Higher starting pay for
grads...
BY JANICE HENG
STARTING salaries for university and polytechnic graduates hit a
new high last year, according to preliminary figures in the
Manpower Ministry's annual report on wages.
University graduates had a median monthly starting pay of
$3,000. This is up from $2,900 the year before, when wages - which
fell in 2009 - returned to pre-crisis levels.
Polytechnic graduates earned a median starting pay of
$1,850, up from $1,800 the year before.
Those who entered the workforce after national service
(NS) drew $2,100, up from $2,000.
However, starting pay stagnated at $1,600 a month for
post-NS Institute of Technical Education (ITE) graduates. For fresh
graduates, it rose only marginally to $1,300, from $1,291.
Mr David Ang, executive director of the Singapore Human
Resources Institute, said the stagnation was not cause for alarm,
as 'the current levels (of pay) are quite reasonable'.
Their starting pay might have stagnated last year because
there were large increases previously, he said. The starting pay
for ITE graduates in 2007 was $1,400 for post-NS graduates and
$1,217 for fresh graduates.
The report, released yesterday, compiled data from
surveys by the institutes of higher learning.
Among those from four-year degree programmes - not
including law and medicine - the highest median starting pay was
$3,500. This was the sum drawn by aerospace engineering graduates
from Nanyang Technological University, and industrial and systems
engineering graduates from the National University of
Singapore.
The Government has been encouraging investment in those
fields, and creating demand for specialist skills, said Mr Yousef
Ayub, head of Kelly Engineering Resources which is part of
recruitment firm Kelly Services.
The highest-paid polytechnic graduates were in the health
sciences: optometry ($2,950), and diagnostic radiography or
radiation therapy ($2,300).
For ITE graduates, post-NS graduates with a Higher Nitec
in information technology had the highest starting pay of
$1,731.
Employment rates were highest for polytechnic graduates,
at over 92 per cent. But more university graduates landed full-time
jobs compared to their polytechnic counterparts.
Of university graduates, 86.4 per cent found full-time
permanent jobs, while just 67 per cent of fresh polytechnic
graduates and 80.1 per cent of post-NS ones did so.
... but car washers are worst
paid
Last year, the median gross monthly pay of car washers was
$750, according to MOM's annual occupational wage report. Car
washers and polishers had shown up in MOM's annual lists of
bottom-paying jobs since 2006, with their pay ranging between $920
and $1,200 before hitting the bottom last year. -- PHOTO:
ALAN LIM
BY TOH YONG CHUAN
and WALTER SIM
WHILE the plight of poorly paid cleaners has often made
headlines, another group - car washers and polishers - have turned
out to be worse off.
Last year, their median gross monthly pay was $750,
according to the Manpower Ministry's (MOM's) annual occupational
wage report yesterday.
That puts them at the bottom of the wage ladder.
Car washers and polishers had shown up in MOM's annual
lists of bottom-paying jobs since 2006, with their pay ranging
between $920 and $1,200 before hitting the bottom last year.
In contrast, workers who clean offices and other
buildings saw a marginal uptick in monthly pay to $815 last year,
from $800 in 2010.
Three other groups round up the bottom five occupations -
stevedores who load and unload ships, construction labourers and
odd-job workers. They earn less than $859 a month.
At the top end are managing directors and chief executive
officers who made $16,684, up from $14,765 a year ago.
Other plum jobs were trade brokers ($12,408), company
directors ($11,485), foreign exchange dealers ($11,000) and
commodities and derivatives brokers ($10,936).
But some top earners in 2010 experienced sharp falls in
income last year. General practitioners who made $10,786 in 2010
took home $8,196 last year.
Fund managers - the third- highest earners in 2010 at
$13,873 - suffered an income cut of more than half to $5,746 last
year.
The MOM wages report, which is based on questionnaires
sent to nearly 3,900 companies covering 262,000 full-time workers,
does not provide specific reasons for the increase or decrease in
monthly pay in various occupations.
There is no data on the profile of car washers and
polishers, said a MOM spokesman.
Checks with unionists also drew a blank on whether these
workers are union members.
When The Straits Times visited several car washes in
petrol stations in Toa Payoh yesterday, most people were reluctant
to talk.
Many are foreigners rather than Singaporeans as most
'will not work such jobs', said a kiosk supervisor.
At one car wash, all the staff were foreigners.
At another, only two of the 10 employees were
Singaporeans.
But the emergence of car washers and polishers as the
worst-paying occupation does not completely surprise Mr Zainudin
Nordin, MP for Bishan- Toa Payoh GRC.
Some of them have sought help at his weekly Meet the
People sessions, said the chairman of the Government Parliamentary
Committee for Manpower.
He added that the work and pay conditions of this group
deserve closer monitoring to determine if their wages continue to
fall or stagnate.
But Mr Lewis Phua, boss of car-grooming firm Dino Car
Care, said a distinction should be made between car washers and car
groomers. While car washers may be paid below $1,000, the starting
pay of car groomers is above $1,200.
"The skills required are different, and so are the work
conditions," he added.
Top of the news, The Straits Times, Saturday, June 29 2012, Pg
A6
