Higher pay rise next year as bosses turn upbeat
SINGAPORE: Expect higher wage increases but lower variable bonuses next year as the economy bounces back. That's what 192 companies projected last month when surveyed about their wage, bonus and hiring plans.
The companies surveyed by the Singapore Human Resources Institute
(SHRI), together with the Remuneration Data Specialists, are across 19
sectors including construction, electronics and services. Most of them
are local SMEs.
The survey is a follow-up to an earlier one done in January to find
out how companies are coping at the start of the financial crisis.
Eight months on, most companies, especially smaller ones with fewer
than 100 staff, agreed that the worst is over. And they expected
recovery to take place either over the next six months or the first
half of next year.
As such, the projected wage increase for next year is 1.6 per cent, up from the 1.3 per cent expected this year.
Only 45 per cent of companies polled increased wages this year,
down from the 59 per cent reported in January. The highest paying
sector is construction, while the lowest paying is the IT and hi-tech
sector.
Variable bonuses, excluding the 13th month pay, however are
expected to drop to 1.4 to 1.7 months, down from the average of 1.6 to
1.9 months this year, as employers continue to review their business
strategies amid the uncertainty.
The sector that paid the most bonus - of up to 2.8 months - this year is the government, while the lowest paying is education.
Companies most optimistic about paying out high bonuses of up to 2.3
months next year are from the engineering and general manufacturing
sectors. Those most pessimistic are from electronics manufacturing.
On recruitment, only about three in ten of the companies said they
plan to hire next year. Meanwhile, staff turnover is expected to
increase somewhat next year, especially for non-executives.
Companies were also asked about the effects of the government's
Jobs Credit and SPUR programmes. Practically, all companies said the
initiatives had helped them to save jobs and cut costs.
The government had announced recently that it would review at the
end of the year some of the schemes announced in the S$20.5 billion
Resilience Package.
"The talk outside is that it would be good to stretch or extend the
Jobs Credit for a period of time because we are not sure whether the
economic recovery would be sustained or not," said David Ang, executive
director of Singapore Human Resources Institute.
- 938LIVE/CNA/ir
wage increase/ bonus r dependable on per company basis...
I feel it's too general a statement.
For HC I supposed.![]()
hope or false hope?
Originally posted by FireIce:hope or false hope?
Any difference?![]()
I think the higher pay rise only applies to ministers