Rising prices, more so than competition from foreigners, are to blame for starting salaries flatlining in recent years, said economists and human resource experts. Discussion over salaries for those entering the workforce heated up this week after Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin said that entry-level salaries had been stagnant for five years. Mr Tan had said that he hoped to combat the starting-pay trend by tightening the criteria for Employment Pass (EP) holders, skilled foreigners who might compete with local graduates. One entrant to the job market, SMU final-year information systems management student Mr Mohamed Rizwan Nasir Madakia, 25, said that while he hoped EP restrictions would help him get a job, outsourcing meant the market is still competitive. "In the bank IT industry, some foreign banks have outsourced their IT operations to India and are not hiring here at all,” he said.