, which you cannot pass on to the worker; medical insurance for Work Permit and S Pass holders (for S Pass, cover of at least S$60,000 a year); and no CPF for pass holders.

Where Work Permit cooks come from

• Malaysia has no sub quota, and Malaysian workers need no security bond.
• NTS countries may fill only the listed food services jobs: cooks, kitchen assistants, waiters, food and drink stall assistants, and butchers, fishmongers and related preparers. Each needs at least S$2,000 fixed monthly salary, must do only the job on the permit (the Job Flexibility Scheme does not apply), and the firm needs an SFA food shop licence in its ACRA registered name.
• PRC and North Asian sources are allowed within the PRC 8% cap; North Asian sources have no separate cap.

In a Japanese kitchen, Work Permit cooks realistically take prep, fry, grill and rice stations under a trained lead. Fish breaking, the sushi counter and anything facing omakase guests usually needs the S Pass or EP layer. Our guide to training non Japanese staff covers the ramp up.

A worked example: a 40 seat opening

Hypothetical headcount; MOM's formulas. The restaurant has 20 locals paid at least S$1,800, a Japanese head chef on an EP, 3 S Pass holders (a Japanese sous chef and two senior cooks) and 7 Work Permit holders: 4 Malaysian higher skilled, 3 basic skilled.

• Total workforce: 20 + 3 + 7 = 30. The EP is excluded.
• Foreign workers: 10, exactly the maximum for 20 locals.
• S Pass: 3, within 10% of 31.
• Tier 1 (10% of 30 = 3): the 3 S Pass holders, S$1,950.
• Tier 2 (25% of 30, rounded down, minus 3 = 4): 4 higher skilled at S$400, S$1,600.
• Tier 3 (the remaining 3): basic skilled at S$800, S$2,400.
• Levy: S$5,950 a month, S$71,400 a year, before bonds and insurance.

Lose one local and the maximum drops to 9 foreign workers, so one permit cannot be renewed.

What to do this week

1. Pull three months of CPF data and compute your local count, with half counts.
2. Read your row in the headcount table, then confirm it in WP Online.
3. Check every local cook and kitchen assistant against the Food Services PWM wage for your category.
4. Decide which stations need a Japanese national and budget those as S Pass or EP.
5. Plan hiring order: Work Permits before the last S Pass if you need the extra slot.

General information checked against Ministry of Manpower pages on 27 September 2026, not legal or immigration advice. The headcount table and example apply MOM's published formulas to hypothetical numbers; your quota in WP Online is the one that counts.