Singapore employers not looking to adjust pay despite new norm of WFH

A survey showed that only 23% of respondents may change their staff’s wages, while 11% had altered employees’ compensation according to location, such as paying lower salaries if an employee relocates to an area with lower living costs. 

The survey also showed that almost half of the respondents have supported their staff financially by paying for one-off costs related to setting up home offices or other expenses such as increased mobile phone use. 

In addition, only 32% of employees are expected to work from office when the pandemic crisis is over.  

With remote work becoming more prevalent and as geographical boundaries become less of an issue, organisations should be looking at base salaries to ensure fair pay within the workforce, said Singapore Human Resources Institute president Low Peck Kem. 

“Companies can consider modifying some of its benefits to cater to the changing landscape where employees are expected to work from home for longer duration. 

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“These benefits can include modifying transport allowances to technology allowances to enable their employees to achieve relatively the same of higher levels of productivity whilst working from home,” he said. 

The survey was conducted with about 1,500 organisations globally from December 7 to 15, according to The Straits Times.