Wage increase anticipated by S'poreans
Many Singaporeans welcome the labour movement’s plan to fix targets in the next three months for a real wage increase for various clusters as announced by National Trade Union Congress secretary-general Lim Swee Say.
Poon, a senior accounts executive in her 50s, said it is time to adjust wages as goods and services are getting more expensive with inflation, and a wage adjustment would help citizens cope with the rising cost of living.
"The wage increase would benefit more those from the lower income range," Poon said.
22-year-old accounting student Brandon Chua agreed and said it would be good if companies increase wages but it may mean they will find just ways to cut cost in other areas.
Chua also felt that there may be many loopholes even if businesses adopt the initiatives.
"How can you prevent them from finding loopholes? Say this $1,400-paying job now should pay $1,450, I can tell [employees] that this job now pays $1,350 and because of the increase, I will now pay you $1,400," Chua said.
Lim, who is also the Minister in Prime Minister's Office (PMO), announced on Saturday, a day after the parliamentary debates on this year’s government budget ended, that the focus would be on some key clusters, including possibly manufacturing, services and domestic-bound clusters.
"In order for us to achieve a broad-based real wage increase, our reach must be as wide as possible,” Lim said. "We will be setting targets sector by sector. We have decided that we will focus on some of the key clusters. It could be from manufacturing to services. It could cover some of the domestic-bound sectors," he added.
NTUC’s 61-affiliated unions have been regrouped into 11 industry clusters in order to better help workers boost their productivity and raise their wages, The Straits Times reported.
These new clusters will set individual targets for wage increases and make their own plans that will help low-income earners, women and mature workers vulnerable to economic restructuring, the paper said.
