Although it is highly attractive as a policy and is adopted by many countries, NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say said Minimum Wage can be a “zero sum game”.
He explained: “If you want to maximise the upside (of the policy) then there will be more downside as well. If you want to minimise the downside, then the upside will be limited as well.”
Singapore has made the transition from third world to first world over the decades. However, many jobs today are stuck at second and third world wages. In addressing this, the topic of implementing Minimum Wage surfaced during the Budget Debate in Parliament on 5 and 6 March 2013.
Singapore has been studying the Minimum Wage approach of other countries for years and there is no one good way of implementing it.
Today, a Singapore model has taken shape. With the combination of the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS), the Workfare Training Scheme (WTS) and the Labour Movement's Progressive Wage Model (PWM), we can maximise the upside and minimise the downside for low-wage workers.
If the calls for the PWM to be a licencing requirement for selected sectors are realised, Singapore would have effectively put in place a Minimum Wage system sector by sector, strengthened further by the WIS and WTS.
Workers will benefit more from this model as there is a wage ladder for them to progress beyond minimum wage in their careers and improve their wages through the PWM.
He also expressed confidence in achieving greater productivity as the inflow of foreign manpower is tightened. In the next ten to 20 years, the bottleneck faced by the Singapore economy will be the shortage of manpower, and SG Lim is confident that this will cause more companies to take the transformation towards a productivity and innovation-driven economy more seriously.
The theme of “Valuing Every Worker” must also resonate on a social scale, and Singaporeans must learn to value and respect every worker in the country. A good place to start is for Singaporeans to greet and thank the bus captains, taxi drivers, cleaners, security officers, service staff and other workers they encounter in their daily lives.
“As we value every worker, we must also respect every worker. This will make us a much better economy, and society too,” SG Lim said.
