EP Query - A misunderstanding or something doomed to fail?

There seem to be unpublished, but lower salary thresholds for Malaysian employees.

I wonder, though, why so many Malaysians are willing to work below their market value?

@beppi

Hmm, I think this would be dependent on the specific context of that particular candidate and their experience level (relative to the local market).

That said, logic dictates that any candidate would only accept an offer that is more beneficial than what they presently have (relatively speaking), and the said benefit may not necessarily always be in the form of immediate monetary gain.

Going back to the present query of a Malaysian candidate, I suppose that it depends on (1) whether the said Malaysian candidate intends to stay in Singapore for the foreseeable future, or (2) whether he/she only intends to work in Singapore to gain exposure and plans to return to Malaysia (in the not-too-distant future). In the case of the latter, it would mean that any money earned and saved in Singapore would be at least tripled (based on the present current rate) when spent in Malaysia (i.e., monetary value assessed from the perspective of Malaysia's living standard and market condition).

@beppi I can vouch for this.

In the past when MOM Self-Assessment tool was still available for public, I used to check if my current salary at the time will qualify for EP for next renewal. We can then check for minimum salary needed to qualify for EP by entering different salary until the tool says that we are qualified.

Interestingly, with the exact same set of data (age, university, industry, etc.) and only difference in nationality, I always get lower EP salary threshold when I put Malaysia as nationality. It is likely that even with the new COMPASS framework, the unpublished lower salary threshold for Malaysian is still there.

I can confirm what @beppi and @ajosshi said. Malaysian nationals have a different treatment for EP. The min salary requires is lower than other nationals. This is not published anywhere but if you try to apply for an EP you will still get approved.