SINGAPORE - About 159,000 local full-time low-wage workers will earn at least $1,400 a month from Thursday.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in a statement on Wednesday said that firms that employ foreign workers must pay all their full-time local workers who are not covered by the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) at least $1,400 - the current local qualifying salary.
Of the 159,000 workers, 33,000 workers previously earning below $1,400 will earn at least that amount. About 69,000 of the 159,000 will also benefit from higher wage requirements from March next year, when the PWM is expanded to other sectors such as food services.
Two other wage changes will take effect on Thursday.
First, the PWM will kick in for low-wage retail workers and will benefit about 19,000 full-time employees.
The expansion of the PWM to cover low-wage retail workers was announced on Aug 15.
Second, the PWM will be extended to about 19,000 in-house workers in the cleaning, security and landscape sectors.
Now, the model applies only to outsourced workers in these sectors.
All in, about 197,000 full-time lower-wage workers will benefit from the progressive wage initiatives that kick in on Thursday.
The MOM statement said: "The extension of these PWMs to cover in-house workers will mean that workers who undertake the same job roles as outsourced workers - such as those employed in-house by hotels, facility management firms, food services firms and other businesses - must be paid at least the PWM wage corresponding to their respective job roles."
https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...age-workers-to-earn-at-least-1400-from-sept-1
