Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Work for less than $4 an hour

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Work for less than $4 an hour

Mark Woon wrote in the Straits Times that fast food outlets, like McDonalds, pay students less than $4 an hour. At this rate, the students have to work many hours to earn enough to pay for their meals. Some students do not have allowance from their parents and depend on part time work to earn money to meet the high cost of living in Singapore.

I continue to be baffled by the reluctance of our policy makers and trade union leaders to impose a minimum wage in Singapore. I am sure that the businesses can afford a minimum wage of $6 an hour. While this increase their business cost, they should reduce the high salaries paid to their top managers and reject the exorbitant rentals on their business premises.

It is a question of finding the right balance. By exploiting workers (including students) with low wages, the bigger portion of the earnings are taken away by other parties.

Tan Kin Lian

6 comments:

captaincaveman said...: McDonalds pays less than $4 an hour. One value meal cost almost $8 already. Since there is no minimum wage law why would company like McDoands want to increase the hourly rate?

If I am not wrong, the current hourly rate paid by McDonalds is not much difference from what they paid 15 years ago.; January 15, 2011 11:50 AM
Tan Choon Hong said...: In a capitalist society the rich makes the rules. Their hands are on the the levers of power directly or through elected proxies. It is in their interest to max out the ROI and so rentals are maintained as high as the traffic will bear. Wages are easier to keep on leash through import of cheap labour or other talent, and muzzling of labour unions under guise of economic and social stability. Whenever business cost escalates, labour is the first casualty not rent. Just my two cents from one unschooled in the so-called dismal art.; January 15, 2011 3:08 PM
Unknown said...: Hi Mr Tan,

In my opinion, it is difficult to squeeze the rich and powerful to do anything cos they have lawyers and money to protect them.

With the above observation, it is more difficult to expect them to do the right thing.

So, the obvious choice and the human thing to do as well as the easy way out is to press the poor the weak lor!!

This is the reality in Singapore in our pursue of excellent and profits.

Raymond; January 15, 2011 7:26 PM
Falcon said...: There is another way that businesses that are well connected exploit free labour. Teenagers work for free for organisations that use them through the CIP programme. Not only are they not paid, parents have to fork out money to pay for transport costs to bring them there to provide free labour to the companies in return for a grade in their report books.
Our children have to do this, just like bringing back donation cards for NKF because their teachers said so, and the teachers said so because the principal said so. The principal said so because you know who said so.; January 15, 2011 8:27 PM
Tan Choon Hong said...: Re Falcon said...

This flow of young eager beaver teenagers out to earn a buck is a heaven-sent opportunity for the exploitative employers, and it never dries up. With no minimum wage as a yardstick these youngsters are selling their time for a song and not knowing it. I spoke to one temp at a supermart and he said he wanted to be less dependent on papa. Very commendable but is the temp being short-changed to boost the supermart's bottom line.; January 16, 2011 2:03 AM
SD said...: Pretty much the same price I was paid working part time 15 years ago!; January 16, 2011 5:51 PM