SALARY COMPENSATION&BENEFITS SINGAPORE MINISTRY OF MANPOWER
Singapore - Salary increments in Singapore's private sector rose by 4.2% in 2008 even though it was at a slower rate compared to the previous year's 5.9%.
According to the Ministry of Manpower's Report on Wages in Singapore for 2008 released yesterday, the drop was due to the lower bonus payouts given. Bonuses had declined by 2.1% from 8.3% in 2007. Basic pay increment remains unchanged at 4.4% in the last two years.
The good news is professions which require higher skills and knowledge levels can still command bigger pay packages. The median monthly gross wages of $6,400 was the highest for managers in June 2008 while professionals were paid $4,405 with associate professionals and technicians taking home $3,000. Clerical, sales and service workers were paid close to $2,000.
As for the blue-collar sector, production craftsmen and plant and machine operators were the highest paid at around $2,000. The report also noted that salary increments will rise with age as employees gain more experience and skills which would boost their productivity over the years. However, labour productivity declined by a steep 7.8% compared to the 0.8% decline in 2007. This is a result of slower GDP growth and strong employment gains in the first half of this year.
Salary increments aside, two in five private companies polled last year said they would need to cut wages in 2009 if the economic situation doesn't improve. The top two common measures of pay cut include cutting the annual variable component (74%) and basic wage (47%) while 15% chose to cut the monthly variable component (MVC).
Companies with MVC in their pay structure were also more confident of gaining their employees' acceptance of a wage cut, if it was necessary. Around 84% of employees in the private sector currently have some form of flexible wage system. Nine out of ten companies which employ 200 or more employees have at least one key wage recommendation in their wage system while it's 75% for small and medium enterprises.
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