I understand that this is the largest group of workers, by occupation, in Singapore, at 239,200, in 2021
https://stats.mom.gov.sg/Pages/EmploymentTimeSeries.aspx
Just imagine that your real pay may have been decreasing yearly in the last 21 years!
The median gross monthly income from work (including employer CPF) of full-time employed resident Service and Sales workers, was $1,508, in Jun 2001
https://stats.mom.gov.sg/Pages/IncomeTimeSeries.aspx
Under the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) – from 1 Sep 2022, the minimum Gross Monthly Wage of full-time employed Retail assistant* / Cashier
*Companies may adopt different job titles. For example, Shop / Sales Assistant / Associate, is $1,850
https://www.mom.gov.sg/……/prog……/retail-sector……
So, the increase in minimum income in the last 21 years was only about 42.3% ($1,850 (excluding employer CPF) divided by $1,300 ($1,508 less 16% employer CPF Jun 2001)
Inflation was about 44.6% (CPI 108.7 Jun 2022, 75.19 Jun 2001)
https://www.singstat.gov.sg/…/files/news/cpijun2022.ashx
https://data.gov.sg/dataset/consumer-price-index-annual…
Hence, the negative real increase in minimum income was only about -0.08% p.a., or about a negative -$10.40 per year, in the last 21 years
