Do you know that if companies want to hire foreign workers, they have to pay their Singaporean workers at least $1,000 to be able to do so? Before July 2013, this was $850, which means that before 2013, companies were only required to pay Singaporean workers as low as $850.
Then, the question is – why are there still Singaporeans who are earning less than $850?
Also, this means that the $1,000 is the de facto minimum wage in Singapore.
This poses some questions –
(1) First, is $1,000 enough for any person to live on in Singapore? It has been shown that a person would need to earn at least $1,500 to $2,000 to be able to live even most basically in Singapore.
(2) Second, there can be as many as 10% to 20% of Singaporeans earning less than $1,000, and up to 30% of Singaporeans earning less than $1,500. Is it right that in the most expensive place to live in the world where the government is also one of the richest that there is possibly 30% of Singaporeans living in poverty?
Chart 1: Singapore has the highest poverty rate (The Heart Truths)
(3) Do you know that even if this can be considered a minimum wage, this is much lower than other rich countries with a similar GDP per capita as Singapore? For countries with a similar cost of living, Japan has a minimum wage of $2,000, Australia $3,000 and cleaners in Norway earns $5,000.
However, in Singapore, the de facto minimum wage is only $1,000 even though we are now the most expensive place to live in the world.
Do you think this is enough for anyone to live by in Singapore? And do you think this is enough for up to 20% of poorest Singaporeans to live on?
Do you think it’s morally responsible for the Singapore government to only increase a “minimum wage” to $1,000 when through its direct incursions and involvements in the largest companies in Singapore and it’s monopolising the basic necessities in Singapore, such as public housing, public healthcare, public education, transportation and telecommunications, that it has increased prices to the highest in the world, that it is only willing to increase wages to a puny $1,000 and let Singaporean workers suffer under their reprehensible policies?
Do you know that because prices have been driven so high in Singapore and wages have been depressed so low by the PAP that Singaporeans now also have the lowest purchasing power among the developed countries?
Chart 2: Singaporeans have the lowest purchasing power (UBS Prices and Earnings Report 2011)
Not only that, do you know that among the high-income countries, the citizens of these countries also have the highest purchasing power in the world but Singaporeans have the lowest purchasing power among the high-income countries? Then, where is all the income going to?
Do you know that even though Singaporeans are paid the lowest wages among the high-income countries, the richest in Singapore – and this includes the PAP ministers – earn the highest salaries among the high-income countries and one of the highest in the world? This is where your money is going to. Also, you pay more tax and CPF than they do, and they also pay the lowest tax and CPF among the high-income countries.
Chart 3: Singaporeans earn the lowest wages (International Labour Organisation Data collection on wages and income)
Chart 4: The richest in Singapore earn the highest salaries (ECA Global Perspectives National Salary Comparison 2012)
Chart 5: The richest in Singapore pays lesser tax and CPF than the poor and middle-income
Chart 6: The richest in Singapore pay the lowest tax and CPF (KPMG’s Individual Income Tax and Social Security Rate Survey 2012)
Also, do you know that even though Singapore’s GDP per capita is higher than Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan, our purchasing power is actually lower than all of them?
If fact, do you know that Singapore has a lower purchasing power than even Malaysia and has a purchasing power similar to India?
Chart 7: Singaporeans have the lowest purchasing power (Cost of Living Index for Country 2014)
The situation in Singapore has become too dire where Singaporeans have been inhumanely treated for two decades (or more) now. The PAP has forced down the people’s wages while increasing prices beyond affordable means such that among the poorest 30% households in Singapore, they have to spend 105% to 151% of their incomes and Singapore has the highest poverty rate among the high-income countries.
Singaporeans now live among one of the largest concentration of enslaved populations in the world, if we bother to admit it. Among the First World-looking infrastructure, we live Third World lives on Third World purchasing powers.
It is time to stand up against this scrouge and infestation that has plagued our land. It is time to demand for fair and humane treatment of the workers here and of Singaporeans. As the government, the PAP has failed terribly in their responsibility.
We have to demand for fair wages and rightful employment of workers in Singapore. This Saturday, join us at Hong Lim Park as we speak up for the protection of Singaporeans and all workers in Singapore.
It’s time we make a stand.
Roy Ngerng
*The author blogs at www.TheHeartTruths.com