Are the low wage workers really better off?
June 10th, 2009 | 
Author: By Edmund Khor, Guest Columnist
The Ministerial Committee on Low Wage Workers released a progress report on 7 June claiming that low wage workers have seen increase in their wages, and income inequality has reduced (read article here)
Wages increased? Not in real terms
The media reported that the 20th percentile employed resident has seen a 9.2% increase in monthly wage from $1,200 in 2006 to $1,310 in 2008. In addition, the number of residents earning $1,200 or less has fallen from 360,000 in 2006 to below 300,000 in 2008.
However, the reported monthly wages are in nominal terms, i.e. they are not adjusted for increases in the prices of goods and services over the two year period.
The table below shows the inflation rate for general households as well as the various income groups for 2007 and 2008 calculated by the Department of Statistics.
Changes in CPI by Income Group1
(Percent Change over Corresponding Period of Previous Year)
| Year |
General Households |
Income Group |
||
|
Lowest 20% |
Middle 60% |
Highest 20% |
||
| 2007 |
2.1 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
2.3 |
| 2008 |
6.5 |
7.4 |
6.4 |
6.1 |
| Over 2 years |
8.7 |
9.5 |
8.5 |
8.5 |
We can see that the lowest 20% income group experienced the highest inflation rate of 9.5% over the two year period. It was due to the marked increases in consumer prices attributed primarily to higher costs of food, accommodation, electricity tariffs and health care, which have relatively higher weights in the expenditure for the low income group.
Thus while an average low-wage workers may have seen their nominal wages increased by an average of 9.2% over the two year period, the increase is more than wiped out by the 9.5% increase in consumer prices. Low wage workers are in fact worse off in real income terms.
Likewise the number of low-wage workers – defined as those who earned S$1,200 or less in gross monthly income – would show an increase if we adjust for the loss in purchasing power.
Income inequality is still high
The report also claimed that Singapore has seen a reduction in income disparity, reflected by the drop in the Gini coefficient from 0.489 in 2007 to 0.481 in 2008 – the first decline in a decade. The Gini coefficient is even lower at 0.462, after adjusting for government benefits and taxes.
While income inequality measured by Gini coefficient has shown a marginal drop of 0.008, it is still higher than the 0.476 registered in 2007, not to mention the 0.444 recorded in 2000 when the coefficient started trending up.
Woes of the Singaporean workers
Unlike other developed countries, Singapore workers in lower-skilled jobs face competition from cheap foreign labour. As a result, their wages are being depressed and this resulted in a huge income disparity between the knowledge and the manual workers.
For example, the construction sector in Singapore is totally addicted to unskilled foreign workers and labour productivity is closer to a third world country than a developed economy.
Not all Singaporeans have the skills set or the desire to be a knowledge worker. While men in western countries can work as builders and earn decent wages to support their family, can our men do likewise?
Furthermore, as the lower-skilled workers that rely on manual work get older they are not as productive as the younger ones and their earning power declines. Thus we have a group of helpless Singaporeans who just could not earn and save enough for their retirement.
The PAP government claimed that the access to foreign workers have enabled our economy to remain competitive. It is because many companies use foreign workers to meet skill shortages or to lower costs to compete for business.
The question we need to ask ourselves is how sensitive is the cost of doing business in Singapore to the wages of the lower-skilled workers. Except for labour-intensive manufacturing activities, the cost of operating a business in Singapore is more dependent on the salaries of the executives and professionals, land and rental costs, and taxes.
The use of unskilled foreign workers also hinders the adoption of technology to improve productivity. The excessive supply of cheap labour has dampen the wage rate among lower income people and harm the productivity growth of the economy.
It is thus questionable why the PAP government is still subsidising economic activities that rely on cheap foreign labour that Singapore do not have an economic advantage in and do not benefit the Singaporeans? Not to mention the overcrowding and other social costs.
While the reliance on foreign workers to compete on cost could boost the economy in the short term, it is definitely not a long term solution for Singapore.
Businesses need to learn to move up the value chain. We should not subsidise manual labour intensive activities that are no longer viable in Singapore. By continuing to depend on cheap foreign labour, we are just delaying the inevitable shake-up.
What is needed?
The sustainable solution for our poorly paid workers is higher wages and a more comprehensive social safety net, not impromptu handouts (that coincides with the election years).
The 300,000 in the bottom 20 per cent of the wage earners should not be made to depend on the government for financial supplement. Singaporean workers have the rights to decent living wages to support their family.
The opening of world trade is eliminating opportunities for production of labour-intensive tradable goods and services in high-income countries like Singapore.
As more economies open up and compete with others, firms face pressure to keep costs down. To survive, they move to lower-cost countries, outsource jobs there, turn to technology or use a combination of these strategies.
All of these trends depress wages of workers whose jobs can migrate easily to cheaper places or be replaced by technology. Thus the employment of the local lower-skilled workers must increasingly be in the non-tradable activities, e.g. services and construction. If cheap foreign workers drive down wages for such jobs too, a hapless underclass will inevitably emerge.
We need tighter restrictions on the import of cheap foreign labour into domestic economic sectors (i.e. industries not in direct external competition), e.g. services. This would help to raise the living standards of our citizens in the lower rungs of the economic ladder, and at the same time minimise the effect on our cost competitiveness, if any.
On the social safety net, Singapore’s current social security arrangement is characterised by near exclusive reliance on CPF, which only works when employability is not an issue. However, as we have witnessed in recent years, the Singapore economy has one of the most volatile growth rates in the world due to its specialisation.
In addition, we have one of the fastest changing economies. Not only are industries left to global market forces, we have a situation of accelerated restructuring led by the government. The government chooses clusters and then directs and incentivises resources to move into these industries. In the process, it displaces workers from the other industries.
Long term policy solutions
Firstly, the only way that we are going to give a better life for the lower income group over the longer term is to recognise that certain jobs should be kept for lower-skilled Singaporeans.
Low wage jobs exist in Singapore only because of the availability of cheap foreign labour. If employers are made to pay higher wages, they will be encouraged to invest in technology and in their workers to maximise their productivity. It may cost more, but we have people providing services at a more efficient level.
Secondly, Singapore needs to implement a safety net that supports workers who fall off the labor-market trapeze – improving programs ranging from unemployment insurance to job retraining, health insurance, pensions, and right down to public assistance. While there will not be massive unemployment; there will be a massive transition. An effective safety net would ease the pain and, by so doing, speed up the adjustment.
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Foreign trash is not long term measure to keep our economy running and increasing birth rates. Most of them are here to make a quick buck as they come from third world country and 80% of them will balek kampong within 5 years. They are fine with earning $1000 a month as the rental for third rate dormitory is very cheap (some of which has conditions like those overcrowded shop houses in 1950s) and they have favourable currency exchange rate back at home. Sending $500(2200RMB)back to China is better than earning $200 a month back in their village. When you pay peanuts, you are only going to get monkey workers and not high skilled professionals and talents. Real talents will demand expat packages or at least the same terms as locals doing the same work.
The PAP ask us to be realistic on wages, but is $1000 a month enough to pay long term liabilities like mortgage, car loans and short term debts like credit card debts, business loans or study loans? Singaporeans also have their family commitments like taking care of elderly parents and young children. Our elderly parents will have lots of health problems like diabetes, cancer, stroke and heart disease and need to spend a lot of money on drugs and medicine. We need to pay for the education and technological gadgets that our children need. Oh PAP please stop taking Singaporeans for granted and strive to serve our needs instead of keeping on embracing foreign trash for your selfish needs (cutting cost and increase profit margins). Singaporeans won’t develop loyalty to this place unless we are taken seriously.
Due to the high economic growth rate in the past, the high property and care prices, Singapore have become an expensive place to do business. We can no longer compete with China, India or even Indonesia on cost. Seriously, we cannot accept Indonesian level of wages unless the whole Singaporean economy meltdown. Electronics and electrical industry is once a darling of Singapore because its labour intensive and provided many jobs for Singaporeans. Now, due to fast dropping electronic product prices Singapore is no longer profitable for most electronic industry. If companies such as Motorola, HP, Phillips etc want to move out of Singapore let them be. We don’t need to cut tax so much to those MNCs which has no long term interest of Singapore and hurt our national reserve instead. We can retain low tech industries like pharmaceutics, shipbuilding, construction, transport engineering and food industries which makes profit rather consistently. We also should move on to new niches like e-commerce,creative media and green energy which require highly specialized people. New course should be set up to train students and people retrenched in the electronics sector to move on to new budding niches. It will be sad to see a once talented manager ended up being a hawker or taxi driver.
Last time, I remember salaries of $900 is considered low already for singaporean.
Now time, i still see $900 salaries for NITEC cert holders.
I went to e2i and that is the solid evidence of salaries offered to singaporeans like me. My last drawn was $1200. They minus 300 as offer.
Add inflation over the years and min sum raised and may be further raised laster, I see that my future is a steep hill climb competing with foreigners who are happy with $900. Or is my salary pegged to or lowered to compete with foreign workers wages?
Whatever the case, employers will be happy as long as they get the benefits and many employers are singaporeans. But to be fair, they do not owe us a living. I hope the same is true that some people should not think that we owe them a living.
While reports are made to show singaporeans shun low wage long hour (12 hours , shifts, 2 days off in a month or 6 day weeks)
, I feel that it would be even a better report is it ALSO mention why to many it is not possible to work on those kinds of jobs AND show that these are fewer than those Singaporeans who TOOK up these kinds of jobs and are HARDWORKING and contributed to this nation.
I call for the extinction of that Dinosaur.
A certain old man says that without foreign workers, labor in Singapore will be too expensive to be competitive since other countries can do the same job for less.
He’s right you know.
We should have more foreign talent. 
Let’s start off by out-sourcing the Government and Civil Service to foreigners who won’t demand to be paid millions a year since they can do it for much less!!!! 
The economic goals of a country should be achieved to ensure a higher quality of life for its citizen.
Yet, somehow in the process of growing Singapore to a “first-world” country such as Switzerland (anyone still remember that?), economic goals have become a means to an end. A country becomes like a money-making coporation where financial performance of the nation becomes the KPI of the ministers.
Is it any wonder then, why our government are promoting “business-friendly” measures such as keeping worker cost low? Our citizens becomes the sacraficial goats to ensure that Singapore achieve it’s economic and financial growth, with our ministers paid like CEO while the bottom feeders having to pick drink cans or sell tissues to make a living.
This is arguably the best reader-submitted article that I have read here on wayang. And that says a lot. Good job, Edmund!
Dear ADMIN, I notice that reader-submitted articles are usually in a different and smaller font, that I personally find much harder to read.
Is it possible to standardize the font to that used by Eugene and Fang?
One of the way to get around low wage singaporeans is to impose a minimum wage. Some countries like US have minimum wage like ard US$6(SGD8.6) an hour. If lets say singapore have a minimum wage of $7 an hour, and a person works 8 hrs a day, for 22days a month, thats abt $1232. While not a huge sum by any standard, but I imagine if a low income household can get 2 person working minimum wage, its just enough to survive for a family. Unlike now, where there are stories of people surviving on wage like $900…
Singapore Government is the largest employer in Singapore.
Go think about it… why are they paying so low to these low wage worker and pay themselves so high a salary?
“How much do you want? Do you want three meals in a hawker centre, food court or restaurant?” – Dr Vivian Balakrishnan
You tell how much do you want, you think you are elite, demi-gods or immortal ah that need high maintenance. We are one of a kind while you can be easily replace by FT. So what are you bitching about, you low life lesser mortals.
I went to E2i recently.
FACT findings:
1. Singaporean NITEC cert holder offer salary : less than 1000.
2. 6 days a week. Where work week includes the weekends.
3. Shift work. night shift work till wee hours.
I am not complaining the opportunity to work being a job seeker who dare not put down his degree qualification when apply for jobs.
I am concerned and appalled that the salary of singaporean is so low. As low as foreign workers. Even worse, a NITEC cert holder being paid a pay comparable to toilet cleaners.
The singaporean employer I presume would also be earning JCS for the employee hired, if really hired.
How much is the JCS? How much is the salary? Do the maths.
what is going on?
Dun say I anyhow say. Visit E2i to do a field report. But maybe do a stealth one more candid camera.
This shows singaporeans are not shunning low wage work as Reported.
The labelling that ’singaporeans shun” certain work is a sweeping statement. How many is it referring to?
Was it fair to these singaporeans who take up $800 or $900 (can it even go as low as $99) ?
By the same token, is it fair to label singaporeans as Moldy coduled? (typo intended). Is the person who said this himself a singaporean? Would it be fairer to say, x number of singaporeans are moldy coduled while majority are not?
I have had it up to here!
COMMON TRUE BLUE SINGAPOREAN GUYS! THIS IS NOW YOUR GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY GIVEN BY “WP” to CRITIC PAP “TOP TALENT’S” SUCCESS OR FAILURE.
ESPECIALLY, Where are ALL Those CRITICS about AWARE-CSE, Over-zealous Christians, Et Cetera who so expertly wrote in demeaning ways to demean over-zealous religious people so logically and ‘expertly’?
A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL 6 OF YOU DEAR PEOPLE … WHO ENLIGHTENED US SO COHERENTLY, INSIGHTFUL BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY YOU ARE ALL VERY SUCCINCT AND PRECISE WITH LOTS OF COMMON SENSE IN SIMPLE ENGLISH THAT IS A JOY TO APPRECIATE.
Eureka – “Are the low wage workers really better off?”
I went to E2i on Wed, 10th Jun 2009 11:33 am
Lydia Chua Mui Mui – the CBQ on Wed, 10th Jun 2009 11:36 am
Darth Vader on Wed, 10th Jun 2009 11:54 am
Will.I.Am on Wed, 10th Jun 2009 12:38 pm
shitTalent on Wed, 10th Jun 2009 4:07 pm
So, I wish to contribute my 1/2 cent worth in summary of your contributions. And hopefully it’ll encourage MORE to come forward. Am sure we’re better than just 6 in numbers? … of a PAP “TOP $$$s for TOP Talents”=s “Top Achievments” … as follows …
1. Pay US super-high!
2. So we pay high too our top Civil Servants AND MPs!
3. So YOU “Lesser-Mortals” – “Be Realistic” (being PAID much less but unspoken of)!
4. So IS This & That why we have to “Tell YOU TO CLAIM UP THAT UPGRADE LADDER & CHAIN FOR HIGHER PAY! (again unspoken are where are THOSE JOBS and to whom many goes to?)
5. So dear lesser-mortals, we are 1ST-WORLD, BUT S’pore IS SO VERY SMALL YOU KNOW! So we don’t have enough of “TOP-Talents” in YOU! AND FT TOP-Talents we bring in WILL be the BETTER for YOU. As, W/O “THEM to CREATE jobs for YOU lesser GUYS, there won’t be any jobs for YOU!!!
6. So, take heart, times ARE BAD, don’t be so choosy and go for those tough jobs that WE HAD TO bring in FTs to do IT FOR YOU! Never mind the lower pays, it’ll be good for YOU. The toughening will prepare YOU for the better times sure to come and the next down-turn, etc etc etc!!!
7. So now, GO GO GO OUT take those JOBS! And take up TOSE UPGRADING COURSEs WE HAVE INSTALL FOR YOU ALL YOU KNOW!
8. DEVIATION: What’s NOT promoted as fervently are those “PEP-TALK” courses for Ah-Peks & Ah-Sohs (incl. ah-bengs & ah-lians) given out by CDCs!!!
The old geeks of “Senior Citizens” of any level of education go to them ‘Courses’ at $300 a pc paid by gahment. ARE TAUGHT, How to Handle Jobless Stresses, HOW To Look AND Feel Postitive in OUTLOOK! They are given a book with a Triangle about thse things with a BIG & Famous expert name to it. And then in the summary page near the end you read this “I feel that I am worthy person even if I AM experience setbacks in my life” (See that grammatical error in upper case?)
9. So, you see how much we pap care for you? Even pay $300 for each of you to learn in your old age age parents and grandparents how to think positively! Did the money come out of Skill-Developement Funds UNUSED? And also SDFs unsed due to small companies penalised for their staff shortages/tight operating staffings causing their staff to MISS TOO MANY Elessons in SDF courses?
10. So, now we have too, to lighten YOUR-LOAD, allowed you to use more of your Medisave For Hospitalisation – so that you can cope with BAD Times not ue to pap’s fault haw! (of course unspoken yet agains is that if you have less when you retire at 65 or 70 or 75 0r 80 or 85 0r 90 or EVEN … don’t wory as we have ALL measures in place to Help YOU COPE!
11. So, there again, be hearten that we in pap are so pragmatic that we’ll be lowering the “GUARANTEED MINIMUM” 4% due to the depress world economy haw. And not due to Temasek & GIC investment losses! We ARE PRUDENT in AVERAGING and YET have been ABLE to chalk up like 17-18% annual returns you know! [am just wondering HOW averaging can achieve 17-18% leh? PERHAPS, the higher-risk investement brought in well over 20% to mitage the lower risks gains of under 10%??? I no economist but “I No Stupid” lah! My trouble and you guys IS THAT we’ve Got TOO MUCH COMMON SENSE FOR pap’s liking yah?
Can go on, but better to let other have their crack at this lah.
Sorry TWO more really good ones post before I hit that Submit Coment tab! GOOD SHOW!!! AND GOOD Data & References too.
LET’S KEEP THIS BALL ROOLING FAST AND FURIOUS WITH SUCH GOOD AND SUBSTANTIAL BACGKROUNDS GIVIEN.
It does make me wonder to about Where we’ll really be WITHOUT This New Media called Internet! COMPLETELY IN THE DARK! AND pap TOO of their errors and of their lack of wisdom somewhere? INDEEED The Interent IS A Wake Call FOR ALL who ARE in Slumber from Own Pride & Passions!!!
“Are the low wage workers really better off?”
The answer is a resounding “yes”. One doesn’t have to go far. Start with the other 9 ASEAN countries and you’ll see stark REALITY.
Nearer still. Go to the causeway at 5 am and you will see the 1 000 upon 1 000 of Malsysians on bikes, on foot, on buses, etc. commuting into Singapore to form part of our low wage workers.
Facts speak. Singaporeans are smart people too.
Eureka on Wed, 10th Jun 2009 9:40 am ,
you are right! do you know most of the FTs who work here and make the money and buy lands (by acres) or houses (in their country) where as poor singaporeans (lesser mortal) struggling with such peanut pay just enough to pay monthly installament for flats which way many times cost more than their land in their country. those who really work and become citizen are few and belong to more educated group which they see singapore as moderm and comfortable for their kids educstion.
majority of FTs who work have have in mind only for money to be brought back in their own country for their future plan and not here. do you think they are ’stupid’? no they are smart than us and sometime they even look down on us. singaporean is really pathetic and sad people in its own motherland in the world.
本月八日，海峡时报宣称政府发放的十一亿援助，已经缩小了贫富的差距 (Income gap narrows with $1.1b boost for the needy)。
真不可思议，倘若把政府投資公司所亏损的数十亿分发给穷苦的人，那新加坡不是没有贫困了？实际上现在这种水深火热的经济环境，那援助只是杯水车薪罢了。要是真的贫富差距已经缩小了，这也是金融海啸的功劳，是富人的资产缩水了，不是穷苦的人收入增加了。海峡时报别弄错了。
I agree with the writer that while unemployment may not become extremely high, there is already and will be even more singaporeans making transitions , switching careers. I think its fair to expect most would be getting less income than their previous career and this could make retirement a bigger problem.
Transition : when a, say manager, got retrenched and had to become a re-trained bus-driver, although still employed after retraining may not be able to have enough for retirement or pay off his other existing loans.
The Government has grown distant from normal, everyday Singaporeans. I wish they would stop wanting to be number one, to be the best, to earn more and more. They are forgetting about the basics. They are forgetting the people.
MOM screw up on the foreigh worker policy.
businesman is only interested in cheap labour and not investment in machine to raise productivity to secure worker with better wages
just look at the car wash business, all petrol stations offer manual car wash, as the cost of setting up is cheaper than automatic machine car wash, thank to cheap labour import policy by MOM. Technian that is needed for Repair and maintenance of automatic car wash machine is gone.
I recently read an article on main stream media report that night market operator is asking for cheap labour. Should the goverment allow this to happen because the rental pay by night market operator is collected to fund the RC. As the business model of night market is not productivity in the retail Industry.
The MOM have swing the policy on tight labour supply to easy available by work permit policy without a proper supervisor and monitor of the market.
Your can see the number of offence on violation of worker permit law prove that MOM is sleeping.
How to ensure that sufficeient labour is available to grow the economics. and incentive is give to company that increase productivity.
Don’t take the short cut route by issue more work permit and collect more work levy.
MOM function is also to make more money ???????
To: Smartie on Thu, 11th Jun 2009 11:51 am
My brother and sister and their families went to malacca during the weekend. Had lunch at a restaurant, costs about $168 (I think that is sing$, didn’t check with her) for 10 persons.
In Singapore, the same would have cost sing$ close to $400.
Makes you wonder why foreigners are willing to work here for “low” pay..
“Yet, somehow in the process of growing Singapore to a “first-world” country such as Switzerland (anyone still remember that?), economic goals have become a means to an end. A country becomes like a money-making coporation where financial performance of the nation becomes the KPI of the ministers.”
Singapore is always trying to be something, i remember a few years ago they were trying to be a “transport hub” , “education hub” and now “medical hub” I wonder whats next? you know whats even funnier, dumb countries in the middle east like qatar and bahrain are also using this “hub” term. Recently, Bahrain said they will become a “eco-friendly” hub. LOL
Source:
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=252939
whats next for singapore? cheap labour hub, retirement hub, tourism hub, put your money here and die hub?
they like to say that by keeping wages low it will make our economy competitive. So by that logic, countries that have minimum wage law like australia, USA, uk and france are weaker than singapore? ironically those countries are far better than singapore
stopra on Thu, 18th Jun 2009 12:45 am
” . . countries that have minimum wage law like australia, USA, uk and france . . ”
what backing does s’pore have to enforce minimum wage law like these huge resource rich countries, let alone a humongous market?
Have you forgotten s’pore shouldn’t have existed at all given its 700 sq km and without any mineral resources and 4 million mouths to feed.
we’re lucky if foreigners want to invest in politically stable s’pore plus its human resource (talent).
go read up on at least, elementary economics, before we make ourselves a laughing stock.
Pay the Top SUPER TOP PAY. you are the masses so pay you less if you are not link to the support entities for the TOP who are indeed paid higher than even all other 1st World Class Nations! So how nuch is your pay in your profession and that profession compared like 20- 25 yrs AGO? And your HDB Flat HAS gone up by more than 10-5 times right to make MONEY! What’s your GRUMBLE mate as govt grw your “HIGHLY-Subsidised” govt LEASED asset? Let’s say 50% or FIFTY-PERCENT for HIGHLY-Saubsidised AND do you think it a fair figure? High should be 50% fair or not? So HIGHLY you know should be above 50% right? Agree?
So, you sell flat, egt bigger HDB or private condo or by digging deeper into your pockets/bank balances – WHAT Happens to you? IN DEBT ALL OF YOUR LIFE AND WORKING TOO ALL OF YOUR LIFE TO APY OFF THOSE SUNSTANTIAL INTEREST IN MORGAGES AS YOU INCREASING HAVE HIGHER “MINIMUM SUMS”! SO people like Agape Xue XUE did her sums well too? Work till YOU DIE In YOUR WORK SHOES!!! Get it??? harrylky ever tell you of your dwindling assest and hard earned dollars paid to banks in loans. It’s a “perpetual-wheel” in “spins” for you “lesser-mortals to pay more and more to even pay your little MPs over $20++ Thousand per month and gain assess to them ONLY 4 chance max a month. Yet more likely less than once hwa! With all the labourious work done by paid or volunteer almost insignifance other like you and me. Except for some privilege(s) we commoners not have naturally. And all these MPs can still hold other top positions and up to like 8-11 directorships too as Mr. who and who in recent WP blogs of a certain PA & CDC issues?
It’s morning with a balzing sun. WAKE UP Sinkaporeeeans! When the rains come you’ll surely wake up even later when you now even wkae p on a sun blazing day and fall back into Cat-Napping again and again! What mindless slouch. Not believe some of us are really like nerds perhaps. Refuse to believ you are WELL_EDUCATED ones. A WAKE IP CaLL to YOU SLEEPY HEADS!!!
WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP – COCK A DOODLE DO as not just any cock doodle WILL do!
“Means Testing”. Where only income is benchmarked for REDUCING THE SUBSIDIES FOR THOSE WITH InCOMES ABVVOE $3000/MONTH? AS IT DOES NOT BENCHMARK REALTIME AVERAGED AND NEEDED FAMILY EXPENDITURES RO InCOMES AS WELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another of those lobsided schemes to further reduce govt spending for more healthy Singaporeans since govt had at their UP govt Health-Care Expenditures to 4.5%? This was announced by PM and IS more in line with a 1st World Status Nation as claimed! Used to be 1.5%. Thus, IS THIS yet Another Take-Back Scheme? Take-Back because a Family’s Necessary Expenditure ISN”T INCLUDED in The New “Means Testing” Scheme for Hospitalization.
Please just got to MOH’s gov.com website to see in detail for yourselves. And also read my comments under WP Blog on more NMPs AND NCMPS on The “Means Testing” Scheme!
i think the crucial point is as long as we can pay $10 for a plate of hor fun to make good jobs for singaporeans, the government will be more than happy to stop low-wage foreign workers from coming here.
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