Tan Kin Lian's Blog: High cost of living and low wages

Saturday, October 01, 2011

High cost of living and low wages

In this article, Leong Sze Hian pointed out that Singapore ranked as the 10th most expensive city in the world and the wage level of the people ranked at 42nd. This is why many Singaporeans had to work hard and for long hours just to earn enough to pay for the cost of living.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...: Agreed. If you are in the low income category, the annual increment paid by a private company could be as low as $8 to $10 per year. How to expect our poor Singaporeans to survive under this sort of mean treatment? Employers, please think about it.; October 03, 2011 12:10 AM
Sureesh said...: What kind of jobs pay so little annual increment. What about the unions, will they negotiate for better wages. Aren't the unions supose to fight for the rights of workers.; October 03, 2011 10:17 AM
Anonymous said...: Sureesh, if you want to know the company, it's Fxxx Xxxxx (S)Pte Ltd (a printing company). The job title is DMSR in short. Please find out yourself without releasing much info here. The above info is based on what I heard from more than one person. Thanks.; October 03, 2011 11:11 PM
Anonymous said...: The high living cost and low wages in singapore is also a reason why those financial trading courses are so popular in town, they are selling a dream of earning easy money/good passive income to most of the students. And the coach get rich quickly by collecting school fee and spend it on buy luxury car/property to market himself as a successful trader to lure more student. At the end of day. You can see how one problem leads to another problem.; October 14, 2011 8:02 AM
SimplyTerror said...: I just took a look at the original document from UBS. Found here http://www.ubs.com/1/e/wealthmanagement/wealth_management_research/prices_earnings.html
I think when looking at survey results, it is very important to take a close look at the methodology and intent behind the survey. There are several points which I think would be important in intepreting the UBS Prices and earnings survey results:
1. Intent: "Our comparison of wages, working hours, taxes and
social security contributions are filled with interesting
information for internationally active companies that
often send highly skilled workers from headquarters to
foreign cities."
That is, the UBS survey is more meant for MNCs (and their employees) in gauging expected costs for expariates posted to other countries, and not a guage of "natives'" costs of living

2. Methodology: The 'package of goods' that is used to calculate the price index is "[t]he cost of a weighted shopping basket geared to Western European consumer habits, containing 122 goods and services."

Looking at the basket of goods, we see items like
-rental costs of a 'fully furnished 4 room apartment',
-'purchase price of a mid-size sedan',
-"Restaurant prices-3 course meal without drinks" (USD58 for Singapore BTW)
-'Hotel prices'.

Not exactly your everyday Singapore bundle of goods then. :) I wouldn't exactly use the UBS report as a guage of your average Singaporean expenses.; October 21, 2011 5:21 PM