High time, and about time they finally looked at filtering out the number of UNSKILLED foreigners coming to Singapore to take away jobs our own unskilled workers could have had.
It always has to wait till something, hits the fan and it's all over the place....
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Frm ASIAONE News
Straddling income gap
Jul 12, 2006
The Straits Times
THE latest General Household Survey findings, released last week, were not a surprise. But to see the figures spelt out starkly was a jolt nevertheless. Though the average monthly income rose substantially from $4,940 in 2000 to $5,400 last year, the income gap between the rich and the poor also widened considerably. While the income of the top 10 per cent of families increased by 14.7 per cent between 2000 and 2005, the income of families in the 11th to the 20th percentile fell by 4.3 per cent. The income of the top 20 per cent of households is now 31 times that of the bottom 20 per cent.
One explanation for this growing gap is the increasing number of retiree households. In 1990, there were 164,400 people over the age of 65; in 2004, there were 296,900. Most in this age group do not earn wages - the only source of income the survey measured - but live off their savings. The Department of Statistics also noted that the higher unemployment rate in 2004, compared with 2000, might also explain the drop in wages for the bottom 20 per cent. The chief explanation for the phenomenon, however, is globalisation. The income gap is widening in Singapore for the same reason it is widening in other advanced economies: The entry of low-cost countries into the global marketplace has meant intense wage pressure at the low-skilled end of the job spectrum in countries like Singapore.
What is it going to do about it? Should it even try to do something? The answer to the second question is obvious: Yes. The alternative would be to allow society to become atomised, and social cohesion to fracture. The answer to the first is not so obvious. Cash payments, like the Government's $2.6 billion Progress Package, help considerably, but it is not something that can occur frequently. Skills upgrading is a better long-term solution. Though it may take time to bear fruit, as the NTUC's Halimah Yaccob has pointed out, it is far preferable to outright welfarism. In addition, Singapore might consider seriously restricting the entry of unskilled foreign workers in areas where low-skilled Singaporeans have the greatest potential for skills upgrading. Their easy availability arguably depresses the wages of these Singaporeans. Cheap foreign construction workers for example militate against the creation of higher-paying, higher-skilled construction jobs. Perhaps the time has come to reconsider these policies.