“Wage controls isn’t fit for Singapore. It eradicates wage competition and brings down salaries in order for companies to enjoy maximum profit.”

Conservative!!!

W/out minimum wages and the constant influx of forigners, it seems wages are getting lower. With prices of stuffs getting more expensive, how can a Sgporean worker (esp low-income workers) survive in this country which offer barely any social welfare and protection to its citizens?

How do you know it will eradicate wage competition? maybe it will or maybe it will be a blessing in disquise.
society doesnt progess if citizens and politicians doesnt try to achieve a idea that may seemingly be impossible and to a certain extent, they haf to challenge the staus quo that seems ‘rusty’ and unable to hold the current foundations of society against all forms of ‘weather conditions’.

But you know, I am dealing with HR, it is true that having min wage may reduce job creation, but if the people that i get for this job is not motivated and committed, then there is no point in having too many staff. that’s why in most company now, they are reducing quantity of stuff and trying to replace it with high quality staff. and it has been tested and proven through part of Toyota High performance work system that paying more for performance is much better that saying the money to employ more workers.

Think about it, if they cut their salaries, will they leave?
will they do other thingies?
will it defeat the purpose of preventing corruption being one of the reasons for their highest pays?

i wonder like the lemon tree….

oh i forgot. we are lesser mortals, that’s why.

When there is no competitions at whatever levels there is nothing to talk about!
Let market forces decide but with some control!

At minimum level, we competite with foreigners!

At the maximum level, there is only monopoly of one party and they used whatever laws to protect themselves.

We are no better than the rest of the worlds yet still call no1 , if you all still in the dream lands is too bad.

Scholaristic China created fools that ruin fedual China, lucky they realised 30yrs ago. Learn from the west, join parttnership with the west and copy their technologies to create Gobal Enterprises. We need to unlearned and relearn from China.

How would transferring of the levies that MOM collects from the foreign workers and passing it to the Singapore worker reduce job creation? I believe it will only encourage more workers to take up such low paying jobs.

Employers still have to pay the levy irregardless of what MOM does with the money. So how will job creation be affected unless it is due to economic circumstances? Since employers love foreign talent so much, they more they bring in, the better it would be for the Singapore worker if the levy is credited to him.

In fact what was the purpose of implementing the levy in the first place by our elites? Can anyone help remind me?

Or is it our elites are unwilling to part with the monies they have amassed (or lost)?

I don’t see the reason I need to reply to such commenters, but..

Okay, so let’s take it that none of us are economists, so who are we to comment on this system then? When I said that JBJ was no economist, I meant that he wasn’t in the government’s position, nor was he a reputable economist. A minimum wage system isn’t what can be implemented in a day or two, like what many of you seem to think.

All of you want a minimum wage system I suppose?

Alright, want to make a bet? When this minimum wage system is implemented, fully imitated from other countries, who wants to wager that job creations will decrease as companies cut down on their workforce? That is, if the minimum wage is beyond the financial levels of the company.

You all can continuously argue, but that just makes it worse. When I see all your arguments above, they all seem more so directed personally to me, without any substance. This is what you all want?

I thought the moderator would have moderated me I did that. What happened now? Don’t worry, I won’t stoop down the levels of those baseless accusers and reciprocate the insults.

Why bother? My example was a simple illustration. Whether it’s good or bad does not matter.

Wage controls isn’t fit for Singapore. It eradicates wage competition and brings down salaries in order for companies to enjoy maximum profit.

Populists.

You all can keep fighting, but so far, I see none of you responding to the very first post I sent down here. Instead of rebutting the points I made, all of you question my intentions personally. You see this?

Hahaha~

now the ball is in the govt’s court to provide sufficient data to prove that this is NOT a good idea. in other words, the govt shld release detailed information as to where these levies have gone to.

or has the levies gone into a fund for long term investment – much like GIC, TLC and town councils?

“MOM should just directly credit the levies it collects from these foreign workers to Singaporeans who are willing to take up similar low paying jobs.

For example, if for every 10 cleaners out there, maybe only 3 are Singaporeans, then MOM should just give the $2100 (7x$300) it collects from the foreign workers and pass it on to the Singaporeans. In this case, each Singaporean gets $700 a month plus their own wages.”

This is a super idea, but the difficulty is in convincing the government.
MOM will spend overtime hours calculating as to how this would affect their bottom line. And the bottom line of course is that they have been raking in mountains of dollars in worker-levies. Step into MOM’s office building in Havelock Road and you will appreciate the grandeur of its decor and operational systems. But ask them to dish out a miniscule portion of their income? Not until the PM gives the order. Remember how the MOM was jacking up the levy for foreign domestic maids over the years, despite protests from Singaporean employers? It reached a peak of $345 [?] and might have continued to spiral upwards if the current PM had not taken the initiative in lowering it, providing some relief to domestic maid employers.

I had no money to bring them to high class establishments so it was the neighbourhood malls and such.

They commented that they were surprised Singaporeans speak not very good english. I told them they were mostly foreign workers.

I don’t think they were impressed. I admitted to them that if I were them, I’ll choose to go China or Hongkong. Lots more history and culture to sample. Singapore is not here, not there.

Point is, I am afraid our hard earned reputation will be eroded away, slowly.

China is like Country A but what do you know? Every bloody investor worth his salt wants to be there.

Ms HO invested heavily there too. Before that, we have MM doing a Suzhou charity act there too.

Oh dear goodness, let’s not get started with all these personal attacks again. I agree that Panther hasn’t been making very good arguments against the minimum wage. But don’t need to go to the extent to call him arrogant or question his education.

Oh, apparently it has been written somewhere that JBJ didn’t understand economics. I think that was from our former President Devan Nair (whom if you remember, was booted out of the Presidency hastily). Anyway, yes, i understand that JBJ cared for people. That was what he is well known for in Singapore. Never read about what he said about the Minumum wage, though. But let’s just leave JBJ out of this now, let the man rest in peace.

As i mentioned in a previous comment here, perhaps we should look at whom we are trying to help by imposing a minimum wage, and whether it’s possible to have a certain exception for thse particular disadvantaged groups.

please do not react so fast and positively just because minimun wage was mentioned for possible implementation.

What is Minimun Wage?

Is it much higher pay for the same job one is doing now?

Or

is it higher pay for expanded job scope and responsibility and or longer working
hours? And other conditions.

The Problems that we are facing today are the high costs of living and doing businesses, as such, the best solution is, imho, not the wage issue but to lower the artificially high costs of survival and leisures.

High costs have also resulted in tourists giving Singapore a miss, tourists are also not coming here because we have no cultural heritages in our HDB Living. However, this has to be separately discuss.

In any case, it is not right to jump in joy just because ‘minimun wage’ was mentioned. There will be much condition to its’ implementation.

And

it could be mentioned because of election.

patriot