We study the problem of whether all bipartite quantum states having a prescribed spectrum remain positive under the reduction map applied to one subsystem. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions, in the form of a family of linear inequalities, which the spectrum has to verify. Our conditions become explicit when one of the two subsystems is a qubit, as well as for further sets of states. Finally, we introduce a family of simple entanglement criteria for spectra, closely related to the reduction and positive partial transpose criteria, which also provide new insight into the set of spectra that guarantee separability or positivity of the partial transpose.