Lower-wage workers in Singapore to get pay increase

Workers with gross monthly salaries of up to S$2,000 (US$1,482) should get a 4.5% to 7.5% raise of between S$70 (US$51.9) and S$90 (US$66.7).
By: | November 2, 2021
Topics: Compensation and Benefits | Health and Wellness | News | Singapore

The National Wages Council (NWC) announced the guidelines on progressive wage growth, which will be applicable from December 1 this year to November 30 next year.

This is to ensure that the pay for such workers grows faster than those with median wages.

The guidelines are in line with the Tripartite Workgroup on Lower-Wage Workers’ recommendation set out in August that progressive wages for lower-wage workers be expressed in terms of gross monthly wage, instead of basic monthly wage, to give employees greater certainty of the expected monthly wage for a set of standard working hours.

A gross monthly wage includes the basic monthly wage, overtime payments, commissions, allowances and other regular cash payments.

Labour chief Ng Chee Meng said in a Facebook post that the new guidelines for workers earning up to S$2,000 (US$1,482) gross monthly means more workers will be covered by the NWC recommendations. NWC’s previous recommendations were made with reference to workers’ basic monthly wages.

This is the first year that the NWC is making recommendations for the range of progressive wage growth for lower-wage workers, following recommendations by the tripartite workgroup, which the government accepted.

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This progressive wage growth range will be used to determine the wages for workers under the Progressive Wage Model – which covers lower-wage workers in such sectors as cleaning and security. About one-fifth of full-time employed residents in the country fall under the lower-wage workers group.