Mr Speaker, Sir. I am encouraged by the central theme of this year's budget: “Moving Forward in a New Era”. As we continue to find ways to deal with the ever-evolving nature of the pandemic, we must also set our eyes on how we can prepare Singaporeans for a post-pandemic future riddled with uncertainty. My esteemed colleagues and I in the Labour Movement strongly support and welcome the slew of measures introduced to strengthen our social compact, thereby helping Singaporeans cope with the rising cost of living amidst global uncertainties. Strengthening our social compact means uplifting marginal groups as we progress in society. During the Budget Statement this year, I was heartened to learn that the Government will be allocating more resources to help all Singaporeans, especially our brothers and sisters in vulnerable facets of society.
As we chart our way forward, we ought to remain sensitive to the challenges and concerns of our vulnerable workers, especially our lower-wage and middle-income workers. The best way to address our worker’s concerns over inflation and cost of living is through better wages and better jobs.
Caring for Middle-Income Workers
There is more we can do for vulnerable groups in society. The reality is that rising prices would continue to exert pressure on all income groups, especially our middle-income workers.
Our middle-income workers are vulnerable to inflation because as prices for goods and services rise, their purchasing power decreases, and it becomes more difficult for them to afford their daily necessities. Overall, based on public data published by the Ministry of Manpower and the Department of Statistics, we note that when adjusted for inflation, median wage growth between 2014 and 2019 (pre-COVID) stands at 21.5%. However, the median wage growth of certain worker groups lags the overall median wage growth. This is particularly for our APTs (Associate Professionals and Technicians) and Professionals, who have experienced real median wage growth of between 5-8% during this same period. As DPM Wong also shared in his Budget speech, Singapore’s headline inflation is likely to remain high, at least for the first half of this year. As such, some of our middle-income workers will continue to feel its effects.
Inflation affects different income groups differently, and middle-income workers are often hit the hardest as they are unable to receive government subsidies and support as their salaries tend to be higher than the qualifying threshold. Those who need to take care of dependents may also feel the pinch more. As a result, inflation can have a significant impact on their standard of living and ability to save for the future.
Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) enhancements took effect from January 2023, including a rise in qualifying monthly income cap from $2,300 to $2,500. My fellow labour MPs as well as myself have lobbied for such reviews to WIS over the years - this is heartening to note and is certainly a step in the right direction to assist the sandwiched class amidst rising costs.
There is room to better address the needs of our middle-income workers and in this regard, I would like to take the opportunity to call on the Government to expand the eligibility criteria and increase payouts for those with dependents to cover more middle-income workers. To improve liquidity further, we recommend the Government phase out benefits more gradually by changing cash/CPF ratio and index payouts to cost of living. That way, more middle-income would be covered, providing them with more support to cope with rising prices.
In Malay please, Mr Speaker sir.
Uplifting our Lower-Wage Workers
Para pekerja bergaji rendah kita memainkan peranan penting dalam menyenggara perkhidmatan penting dan memastikan negara kita berjalan lancar dalam masa-masa krisis atau gangguan. Ini termasuk pekerja-pekerja dalam sektor seperti pembersihan, keselamatan dan pengurusan sisa. Dalam ucapan belanjawan saya tahun lalu, saya telah bercakap tentang usaha-usaha berterusan untuk menyokong para pekerja bergaji rendah sambil kita beralih ke masa hadapan pasca pandemik.
Our lower-wage workers play a critical role in maintaining essential services and keeping the nation running during times of crisis or disruption. This includes workers in sectors such as cleaning, security and waste management. In my budget speech last year, I spoke about the ongoing efforts to support lower-wage workers as we transitioned to a post-pandemic future.
Semenjak beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini, sokongan kolektif daripada pelbagai kumpulan berkepentingan untuk meningkatkan pendapatan pekerja bergaji rendah kita adalah amat menggalakkan. NTUC, seiring dengan rakan-rakan kongsi tiga pihak kami kekal komited untuk membantu para pekerja meningkatkan keterjaminan pendapatan mereka, memberi mereka keyakinan untuk bergerak maju dalam kerjaya mereka dan secara keseluruhannya, membantu mereka menambah baik mutu kehidupan mereka.
In recent years, the collective support from various stakeholder groups to uplift the incomes of our lower-wage workers have been encouraging. NTUC, alongside our tripartite partners, will remain committed to help workers improve their income security, give them confidence to progress in their careers and overall, help improve their quality of life.
Seperti yang saya sebutkan dalam ucapan belanjawan saya tahun lalu, NTUC dan rakan tiga pihak kami telah bekerja keras untuk mempertingkatkan dan meluaskan lagi Model Gaji Progresif, atau singkatannya PWM. Melalui PWM, para pekerja diberi jaminan bahawa mereka tidak akan hanya menerima gaji minima selaras dengan sektor dan pekerjaan mereka, tetapi juga laluan kerjaya yang ditetapkan dengan jelas yang akan memastikan gaji mereka akan terus meningkat sambil kemahiran dan tanggungjawab mereka meningkat dan bertambah. Empat tangga PWM – iaitu kemahiran, gaji, daya penghasilan dan kerjaya – bergerak seiring untuk memastikan pekerja bergaji rendah kita dapat merebut peluang bukan hanya untuk mendapatkan rezeki yang halal tetapi juga dengan nilai harga diri yang mereka letakkan pada pekerjaan mereka untuk maju kehadapan dan menjamin masa depan yang lebih baik bagi diri mereka dan orang-orang yang mereka sayangi.
As mentioned in my budget speech last year, NTUC and our tripartite partners have worked hard to enhance and expand the Progressive Wage Model, or the PWM in short. With PWM, workers can be assured that they will not only receive a minimum wage corresponding to their sector and occupation, but also defined career pathways that would ensure that their wages increase as their skills and responsibilities increase as well. The four ladders of the PWM – skills, wages, productivity and career – work hand in hand to ensure that our lower-wage workers can seize the opportunity not just to earn an honest day’s work, but with the dignity they place in their jobs, to progress upwards and better secure the future for themselves and their loved ones.
NTUC pertama kali membangkitkan tentang PWM pada 2012. Kemudian, PWM telah dilaksanakan pada 2014 untuk sektor pembersihan, diikuti oleh sektor keselamatan dan landskap pada 2016, dan sektor lif dan tangga bergerak (eskalator) pada 2019. Sejak 2014, kami telah melancarkan PWM secara berperingkat, setiap dua atau tiga tahun. Sambil kita berusaha untuk mengecilkan jurang gaji antara P20 dan P50, PWM juga telah diperkenalkan baru-baru ini dalam sektor Peruncitan, Perkhidmatan Makanan, Pengurusan Sisa dan baru-baru ini, minggu ini, pekerjaan Pentadbir dan Pemandu.
The PWM was first mooted by NTUC in 2012. Subsequently, PWM was implemented in 2014 for the cleaning sector, followed by the security and landscape sectors in 2016, and the lift and escalator sector in 2019. Since 2014, we have progressively rolled out PWMs every two to three years. As we strive to narrow the wage gap between P20 and P50, PWMs have also been recently introduced in Retail, Food Services, Waste Management and the occupations of Administrators and Drivers.
Jika digabungkan, PWM akan merangkumi kira-kira 135,000 pekerja bergaji rendah sepenuh masa, yang mewakili hampir separuh daripada jumlah pekerja bergaji rendah. Langkah-langkah Gaji Progresif yang disyorkan oleh Kumpulan Kerja Tiga Pihak bagi Pekerja Bergaji Rendah seperti peluasan Gaji Kelayakan Pekerja Tempatan (LQS) dan pentauliahan Tanda Gaji Progresif (PW Mark), ia akan memanfaatkan sehingga 94 peratus pekerja bergaji rendah.
Combined, PWMs will cover around 135,000 full time lower wage workers, which represent almost half of the total number of lower-wage workers. Together with Progressive Wages measures recommended by the Tripartite Workgroup on Lower-Wage Workers such as the expanded Local Qualifying Salary (LQS) and the Progressive Wage Mark (PW Mark) accreditation, this would benefit up to 94 per cent of lower-wage workers.
Satu aspek penting PWM ialah bagaimana gaji dikaitkan dengan peningkatan kemahiran dan peningkatan daya penghasilan – para pekerja dilengkapi dengan kemahiran yang diperlukan untuk menjadi lebih baik dan lebih cekap dalam pekerjaan mereka, justru memperkasa mereka untuk mendaki tangga kerjaya. Seperti dalam kes Pakar Eskalator Kanan Jeremy Yap. Beliau sudah berkecimpung dalam industri ini selama lebih 20 tahun, beliau menyimpan harapan untuk menjadi seorang mandur dan baru-baru ini telah mengambil selangkah lebih dekat untuk mencapai matlamatnya, dengan mengikuti kursus untuk menjadi seorang pemeriksa lif dan eskalator. Di bawah PWM Lif dan Eskalator, gajinya dijangka meningkat daripada $2,600 kepada $3,820 menjelang 2028. Sambil dia meneruskan perjalanannya untuk menjadi seorang mandur, gajinya juga mungkin akan menjadi lebih tinggi lagi. Cita-cita Jeremy menunjukkan cara para pekerja kita boleh meraih manfaat daripada laluan kemajuan kerjaya yang jelas yang ditetapkan melalui pelbagai PWM, dengan sesetengah daripada mereka seperti Jeremy, menetapkan sasaran untuk mencapai yang lebih baik lagi.
An important facet of the PWM is how wages are linked to skills upgrading and productivity gains – workers are equipped with the required skills to be better and more efficient in their jobs, and empowering them to scale up the career ladder. Like in the case of Senior Escalator Specialist Jeremy Yap. Being in the industry for over 20 years, he harbours hopes of advancing to become a foreman and has recently taken one step closer to achieving his goal, by taking a course to become a lift and escalator inspector. Under the Lift and Escalator PWM, his salary is expected to increase from $2,600 to $3,820 by 2028. As he continues on his path of becoming a foreman, his wages may also be even higher. Jeremy’s ideals shows how our workers can benefit from the clear progression pathways set out via the various PWMs, with some like Jeremy, setting their sights to achieve even more.
The Progressive Wage Model has proven, and will continue to benefit our lower-wage workers and assure them of wages and work prospects on a sustainable basis – and this is especially crucial in an era of rising cost of living. The success of PWM so far lies in our not-so-secret ingredient of tripartism, where unions, employers and government come together to reach win-win-win outcomes for all parties. This is why PWM is a sustainable model to uplift wages, welfare and work prospects for our workers. This secret ingredient of tripartism is not new – and it’s built upon another important ingredient that unions and management have worked hard to establish and strengthen – harmonious labour-management relations (LMR). We do not take either LMR or tripartism for granted. NTUC will continue to work with our tripartite partners to further bolster efforts to uplift our lower-wage workers, and where necessary, resolve any differences through established processes.
Another area that I would like to talk about is LQS. LQS refers to the minimum salary that employers must pay to local employees to qualify for various work pass types, e.g., E Pass, S Pass, Work Permit.
Previously, employers hiring foreigners were only required to pay the LQS to local workers whom they need to count towards their foreign worker quota. From September 2022 onwards, firms hiring foreign workers needed to pay all local employees at least the LQS, which is currently at $1,400 for one FTE, or relevant Progressive Wages, which are higher. This expanded requirement has had an impact of uplifting more than 100,000 full-time resident employees, which were previously earning below $1,400.
While the implementation of LQS is necessary to protect local workers and prevent displacement of low-wage jobs by foreign workers, it can also potentially be problematic for lower-wage workers, because the current amount of $1,400 is much lower than the P20 wage levels of about $2,800 in 2022. Further, most of the Progressive Wages (PWs) are also pegged at higher amounts, ranging from $1,500 for a data entry clerk to $3,330 for a principal lift & escalator specialist. PWMs are also designed such that their wages are increased at an agreed-upon rate annually.
At NTUC, we are cognisant that efforts to help lower-wage workers is a long-term strategy. Therefore, I would like to call on the Government to annually review the LQS to ensure that wages keep pace with wage convergence targets for our lower-wage workers. This can be done through a mechanism like the National Wages Council, which already provides annual guidance on the range of Progressive Wage growth for lower-wage workers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as we move forward in a new era, looming uncertainties will continue to put pressure on vulnerable groups in society and test our resilience as a nation. Despite the challenges, many Singaporeans have stepped up to support our vulnerable groups. The truth of the matter is that uncertainties will continue to persist in the year ahead. However, I am confident that we will overcome any challenges that come our way. As we tread uncertain waters, the Government and NTUC are committed to helping workers in every step of the way, help them to achieve better wages, welfare and work prospects. Rest assured, NTUC will continue to champion all workers because Every Worker Matters.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, I support the Budget.
Thank you.
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