Earning of Singaporeans
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Real earnings of Singaporeans decline as population of foreigners increase
Written by Our Correspondent
Despite the best of attempts by the state media to hide the truth by censoring critical reports of the PAP and to obfuscate matters by providing dodgy statistics, an increasing number of Singaporeans are seeing through the propaganda it has been churning out on a daily basis.
Both Finance Minister Tharman and PAP MP Halimah Yacob denied patently in Parliament two weeks ago that the wages of Singaporeans have declined over the last few years no thanks to the relentless influx of cheap foreign workers.
One does not need to be an economist to understand the simple fact that wages can never increase when there is an abundance of cheap foreign labor.
For example, it is relatively easy for fresh engineering graduates to command a monthly starting salary of $2,500 and above ten years ago, but with cheap China and Indian engineers flooding the labor market now, they will consider themselves lucky if they can land a job which pays over $2,000.
A UBS report published last year revealed that the real earnings of Singaporeans have declined by 8 percent between the years 2006 and 2009.
Its findings were corroborated by a Wall Street Journal editorial months later which showed that the relentless influx of foreigners over the years has depressed the wages of ordinary Singaporeans, increased the cost of living and led to an overall decline in the standards of living.
Neither article was published or highlighted by the mainstream media which continues to espouse the official view that the wages of Singaporeans are increasing till an authoritative report from the Manpower Ministry demolished its lies once and for all:
“Nominal earnings decreased over the year by 1.6% in the fourth quarter of 2009, easing from the 3.0% decline in the preceding quarter. Earnings in 2009 declined by 2.6%, after rising by 5.4% in 2008. After adjusting for inflation (2009: 0.6%, 2008: 6.6%), the decline in real earnings was 3.2% in 2009, deeper than the contraction of 1.2% in 2008.”
[Source: Ministry of Manpower]
As we can see from the above figures which lumps both PRs and citizens together as one single category, the real earnings of local workers have declined since 2008, but this is only half the picture.
If we plot the real earnings together with the population of foreigners in Singapore, we will get the graph below, courtesy of Kojakbt, moderator of 3in1 kopitiam:
All the figures were obtained from Singstat. As we can see for ourselves, the plummet in the real earnings of Singaporeans occur after 2007 when the inflow of foreigners started to shoot up.
In 2008 alone, there were more than 90,000 PRs and 20,000 new citizens, not to mention the number of foreigners on WP, E and S passes.
With so many competitors in a limited job market, will we expect the wages to go up?
In other countries, the government will take active measures to protect the interests and livelihoods of its citizens first and only then will they accept foreign workers in sectors where there is a dearth of local workers such as the practice in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Any government which dares to replicate what the PAP has done will either trigger mass street protests from the people or get voted out of office in the next general election.
The PAP is able trample on Singaporeans with impunity because there is no opposition in Parliament to check on it and there is no way it will lose power through the ballot box as it controls all institutions of the state.
Unless Singaporeans realize the importance of regaining their own political rights, they will forever be on the losing end with no bargaining power.
- Temasek Review
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