A hiring manager and a consultant reading a printed document together, one pointing at a line.

For employers

The ad that survives a fair-hiring check

We write to the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices, because an advertisement is the first thing anyone reads and the easiest thing to get wrong. Here is what they actually require.

Tell us about the role

One rule underneath all of it

A job advertisement may ask for qualifications, skills, knowledge and experience. That is the test. Anything else — how old someone is, where they are from, whether they have children — is not a selection criterion, and putting it in an advertisement is what makes the advertisement discriminatory. Most briefs that fail this are not trying to exclude anyone; they describe a person instead of describing the work.

What cannot go in an advertisement

Age — "below 30 only", "minimum aged 21", or a "young, youthful" environment
Race and nationality — naming a preferred race, or preferring foreigners over locals
Sex, marital or pregnancy status, and caregiving responsibilities
Religion — "Christian preferred", "Muslim only"
Disability and mental health conditions
Language framed as an identity — "native Mandarin speaker", "Tamil-speaking environment"

The exceptions that genuinely exist

Each one requires the job-related reason to be stated in the advertisement itself
Age — where a law or regulation sets it, or the role is being opened to older workers
Sex — where there is a real practical requirement, such as female therapists performing body treatments for female clients
Religion — where the work is religious, such as a priest engaged to perform a ceremony
Language — where proficiency is genuinely needed for the work, such as a Chinese-language teacher required to hold a credit in the subject
Race, nationality, marital status and family responsibilities have no exception at all

Before an Employment Pass or S Pass

Most applications require the vacancy advertised on MyCareersFuture for 14 consecutive days first
Change the job title, the salary or the number of vacancies mid-run and the 14 days start again
Exempt: employers with fewer than 10 staff, roles paying S$22,500 a month or more, jobs lasting a month or less, and some intra-company transfers
The description must not be written so that no local could realistically apply — a specific foreign degree does that as effectively as naming a nationality

What changes, and when

The Workplace Fairness Act has been passed but is expected to come into force around the end of 2027
It turns guidance into law for employers with 25 or more staff, across hiring, appraisal, promotion and dismissal
Penalties run to S$50,000 per breach
Until then the Tripartite Guidelines govern — and writing to them now is the cheapest preparation there is

What we do about it

We write the advertisement, and we write it to the guidelines
If a brief contains something that cannot go in an ad, we say so and ask what the role actually needs — there is almost always a lawful requirement underneath it
We run the MyCareersFuture posting and track the 14 days against the date you want to apply
Where a question turns on the law rather than on practice, we will tell you that plainly, and you should take advice

This page is guidance, not legal advice, and the thresholds on it change. It was checked in September 2026 against TAFEP and Ministry of Manpower guidance. For a decision that turns on the law, talk to us and we will tell you when you need more than we can give you.