Mr Speaker, I rise in support of the Budget. It positions Singapore to seize opportunities in the age of Artificial Intelligence, strengthen our engines of growth, and build a resilient and skilled workforce.
Wage growth among lower-wage workers
In the lead-up to this Budget, the Ministry of Finance released an Occasional Paper on Income Growth, Inequality and Social Mobility. The findings are significant.
Over the past decade, income growth has been broad-based. Lower-income workers experienced stronger gains. Real household income per member grew by 3.1% for the bottom 20th percentile, compared with 2.9% for the median.
These are not abstract statistics. They reflect deliberate policy choices.
The Labour Movement is heartened because these outcomes affirm the impact of the Progressive Wage Model (PWM). Unlike a blunt, across-the-board wage floor, PWM is sector-specific, covers over 40 job roles, and links wages to skills and productivity. It recognises operational realities while creating structured progression pathways for workers.
Had we not adopted PWM, we may well have followed the global pattern, where median wage growth consistently outpaces that of the lowest-paid workers.
I therefore thank the Government and employers for working very closely with the Labour Movement to make PWM work.
But, Mr Speaker, we must not be complacent.
Concerning wage trends
Recent MOM data shows that median wages are beginning to outpace those at the 20th percentile. Between 2024 and 2025, real income grew by 3.6% at the 20th percentile, but 4.1% at the median.
If this trend persists, the gap will widen again.
Singapore also remains some distance from the OECD benchmark, where wages at the 20th percentile are around two-thirds of the median.
As our economy matures and pivots towards AI-driven growth, tripartite partners must exercise leadership. Growth must not pull away from those at the bottom.
To uphold a “We First” society, we must ensure that every Singaporean progresses, regardless of where they start.
The Labour Movement reaffirms our commitment to work closely with Government and employers to ensure that the fruits of growth are shared fairly. We must maintain momentum in PWM through our tripartite institutions, especially the National Wages Council’s Progressive Wage Guidelines.
Strengthening the Local Qualifying Salary
Mr Deputy Speaker, the last major tripartite review on lower-wage support was in 2021. One key recommendation was that firms employing foreign workers pay at least the Local Qualifying Salary (LQS) to all their local workers.
Last September, I called for the LQS to be raised in this term of Government.
I thank the Government for responding in Budget 2026 by increasing the LQS from $1,600 to $1,800.
But we must examine this in context.
An LQS of $1,800 corresponds roughly to the 10th percentile wage in nominal terms in 2023 – three years ago.
If LQS lags too far behind actual wage distributions, adjustments will become reactive and steep.
I therefore urge the Government to consider three actions:
First, publish the latest nominal gross monthly wages – excluding employer CPF – of the bottom 10th percentile of resident full-time workers, so that LQS adjustments are benchmarked transparently.
Second, clarify what proportion of workers at or below the 10th percentile will be covered when LQS rises to $1,800. We must ensure the policy meaningfully reaches those it is intended to protect.
Third, move towards a more regular review mechanism or an advance schedule of increases. A predictable glide path will give businesses certainty while preventing LQS from falling behind wage realities.
If we believe in sustained wage uplift, we must institutionalise it.
Enhancing Support for Employers Under PWM
I welcome also the extension of the Progressive Wage Credit Scheme (PWCS). It helps businesses adapt to higher wages as they transform and improve productivity.
However, for PWM sectors where baseline wages have already crossed $3,000, and/or wage increases are below $200, support may taper off too quickly.
I therefore urge the Government to review the PWCS parameters – to include all sectors and occupations under PWM and Occupational Progressive Wages. Where industries are undergoing longer-term transformation, co-funding support should be calibrated to match their transformation timelines.
If we expect employers to sustain higher wages, we must align our fiscal support with operational realities.
Deepening and Expanding PWM
Beyond LQS and PWCS, we must strengthen PWM itself.
First, I call on the Government to extend the PWM Bonus to all PWM sectors.
The PWM Bonus functions very much like an Annual Wage Supplement. It provides workers with an additional payment to cope with cost-of-living pressures. Today, it applies only to cleaning, lift and escalator, waste management, and landscape sectors.
There is no principled reason to confine it to just these sectors.
Second, we must address leave entitlements in outsourced service sectors.
Many workers see their leave reset when service contracts change hands. As a result, their leave stagnates at the statutory minimum of seven days, despite years of service in the same job scope.
I therefore call on the Government to raise the baseline leave entitlement for PWM workers in outsourced sectors from 7 to 10 days.
This is a calibrated enhancement focused on sectors where contract churn structurally limits leave progression. By setting a higher baseline within PWM, we strengthen retention, recognise accumulated service, and improve workforce stability – while allowing service providers and service buyers to price this transparently into contracts in a sustainable manner.
Third, we should expand PWM to more sectors. Where sectors are ready, we should move decisively.
For example, in the Pest Management sector, NTUC has been engaging the Singapore Pest Management Association (SPMA) and industry stakeholders. We hope to implement PWM in this sector, to professionalise the industry, improve retention and build local talent pipelines.
As with other PWM sectors, we will make sure to bring on board a good representation of industry players, including service buyers, to make sure ground realities are adequately addressed.
Making Our Workforce AI-Ready
Mr Speaker, for Singapore to capitalise on artificial intelligence as a strategic advantage, our workforce must be AI-ready.
The Prime Minister spoke about strengthening lifelong learning through SkillsFuture. I fully agree.
SkillsFuture has embedded a culture of continuous learning. But in its next phase, we must address a structural weakness.
Today, there are around 500 training providers offering more than 9,500 courses. The rush to utilise expiring credits revealed a real challenge – choice paralysis.
Too many options, too little guidance.
We already see how AI works in everyday life. When we shop on e-commerce platforms, products are not shown randomly. Algorithms study our past searches, our purchases, and preferences, and recommend items we are most likely to need.
If AI can do this for shopping, surely, we can harness it for something far more important – our workers’ careers.
SkillsFuture must therefore shift from being course-centric to being worker-centric.
Each worker should receive tailored training recommendations aligned to their experience, their career trajectory, aspirations, and life stage.
SkillsFuture can be integrated with NTUC’s AI-powered Career Coach to deliver personalised training pathways at scale – identifying skills gaps, recommending relevant courses, and mapping progression pathways.
If we are serious about AI, let us use AI to empower every worker – not just those who are already digitally fluent.
Addressing Cost-of-Living Pressures
Budget 2026 provides important cost-of-living support measures. I commend the Government for these efforts.
The Labour Movement will continue to do our part.
Our NTUC Survey on Economic Sentiments shows that wages keeping up with cost-of-living remains the top concern across all age groups and income brackets.
A Consumers Association of Singapore poll of over 360 Price Kaki users found that nearly 60% of respondents felt grocery expenses increased the most in the past year, and 82% said the Cost-of-Living Special Payment and CDC Vouchers would help their households most.
Through FairPrice Group, we benchmark more than 500 key value items and offer over 3,500 house brand products to stretch household budgets without compromising quality.
Since 2015, targeted discount schemes, such as those for CHAS Blue and Orange cardholders, have delivered over $90 million in value to consumers.
Beyond daily essentials, we step in when families face deeper difficulties.
In 2025 alone, the NTUC Care Fund supported over 47,000 lower-income union members and their families last year through various Care Assistance Programmes, with close to $5.5 million disbursed. These programmes support school-going children, assist families facing sudden income loss, and provide relief during periods of hardship.
This year, NTUC has cast a wider net by increasing the income eligibility of our Care Assistance Programmes to $4,300 – aligned to the 20th percentile of Gross Household Income in 2024. We will also strengthen support for single caregivers, as well as families with younger children with special needs.
The FairPrice Foundation further complements these efforts. In 2025, its community programmes delivered close to $12 million in support to over 1.2 million beneficiaries, including more than $1.6 million in fresh groceries and hot meals delivered through A Full Plate – Singapore’s largest food donation drive.
But beyond support measures, the most sustainable answer to cost-of-living pressures remains wage growth.
And that brings us back to PWM, LQS and tripartite resolve.
Conclusion
Mr Speaker, let me conclude with the story of Mr Hussin.
Mr Hussin is a cleaner and the sole breadwinner of his family. He has three children – aged 23, 20 and 11. Every day, Mr Hussin wakes before dawn to head to work. His job is physically demanding and often unseen, but he carries it out with quiet dignity.
For nearly 20 years as a union member, he has done his part – working hard, providing for his family, and believing that if he persevered, things would improve.
Through NTUC’s Care Assistance Programmes, he received support for his children’s school expenses and essential daily needs.
For Mr Hussin, structured wage progression under PWM is not just a statistic. It means opportunity. It means stability. It means dignity.
His story is not unique – and that is precisely the point. When tripartism works, we translate policy into possibility for families like his.
Let us ensure that as Singapore rises in the age of artificial intelligence, we rise together – leaving no worker behind and carrying every family forward.
Sir, I support the Budget.
