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[h=1]HOME: S'POREANS LOSE OUT WHEN WE ALLOW MIGRANT WAGES TO BE LOW[/h]
Post date:
1 May 2015 - 2:04pm
The Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME) released a statement yesterday to say that foreign workers are being discriminated against for their wages and the government's policies also perpetuate such abuses.
HOME also said that migrant workers should also be paid fairly and asked the National Wages Council (NWC) to also include migrant workers when setting its annual salary guidelines.
HOME praised the council for recommending that low-income Singaporeans should receive wage increases that are sustainable but said that foreign workers should not be left out.
HOME pointed out that currently, migrant workers on work permits earn only a basic salary of S$2 to S$7 per hour.
They can even earn as little as S$1.50 in cases of "economic abuse".
HOME also explained that “Foreign worker levies remain exceedingly high" and this "discourage the payment of decent wages to migrant employees as employers aim to cover costs by transferring the financial burden to the workers".
Finally, HOME also highlighted that migrant workers certain nationalities also face other forms of discrimination.
It pointed out that migrant workers from South Asia actually earn lesser than their Chinese and Malaysian counterparts.
But HOME pointed out that the concern over the wages of migrant workers have wider implications and concern Singaporeans as well.
“Besides affecting migrant workers, the exploitation of migrant workers is detrimental to local workers.
"The absence of adequate employment protection for migrant workers makes it more advantageous and lucrative to hire migrants over Singaporeans, causing both parties to be on the losing end.”
Indeed, Singapore has the least employment protection legislation among the OECD and Asia-Pacific countries, after the United States.
Not only that, there is still no minimum wage in Singapore and the lowest-paid Singaporean actually earn one of the lowest wages among the highest-income countries.
HOME thus brought out a very valid point.
Migrant workers in Singapore are categorised into tiers, where their pay is pegged according to these tiers. However, this also results in the wages of Singaporeans being pegged into these tiers.
As such, a degree holder would earn a wage on par with that of an Employment Pass holder while a diploma graduate would earn a wage on par with that of a S Pass holder.
But where the salary levels for these passes do not change on an annual basis and have remained stagnant for years on end in some periods, this has also depressed the wages of Singaporeans.
On top of that, where cheap migrant labour becomes the government's and business's way of increasing output, this only further reduces productivity and which in turn, depresses wages as well.
In the long run, this would cause the Singapore economy to stagnate and be unable to restructure, as is happening today.
In fact, Singapore's productivity has been in the negative for the past four years consecutively.
As such, HOME is right to point out that wage regulations also need to take into account that of migrant workers because it has direct implications to the wages of Singaporeans.
As long as discrimination occurs towards migrant workers, in fact, as long as economic abuse and discrimination is tolerated among any workers, such discrimination will only entrench the unfairness for all workers, including Singaporeans as well.
Post date:
1 May 2015 - 2:04pm
The Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME) released a statement yesterday to say that foreign workers are being discriminated against for their wages and the government's policies also perpetuate such abuses.
HOME also said that migrant workers should also be paid fairly and asked the National Wages Council (NWC) to also include migrant workers when setting its annual salary guidelines.
HOME praised the council for recommending that low-income Singaporeans should receive wage increases that are sustainable but said that foreign workers should not be left out.
HOME pointed out that currently, migrant workers on work permits earn only a basic salary of S$2 to S$7 per hour.
They can even earn as little as S$1.50 in cases of "economic abuse".
HOME also explained that “Foreign worker levies remain exceedingly high" and this "discourage the payment of decent wages to migrant employees as employers aim to cover costs by transferring the financial burden to the workers".
Finally, HOME also highlighted that migrant workers certain nationalities also face other forms of discrimination.
It pointed out that migrant workers from South Asia actually earn lesser than their Chinese and Malaysian counterparts.
But HOME pointed out that the concern over the wages of migrant workers have wider implications and concern Singaporeans as well.
“Besides affecting migrant workers, the exploitation of migrant workers is detrimental to local workers.
"The absence of adequate employment protection for migrant workers makes it more advantageous and lucrative to hire migrants over Singaporeans, causing both parties to be on the losing end.”
Indeed, Singapore has the least employment protection legislation among the OECD and Asia-Pacific countries, after the United States.
Not only that, there is still no minimum wage in Singapore and the lowest-paid Singaporean actually earn one of the lowest wages among the highest-income countries.
HOME thus brought out a very valid point.
Migrant workers in Singapore are categorised into tiers, where their pay is pegged according to these tiers. However, this also results in the wages of Singaporeans being pegged into these tiers.
As such, a degree holder would earn a wage on par with that of an Employment Pass holder while a diploma graduate would earn a wage on par with that of a S Pass holder.
But where the salary levels for these passes do not change on an annual basis and have remained stagnant for years on end in some periods, this has also depressed the wages of Singaporeans.
On top of that, where cheap migrant labour becomes the government's and business's way of increasing output, this only further reduces productivity and which in turn, depresses wages as well.
In the long run, this would cause the Singapore economy to stagnate and be unable to restructure, as is happening today.
In fact, Singapore's productivity has been in the negative for the past four years consecutively.
As such, HOME is right to point out that wage regulations also need to take into account that of migrant workers because it has direct implications to the wages of Singaporeans.
As long as discrimination occurs towards migrant workers, in fact, as long as economic abuse and discrimination is tolerated among any workers, such discrimination will only entrench the unfairness for all workers, including Singaporeans as well.
