Saturday, May 14, 2011

Stagnant wages

A Singaporean who migrated to Australia 40 years ago told me this story. In 1987, he saw an advertisement in a shop in Toa Payoh for an assistant, that offered a salary of $1,200 a month. He proudly told his friends in Australia that Singapore was making good progress and the salaries would soon catch up with Australia. But, the situation did not improve as expected.
Instead of going up, salaries had remained stagnant (and had actually declined) over the past 25 years. If Singapore had made progress, the salary for a shop assistant should be  $3,000 today - allowing for the change in cost of living. Instead of improving, the wages had stagnated. Many Singaporeans are being squeezed by the rising cost of living and stagnant wages.
Tan Kin Lian
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3 comments:

Unknown said...

1987/1988,wages of workers such as technician, mechanic, clerk, driver, productor operator were freezed. NTUC had invited Junior Lee to explain the policy at DBS Auditorium. Union leaders were all convinced of the higher unit labour cost.

While wage of executive and senior management staff were NOT freezed !!

May 14, 2011 10:11 PM
Unknown said...

I agree with your view fully

Ken

May 14, 2011 10:17 PM
Kenny said...

The stagnant of wages in my opinion is caused by the following
1. Poor worker rights. In a truely democratic country workers who are paid poorly for too long will be going on strikes and protest to ask for better wages.

2. High business cost. Our cost of doing busniess is artificially high due to COEs, high petrol taxes, GST. Business have no choice but to pay less to workers. Does Aus have COEs and high petrol taxes?

3. Singaporeans addiction to cheap labour. Cheap labour in the form of hawkers, coffee shop workers, garbage collectors and household maids. You notice that Australia does not have household maids, Australians sort their garbage for recycling, there are no hawkers and coffee shops due to high labor cost? Eating out in Aus is expensive.

4. Influx of unskilled labour. By allowing the influx of unskilled labour, Singaporeans will be forever addicted to cheap labour and will not raise productivity. See point 3

May 16, 2011 6:50 PM

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