Most interesting if you know who he was once related to.
http://www.tremeritus.com/2012/04/1...ores-income-gap-approaching-dangerous-levels/
Professor Lim Chong Yah, who was a key architect of the economic restructuring exercise that overhauled Singapore’s wage system in the late 70s, said that the growing income inequality is approaching dangerous levels.
Prof Lim also noted Singapore’s over-dependence on cheap foreign labour. He said that Singapore now ‘needs shock therapy to wake up its economy’ and ‘the only way out is to restructure again’, in the area of wages of low earners.
Prof Lim is the Albert Winsemius Chair Professor of Economics at the Nanyang Technological University. He advocates for workers’ training and equitable wages and chaired the National Wages Council from 1972 to 2001, during which real wages grew at an average of 4.6% per year. He helped mastermind an economic shake-up from 1979 to 1981 that lifted wages for workers and helped Singapore move from a ‘low-skilled, low-value added and highly labour-intensive structure’ to one that used more technology and knowledge.
He attributed the opening of floodgates to foreign labour, to Singapore’s fear of being uncompetitive. The result was that the non-resident labour force increased from 300,800 in 1991 to 1.2 million last year, out of which only 1.7 per cent earned wages high enough to pay income tax. Not surprisingly, GDP expanded impressively during this period.
More worrying is the growing income inequality in Singapore, as measured by the Gini coefficient, which Prof Lim highlighted. Singapore was at 0.473 last year, perilously close to the danger 0.5 mark, ‘normally considered a dangerous line to reach, far less to cross’.
Income inequality has worsened as global forces pull up the highest income groups while cheaper foreign labour which has been flooding Singapore, pulls down the lowest income groups.
Prof Lim’s proposal, which he called ‘Economic Restructuring II’, includes substantially increasing wages for the lowest-paid workers and freezing top earners’ salaries for three years. He proposed that NWC should discuss such a restructuring exercise process.
Prof Lim was speaking at a lecture given at the Economic Society of Singapore yesterday evening (9 Apr). Prof Lim has made clear that he was merely expressing his own personal views.
With regard to the timing of such an exercise, he felt that despite the weak external economic condition, ‘this is the best timing’ for such a move given Singapore’s low unemployment rate and strong fiscal position.
During an interview after the lecture, he told the media, “I have no intention to destroy the investment climate. But if a company is labour-intensive and needs to import cheap labour it may think twice. For high-skilled companies that use a lot of technology, Singapore is still an ideal place.”
http://www.tremeritus.com/2012/04/1...ores-income-gap-approaching-dangerous-levels/
Professor Lim Chong Yah, who was a key architect of the economic restructuring exercise that overhauled Singapore’s wage system in the late 70s, said that the growing income inequality is approaching dangerous levels.
Prof Lim also noted Singapore’s over-dependence on cheap foreign labour. He said that Singapore now ‘needs shock therapy to wake up its economy’ and ‘the only way out is to restructure again’, in the area of wages of low earners.
Prof Lim is the Albert Winsemius Chair Professor of Economics at the Nanyang Technological University. He advocates for workers’ training and equitable wages and chaired the National Wages Council from 1972 to 2001, during which real wages grew at an average of 4.6% per year. He helped mastermind an economic shake-up from 1979 to 1981 that lifted wages for workers and helped Singapore move from a ‘low-skilled, low-value added and highly labour-intensive structure’ to one that used more technology and knowledge.
He attributed the opening of floodgates to foreign labour, to Singapore’s fear of being uncompetitive. The result was that the non-resident labour force increased from 300,800 in 1991 to 1.2 million last year, out of which only 1.7 per cent earned wages high enough to pay income tax. Not surprisingly, GDP expanded impressively during this period.
More worrying is the growing income inequality in Singapore, as measured by the Gini coefficient, which Prof Lim highlighted. Singapore was at 0.473 last year, perilously close to the danger 0.5 mark, ‘normally considered a dangerous line to reach, far less to cross’.
Income inequality has worsened as global forces pull up the highest income groups while cheaper foreign labour which has been flooding Singapore, pulls down the lowest income groups.
Prof Lim’s proposal, which he called ‘Economic Restructuring II’, includes substantially increasing wages for the lowest-paid workers and freezing top earners’ salaries for three years. He proposed that NWC should discuss such a restructuring exercise process.
Prof Lim was speaking at a lecture given at the Economic Society of Singapore yesterday evening (9 Apr). Prof Lim has made clear that he was merely expressing his own personal views.
With regard to the timing of such an exercise, he felt that despite the weak external economic condition, ‘this is the best timing’ for such a move given Singapore’s low unemployment rate and strong fiscal position.
During an interview after the lecture, he told the media, “I have no intention to destroy the investment climate. But if a company is labour-intensive and needs to import cheap labour it may think twice. For high-skilled companies that use a lot of technology, Singapore is still an ideal place.”
