Market forces would be distorted if there was no supply of cheap labour from abroad. That's what happened in the early 80s and Singapore ended up in an almighty recession as companies were crippled by the high cost of all levels of staff because of the shortage of supply.
Now that there is an abundant supply of labour, hiring costs are far more reasonable and in line with productivity levels.
rubbish,we can always test how much supply and demand can bear......by increasing wages to a certain minimum level,we can see the optimum wage a market can bear before unemployment reaches a diminishing return.wages are not in line with productivity levels since the 1970s....most of the excess profits from the divergence between productivity and wages has been siphoned off by the finance sector.companies have increased profit margins and capitalisation exponentially and increased dividends and compensations drastically but wages and purchasing power have remained stagnant.
we have become far more productive but our incomes hasnt grown....if we are to earn in line with our productivity levels since the 1970s,our incomes would be more than twice what it is today.