COMPASS C3 and C4: Who Counts as a PMET?

Salary Measures for Local and Foreign Employees

MOM’s FAQ currently uses S$3,300 a month. For foreign employees it uses fixed monthly salary declared in the work-pass application; for local citizens and PRs receiving employer CPF contributions, it uses Ordinary and Additional wages declared for CPF.

Exclusions and Special Treatment

Foreign PMET counts exclude in-principle approvals for every pass type, Work Holiday Pass, Tech.Pass, ONE Pass and Pre-approved Letter of Consent. PRs retain their passport nationality for C3 Diversity but count as locals for C4 Support for Local Employment. Employees posted to overseas branches are included. MOM aligns the C3/C4 PMET salary threshold with the S Pass minimum qualifying salary.

Build the PMET Count from the Right Records

Separate foreign-employee work-pass declarations from local CPF wage records when preparing a check. Although the current FAQ uses the same S$3,300 threshold, the pay measure is not identical for both groups. Copying one payroll column across everyone can therefore obscure the distinction between declared fixed monthly salary and the wages used for local CPF reporting.

As a practical worksheet, give each employee a row showing the applicable source record, qualifying wage measure, pass category and nationality. Apply the listed exclusions before totalling. In-principle approvals are excluded even when the proposed hire is expected to start soon; an anticipated addition should not be treated as an already-counted employee simply because approval has been issued.

Keep two classification questions separate for PRs. Their recorded passport nationality is relevant to C3 diversity, while an eligible PR receiving employer CPF contributions is local for C4. A single spreadsheet column labelled local or foreign will not, on its own, reliably support both calculations. Use separate nationality and local-employment fields for clarity.

Also check employees stationed in overseas branches, whom MOM’s FAQ includes, rather than limiting the review to people physically at the Singapore office. The worksheet is only a preparation aid. Compare the result with the official employer profile and consult MOM’s PMET counting rules ↗ when an employee’s treatment is uncertain.