Underpaid or Charged a Placement Fee? Singapore's 2026 Audits Are Coming for That
MOM is using data analytics to catch salary under-reporting, illegal deployment, and excessive recruitment fees in 2026. See what changes for Filipino workers and how to act if it happens to you.
You take a job in Singapore, you agree on a salary, and the contract looks right. Then payday comes and the number in your bank is smaller than the one on paper. Or an agent back home charged you a month of wages before you flew out. In 2026 the Ministry of Manpower is going after both. MOM is using data analytics and digital records to audit employers harder, and salary under-reporting and excessive recruitment fees sit near the top of its list.
What MOM is checking in 2026
MOM has said it will step up audits this year, and it named the problems it wants to catch: illegal job deployment, poor housing conditions, salary under-reporting, and excessive recruitment fees. Instead of waiting for a complaint, the ministry now cross-checks digital records, so a gap between your declared salary and your real pay can surface on its own.
Two of these hit Filipino workers hardest. Salary under-reporting is when your employer writes one figure on your work pass paperwork and pays you less. Excessive recruitment fees are the placement charges some agents pile on before you even start. Both already break the rules. The shift in 2026 is that MOM is hunting for them, not waiting to react.
Illegal deployment matters too. If you were hired for one job and your boss puts you on another, or sends you to a different company, that breaks the terms of your pass. The same audits look for it, and the worker often carries the fallout when it surfaces.
Why this matters for your pass
Your work pass is tied to the salary your employer declared. When that figure is fake, your pass sits on a false record, and you are the one exposed if it unravels. An accurate salary on file protects your renewal, your room to change jobs, and any claim you might need to make later.
It connects to the levy as well. Employers pay MOM a monthly levy for each Work Permit holder, between S$300 and S$950 depending on sector, with marine shipyard and process rates rising in 2026. Some bosses try to claw that cost back by trimming wages or passing on fees. That is the behaviour the audits target.
The smaller changes you will notice
From May 2026, the myMOM portal makes the routine stuff easier. Updating your address and mobile number takes fewer steps, and you no longer hand in hard-copy medical reports or chest x-rays when your Work Permit is issued. Less paper, fewer trips, one less errand on your rest day.
A wage signal sits in the background as well. From 1 July 2026, the Local Qualifying Salary, the minimum a local must earn to count toward a company's foreign-worker quota, rises from S$1,600 to S$1,800. It sets a local benchmark rather than your wage, but it lifts the whole pay structure and tightens how many foreign workers a firm can hold.
What to do if it happens to you
Keep your own records. Save your signed contract, your In-Principle Approval letter, your payslips, and screenshots of your bank credits each month. If your pay does not match your contract, that paper trail is your case.
If an agent charged you more than the law allows, or your salary keeps landing short, report it. You can reach MOM at 6438 5122 or file through the MOM website, and you can ask the Migrant Workers Office at the Philippine Embassy for help alongside it. Reporting costs you nothing, and MOM treats salary and fee complaints as routine work.
Your move this week: pull up your last three payslips and set them beside your contract. If the numbers line up, file them somewhere safe. If they do not, you now know the gap, and you have somewhere to take it.
