Work Permit vs S Pass vs EP: Staffing a Singapore Kitchen

A Japanese restaurant in Singapore rarely staffs its kitchen on one kind of pass. The Japanese head chef is on an Employment Pass, a sous chef may be on an S Pass, and the line cooks, kitchen assistants and dishwashers are often Work Permit holders or locals. Each pass has its own rules on nationality, quota and levy, and the number of local employees you have decides how many foreigners you can hire at all. This guide explains how the three passes fit together in a restaurant kitchen, using the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) pages as of September 2026. For the Japanese chef specifically, see hiring a Japanese chef in Singapore.

1. Three passes, three layers of the kitchen

2. Work Permit: who can hold one in a restaurant

MOM treats restaurants, coffee shops, food courts and other approved food establishments as part of the services sector, but hawker and food stalls are excluded. Only operators with an SFA foodshop licence can employ Work Permit holders, and the licence must bear the company's name, not an individual's.

Services sector Work Permit holders must come from approved sources:

• Malaysia
• People's Republic of China (capped by a PRC sub-quota of 8% of your total workforce)
• North Asian sources: Hong Kong (HKSAR passport), Macau, South Korea and Taiwan

Japan is not on the list. A Japanese cook cannot be employed on a Work Permit, however junior the role. If you want a Japanese national in the kitchen, the pass is an S Pass or an EP. The worker must be 18 to 62 at the time of application and can work until 64.

The levy is tiered by how close you are to the ceiling:

MOM has announced that from 2028 the first two tiers will be merged, at S$400 for higher-skilled and S$600 for basic-skilled workers, with the timing to be confirmed. To qualify for the higher-skilled rate, a worker needs a recognised qualification or to meet the market based route (a fixed monthly salary of at least S$1,600 and at least 4 years in Singapore on a Work Permit). In F&B, non-Malaysian workers going the qualification route must also pass level 4 of the Workplace Literacy and Numeracy (WPLN) listening and speaking assessments.

3. The NTS list: cooks from South and Southeast Asia

The Non-Traditional Sources (NTS) Occupation List lets services firms hire Work Permit holders from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand, but only for listed occupations. Food services workers are on the list and explicitly include cooks, kitchen assistants, waiters, food and drink stall assistants, and butchers, fishmongers and related food preparers. The conditions:

• The firm has a services sector work pass account and a valid SFA food shop or supermarket licence in its ACRA registered name.
• NTS Work Permit holders stay within a sub-quota of 8% of total workforce.
• They are paid a fixed monthly salary of at least S$2,000.
• They perform only the occupation on their permit.

For a Japanese restaurant, this is often the practical source of line cooks and kitchen assistants who can be trained in Japanese technique. Our guide to training non-Japanese staff in Japanese cuisine covers how to build that skill in house.

4. S Pass: the middle of the brigade

The S Pass suits a skilled cook or sous chef, including a Japanese national, who earns below the EP threshold. Its limits in the services sector:

• S Pass holders are capped at 10% of total workforce, and they count within the overall 35% ceiling shared with Work Permit holders.
• The levy is S$650 a month for every S Pass holder, harmonised across sectors and tiers since 1 September 2025.
• The qualifying salary starts at S$3,300 and rises with age to S$4,800. From 1 January 2027 the range becomes S$3,600 to S$5,100.
• You must advertise on MyCareersFuture for at least 14 consecutive days first, unless exempt. See our guide to the Fair Consideration Framework for restaurants.

In a small restaurant the 10% cap is the binding limit. With few locals on the payroll, you may have no S Pass headroom at all.

5. Employment Pass: the Japanese head chef

The EP has no quota and no levy, which is why it is attractive for a senior Japanese chef. The cost is the COMPASS points framework and a qualifying salary that starts at S$5,600 for non-financial sectors and rises with age (S$6,000 from 1 January 2027). A chef without a degree scores zero on qualifications, which makes the other criteria matter more. Our guide to COMPASS points for chefs works through the scoring.

6. How locals set your quota

Both the 35% ceiling and the 10% S Pass cap are measured against your total workforce, and MOM counts local employees from your CPF records, averaged over the last 3 months. Only locals paid at least the Local Qualifying Salary (LQS) count fully:

• A local earning at least S$1,800 a month counts as 1 worker.
• A local earning S$900 to below S$1,800 counts as 0.5.
• Below S$900, a local does not count towards quota.

The LQS is also a minimum salary: firms that hire foreign workers must pay locals not covered by a Progressive Wage Model at least the LQS (S$1,800 for full time, S$10.50 an hour for part time). Late CPF contributions can cut your quota and push workers into higher levy tiers.

7. A worked example

This is a simplified illustration. Use MOM's quota calculator in WP Online for your actual numbers.

A restaurant has 20 local employees, all full time and paid above S$1,800. It wants a Japanese head chef on an EP and the rest of the kitchen on S Passes and Work Permits.

• The EP holder does not use Work Permit or S Pass quota.
• For Work Permit and S Pass holders together to stay within 35% of total workforce, with 20 locals, the firm can have up to about 10 (10 out of a total of 30 is 33%; 11 out of 31 would be 35.5%).
• Of those, S Pass holders can be at most 10% of total workforce, so about 3.
• If some of the Work Permit holders come from NTS countries under the NTS list, they must also stay within 8% of total workforce, so about 2.

Each additional local hire at or above the LQS opens more room. For a growing restaurant group, hiring locals is not only a policy expectation but the thing that opens room for foreign hiring.

8. Planning the mix

1. Count your locals paid at or above the LQS over the last 3 months. That number sets everything else.
2. Place the Japanese head chef on an EP if the salary and COMPASS score allow. It uses no quota.
3. Use S Pass places for skilled roles that need a specific person, including a second Japanese cook.
4. Fill line cook, kitchen assistant and dishwasher roles from Malaysia, PRC, North Asian sources, NTS countries (within 8%) or locals. See hiring dishwashers and kitchen porters.
5. Review levy tiers every quarter as headcount changes.

General information checked against Ministry of Manpower pages in September 2026, not legal or immigration advice. Quotas, levies and salary thresholds change, and MOM's own calculation of quota may differ from the simplified example. Confirm with MOM before acting.