Seng Kang West Ave Hawker Stall

SuzyWang SG

Hi forummers,

I like to share a real story about a job situation in singapore.

Seng Kang West Ave has a chicken rice hawker stall which has a job ad printed on a A4 paper for people to see. It says hiring singaporean / pr .

It shows the mobile number of the boss. After calling him, this is what I gathered about the job :

0. Place of Work : Jurong stall. Place advertised, Seng Kang. Target audience Singaporeans / PRs.

1. PART Time : $5 / hour , for 8 (EIGHT) hours per partime day , work EVERY DAY a month, 2 days off per month only. $5 tpt allowance.

2. FULL Time : $1500 / month , for 12 (T W E L V E ) hours per full time day, work EVERY DAY a month , 2 days off per month only.

Ask yourselves, how can singaporean survive on this salary when :

1. got dependents to feed, pay medical bills, pay and pay expensive flat, high cost of living etc. Insurance to pay, CPF min sum to meet. Electric and Water conservation tax to pay and pay, every month leh. Some more got G.S.T leh. hope wont rise further? TC bills to pay and pay leh. TV license to pay and pay leh.

2. foreigners many come here to just 1 motive - earn and go back to their lower cost environment. Usually no kids and dependents to support here. No house to pay loans here.

There is no min wage to protect singaporeans who are to compete head on with FTs given that the playing field is uneven.

Taking the Partime example above to illustrate:

1. $5 income per day minus whatever expense per day necessary , say $2.50 (consider gst), the income is a mere mortal $2.50 per day and $5 tpt allowance eaten up basically completely assuming the case of singaporean living in Seng Kang and travelling to work in Jurong.

2. Taking the case of Full time working, a singaporean has to work 12 hours Every Day for a month with 2 day offs. Include travelling time of say 1.5 hours including preparation to go to work and waiting time, easily a singaporean worker shall use up 15 hours A DAY for this $2.50 nett income.

3. In both cases, Full and part time, singaporean has to work EVERY DAY with 2 day offs. Tell me, how many can last even 1 week like this just on the working hours alone?

4. Is there MIN Wage ? Why singaporean who is stuck in a high cost environment is being paid this kind of salary? Is it sufficient? For how long? Min Sum can meet? Child can get educated? Will there be problems created for society?

I must say employers are greatful for the accessibility to FTs and the lower cost they incur. But I do NOT think this model is practical for singaporeans.

suzy wang

edited: added 'NOT' in last statement.

deepak.c SG

The problem lies with the government for opening the doors wide open to foreign labour.

angel7030 SG

Hi Suzy,

The chicken boss had written his own contract for services, it does not fall under the jurdication of MOM legal aspect, he is an individual properiater seeking workers thru cheap sourcing. You have the right to ignore it or report to MOM.

ditzy SG

I don't need any skills selling chicken rice, the part time offer sounds good.

charlize SG

Look at it this way.

Business costs essentially consist of labour costs and capital/land costs.

If labour costs are relatively low due to the influx of cheaper foreign workers, and business people complain that the costs of doing business is already getting too high in singapore, then the only thing that is making it expensive is the capital/land side of the business cost equation. And this is the part whereby most of the money flows to the government - ie high rentals and land costs.

Even on the labour side, there are foreign worker levies and miscellaneous taxes.

Only the government seems to be profiting from this situation.

Money first, singaporeans' welfare and well being right at the bottom of the list.

charlize SG

So in a way, you can't blame the hawker for wanting as cheap a salary for his workers for x amount of work.

nightzip SG

Yo! For full-time, the meals will be provided for i.e. free lunch and dinner leh, like army and also same rules for all fast-food restaurant. In addition, if got left-overs can ta pao back for family abit.

Same for part-time, at least 1 meal is provided. And seriously, during 10am-11am, 3pm-5pm, these are the relaxing times as its not lunch time hours, so can rest abit. Smile

Be optimistic is good. The idea is to learn how to cook chicken rice from the owner, how he bid for the stall, what kind of cooking equipment is needed, recipe, how to pay for rent etc. Then next time, you can be your own boss mah.

As the ancient chinese saying go, zhai ren wu yan xia, bu de bu di tou. But once you have your own roof, that’s different thing.

Think of long term view, dude! Smile

SuzyWang SG

Things to note:

1. An Employer can set foreign worker salary for singaporeans. Is there min wage?

2. If every employer does the same: wage depressed for singaporeans.

3. 1 of the possible Reasons singaporeans could not take up certain jobs (though some still bite the bullet out of no choice and ) is the wage could not sustain the cost of living nor meet the min sum. Those who do so prolly could no longer take care of his dependents as he can only support himself, barely.

4. The employer can show it is hiring singaporeans but honestly speaking, I suspect he eventually only get foreign worker to apply. Under this circumstances, could anyone blame the employer ? Hey, he did say he wants to hire singaporean. From business operational perspective, when an employer has tried to hire singaporean but not one apply or accept the terms, he does have good strong reasons to continue hiring foreign workers?

Fantagf SG

Well, our money faced PAP does not care a damn about protecting locals. All they care about and are excellent in doing so are disservice to the locals, show disrespect, nitpicking, accusing, blaming and doing name calling to the locals. At the same time, they continue to place fattening their pockets as the top priority.

They want all sorts of foreigners here to work to earn money out of them and at the same time hoping hard that these will convert to citizens one day to vote for them. Serving the locals is not their top priority though locals here vote them to take good care of them.

seancannot SG

unfortunately thing will get worse , sometime ago hdb award the hawker ctr contract for half or a million dollar every month at sengkang . So next time you go there to eat chicken rice how much do you think they will charge you $2 per or $4 per plate. Thks to garment the rice will cost $4 . they cant charge you $2 due to high ops cost (rental) and the chicken rice operator will also skim on manpower cost maybe pay his asst $1500 but have to work every day ..

Fantagf SG

This is an excellent example of PAP doing a disservice to the people of Singapore.

Vote PAP out

ditzy SG

Singaporeans are a mollycoddled bunch.

Fantagf SG

Singaporeans are a mollycoddled bunch.

Not all singaporeans are mollycoddled, ditzy definitely is one.

even when i am in need i rather think i other way out rather than to depend on the govt. there are always more than one way to solve problems.

Aang SG

selling chicken rice of cus the pay is low.. wad do u tink u hav to do at the stall

Beginner98 SG

Hi Suzy,

There's something very wrong with your post. How can you say the net income for part-timer is only $2.50 per day????

In your post you said that the pay is $5/hr per 8-hr day. That works out to $40 per day gross. After expenses you will still have more than $30 per day .

Pitot SG

U living under a rock or wad?

so many places charging 5 bucks for a part time job without educational requirements.