Salary of Speaker of Parliament: S$550,000.
Salary of President: S$1,540,000
One term (six years) of being president: S$9.24 million.
If you had a good chance of landing a job with a salary three times your current salary, in a 6-year contract, will you go for it?
Source: Andrew Loh
The Republic offers some of the most generous expatriate salary and benefits packages in Asia-Pacific, according to the latest survey by ECA International, released on Wednesday.
Among the 16 countries surveyed in the MyExpatriate Market Pay survey — which is published annually by the information provider on employment conditions abroad — Singapore offers the second-most generous pay package, after Pakistan. South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong round out the top five locations in terms of the highest expatriate salaries.
“Singapore is a very attractive proposition to both companies and expatriates alike. Companies sending expats here offer some of the most generous salary and benefits packages in the region, sitting in the top three for both elements in the Asia-Pacific rankings,” said Mr Lee Quane, ECA’s regional director of Asia.
When considering the cost of an expatriate package, companies need to factor in three main elements: The cash salary, benefits — such as accommodation, international schools, utilities or cars — and tax.
When tax is factored in, Singapore is ranked ninth in the Asia-Pacific’s overall most-expensive locations as it has one of the lowest personal tax rates in the world, said Mr Quane.
“This ensures that Singapore remains one of the cheaper locations for companies to send their expats to in the region — behind Japan, Hong Kong, and China.”
The value of a typical expatriate package for middle managers in Singapore is now S$316,600, which is a five-year low.
In contrast, the comparable package in Hong Kong is around S$356,800, and in China, the package is S$379,800 on average.
Japan, at the top end of the scale, pays an average of S$493,900 to an expatriate middle manager, while Malaysia, at the bottom end, offers an average of S$225,900.
“In local currency terms, although expatriate salaries continue to rise in Singapore, reaching the highest levels since our survey began, the cost of the benefits element has significantly declined. This means that the total cost of an expatriate package for companies in Singapore has fallen over the past few years in local and US dollar terms,” added Mr Quane.
The most expensive part of the expatriate package in Singapore is typically the benefits element, to the extent that the benefits components are often more expensive than the assignee’s net take-home pay.
“Even though international school fees have risen in Singapore, the overall cost of benefits packages have fallen in US dollar terms by 10 per cent over a five-year period due to expatriate accommodation rental prices declining,” said Mr Quane.
Source:www.todayonline.com
For 2017, ensure that your salary increase is at least $130. If not, you will get poorer:
1. electricity tariff. It has risen by an average 5.7%. Going by news report, the average monthly electricity bill for families living in four-room HDB flats will increase by S$4.30. Multiply that by 12 months and you get $51.60
2. water prices. It will be increased by 30% from July. An average monthly water bill of $150 will cost $195 in July. An increase of $45
3. If you stay in one of the 15 PAP town council wards, service and conservancy charges will increase from June and the increase will range from $0.50 to $9 per month. Let’s take $4.50 as an average. This will mean an increase of $31.50 from June till year end.
$51.60 + $45 + $31.50 = $128.10
As what Minister Indranee has mentioned, it boils down to how you can increase your income.
Now go and ask for a raise. 
Source: Khan Osman Sulaiman
<Credits: cyhlalala>
So I’m trying to sleep but can’t because I am seriously disturbed. I went to an Amway meeting earlier today, after someone approached me with a “business opportunity”. I immediately suspected that something was off, so I came into the meeting skeptical and even secretly took some videos.
They drew a pyramid scheme model during the presentation and tried to argue that it isn’t; they talked about income earners as Employees/Self-employed/Business owners/Investora and tried to argue that everyone in Amway is a business owner… the saddest part is that all these uni kids who have been brainwashed into thinking that they’re business owners are actually the very employees that they dissed on in their presentation. No, they’re worse actually, they’re the product.
There were quite a few attendees to the meeting, many of whom were students. One was even a business student… while I’m sure some of them caught on as the seriously dodgy Amway videos were being played, I noticed the majority were already being lured in. After the meeting, there was a chat session with the upline (the person who recruited you), and some of the clueless participants were expressing intense interest. A few more families are gonna be ruined and I really wish I had just shouted out to everyone that it was basically a scam.
I did try to argue with several of the uplines after the meeting was over. It went smth like this:
“How is this not MLM?” “Do you know what the Singaporean law defines as MLM? If not, you should do your homework and come talk to us again. But basically, MLMs require a large startup cost, but Amway doesn’t have that.” “But in order to join this business, I have to pay a subscribers fee and buy all my household products from Amway instead right?” “Yes, but the subscribers fee is only $70. Also, you need household products anyway, so it’s not a real cost”
After this point, they just kept repeating smth along the lines of “Ok, I can explain to you in detail, but it will take very long. Why don’t you come for the next meeting and we can explain further?”
Also, at the end of the presentation, the presenter stated that we can earn $4000 a month for working from home 10 hours a week. Of course, they didn’t state that that’s only possible when you have a shit ton of downlines. In fact they framed it in a way like as if that’s the starting pay when you join
What really made me sick was when they had a bunch of people go up and give testimonies, saying how their “mentor” helped so much with their life and transformed them into better people. Three around the words “integrity”, “honesty”, etc no less than 30 times. This is probably the closest to Scientology that I will experience in Singapore. It was like Christian Fellowship except the God is money and the Bible are the complete bullshit fluffass books written by the successful Amway “businessmen”. And instead of trying to do good, they’re trying to frame “scamming your friends and family” as good.
TL;DR: Witnessed first hand Amway’s recruiting tactics. Please be skeptical if anyone ever tells you about a “business opportunity”. If you hear “Amway” or see someone draw you a pyramid diagram, run.
Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com
It’s tough to be a graduating Singapore student these days. With the unemployment rate at its highest since 2010, graduating students are likely to find getting their dream job more challenging, with many MNCs cutting entry-level openings meant for graduates looking to kick-start their career in an area of interest.
We wrote an article last week on how the banking sector has been one of the hardest hit in terms of job cuts, and how many of these jobs lost are unlikely to ever return.
These are ominous signs that the job market for young Singaporeans may not be as rosy and straightforward as it once was. Gone are the days when people graduate and go into the MNCs or SMEs of their choice, and have their first employer teach them all they need to know about the industry, while earning a decent starting salary at the same time.
Earlier this month, we wrote about the expectations that Singapore workers have when it comes to pay increment and bonuses. These are expectations that are created not through individuals carefully analysing what’s happening in today’s employment market, but rather, by what’s generalised and reported in the media, or by what Singapore workers have come to take for granted based on what they experienced in the past.
For example, we may expect a 5% annual increment from our employers simply based on what the media reports, which in turn may be based on some observations or survey done by a recruitment company. This may or may not be an accurate reflection of what’s actually happening on the ground.
But it doesn’t matter for most people.
The expectations have been set, never mind if the media report wasn’t that accurate to begin with, or if there were other reports that may contradict the report they read.
The other way expectations are set is based on what people are used to. For example, if I were used to enjoying a 10% increment each year during my first 3 years at work, I would expect a 10% increment in my fourth year as well, even if the economy weren’t doing well, or if the Singapore economy is experiencing deflation for 24 straight months.
How do undergraduates who have yet to enter the workforce get their job expectations from?
The first way is based on what they read. For example, the media may report that the median salary in Singapore is $3,375 (before employer’s CPF contribution) as of 2015 based on information provided by the Ministry of Manpower.
Other news report may be based on statistics provided by non-government agencies. For example, the Straits Times reported earlier this year that median salary for university graduates is $3,300, with 9 in 10 graduates finding employment within 6 months of their final examinations. This is based on a Graduate Employment Survey jointly conducted by NUS, NTU and SMU. Not to be outdone, SIM also did its own survey noting that 73% of its graduates found full-time job within 6 months with an average starting salary of $2,766.
It’s easy to see why these seemingly innocuous reports can lead to expectations being formed. Undergraduates, who may otherwise have no idea about what’s happening in the working world and hence, no expectations about how much they should earn, suddenly find themselves have a salary range in mind when it comes to landing their first job after graduation, never mind if they have zero experiences to begin with, or don’t even know what the heck they want to do.
The other way expectations are created is based on what graduates are taught in school.
Due to the importance of attracting young Singaporeans to enrol with them, universities, both public and private, always like to paint a rosy picture of what their graduates can expect. They tend to be a little over optimistic, featuring ex-graduates of theirs who are now working in “successful roles” such as investment banking, private equity and hedge funds.
No universities would be caught telling their students the harsh truth that their degree is worthless, if they don’t have the relevant internship experience or the right network to get into the career of their choice. Neither do they want to tell you that the banks themselves are cutting headcounts across the board.
Many graduates spend way too much time trying to find out what is the “average starting salary” for university graduates. The problem however is that this “average starting salary” really doesn’t matter for you, the job seeker, especially if you want a rich and fulfilling career.
You see, the graduate who knows what he or she aspires to do is finding ways via internships, networking and self-education to work towards that role. Such a graduate isn’t interested in knowing what the “average starting salary is for year 2016 students.” They already know what they want to do, whether the sector they are looking at is hiring people, and how much they are worth. They also know how useful (or not useful) they really are to hiring companies as a fresh graduate.
On the other hand, graduates who expect the “average starting salary” because of what others are saying are usually just giving out a signal that they have no idea how else to determine the value of themselves, or what they can offer – which unfortunately usually isn’t very much since they don’t even know what they want to do.
These are the graduates who are familiar with how much the “average starting salary” is in Singapore, but have no idea what is it that they want to do, even after 3 to 4 years in university.
Back in secondary school, our maths teacher taught us that median represent the value right in the middle of the data group.
When it comes to salary matters, it means that 50% of people earn more than the median while another 50% earn less than the median. Hence, earning less than the median is perfectly normal, especially if you know the industry you are in doesn’t pay that much.
People who know what they want to do wouldn’t be bother about the median. A graduate who intends to go into journalism would know that his or her starting salary is likely to be less than $3,000 due to the nature of the sector.
For graduates who are not sure about what they want to do, the median becomes a really important figure to take reference from, since they can’t rely on other metrics. A job is only good if it offers at least the median salary. Negotiation is based largely on what the salary package offers, because the person doesn’t really know what else to base it on.
Put yourself in the employer’s shoes for a moment. We think it’s fair to say that a company would prefer hiring people who knows what they want to do, and who really wants to join and stay with them. Why then would they want to pay the median salary for a person who is simply applying for the job because it sounds doable and pays the “average starting salary”?
This article isn’t meant to say that graduate shouldn’t have any pay expectations. It’s always good to know what’s available out there and what these jobs are paying. But you must also know how these jobs fit to your interest and career ambitions.
As a fresh graduate, your job is to have an understanding of what is it that you are interested in, and what are the skills sets and experience that your currently lack to get to the role that you aspire for.
It also only by knowing these things that you can set expectations on what you want out from your first job, rather than aimlessly applying for jobs with an expectation based on what you read online.
Source: https://sg.finance.yahoo.com