Inflation 5.3%: Wage increase?

August 15, 2012

I refer to the report “Most companies intend to freeze hiring: survey” (Channel NewsAsia, Aug 15).

 It states that “The report also surveyed companies on how the salaries of current staff are likely to be affected in light of the uncertain economic outlook, compared with to the first half of this year.

98% of workers’ wage increase below inflation?

The majority (58 per cent) of respondents indicated that there would be no change in staff salaries.

Twenty two per cent of companies intend to increase staff salaries by up to 3 per cent while 18 per cent of those surveyed plan to hike wages by 3 per cent to 5 per cent.

Only 2 per cent of companies reported that they would be increasing staff salaries by more than 5 per cent”.

Does this mean that about 98 per cent of companies may not increase or only increase staff salaries by not more than 5 per cent? This may not be good news in the light that inflation is currently running at 5.3 per cent.

So, it may likely be yet another year of negative real wage increase for Singaporeans.

Companies support NWC recommendations?

 
In this connection, I would like to applaud the Singapore National Employers Federation’s
(SNEF) efforts to get companies to support the National Wages Council’s (NWC) recommendations (“More companies supporting NWC’s recommendation on low-wage workers”, Channel NewsAsia, Jul 7).

The results of its recent survey on the NWC’s proposals is heartening, as 60 per cent of the 160 companies which have responded so far have given a pay rise to low wage workers.   

95.9% did not give one-off special payment? 

This is a tremendous improvement, in stark contrast to the 95.9 per
cent of private establishments which had not given the one-off special
payment to their rank-and-file employees as recommended by the NWC
last year, according to the Ministry of Manpower’s Report on wages 2011.
As the SNEF’s survey has only 160 companies responding to-date, I
would like to urge the SNEF to increase its efforts, as the sample
size of 160 may be rather small.

Also, I believe companies that follow the NWC recommendation may be
more likely to respond, relative to companies that don’t.

How much less to how many?

Moreover, the fact that one-quarter of the responding companies gave
less than the recommended $50 may not be a good sign, as even an
increase of say $10 may also be recorded as partial fulfillment of the
NWC recommendation.

Interested vs already hiring disabled?

As to the finding that 40 per cent of companies are interested in
hiring Persons With Disabilities (PWD), it may also be helpful to have
the statistic as to what percentage of employers are now hiring PWDs?

Leong Sze Hian

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About the Author

Leong
Leong Sze Hian has served as the president of 4 professional bodies, honorary consul of 2 countries, an alumnus of Harvard University, authored 4 books, quoted over 1500 times in the media , has been a radio talkshow host, a newspaper daily columnist, Wharton Fellow, SEACeM Fellow, columnist for theonlinecitizen and Malaysiakini, executive producer of Ilo Ilo (40 international awards), Hotel Mumbai (associate producer), invited to speak more than 200 times in about 40 countries, CIFA advisory board member, founding advisor to the Financial Planning Associations of 2 countries. He has 3 Masters, 2 Bachelors degrees and 13 professional  qualifications.