SHRI/RDS July 2012 Salary Survey:
Business
Prospects/ Wage Increase/ Bonus/ Recruitment & NWC Guidelines for
Low Wage Workers
Introduction
Singapore Human Resources Institute (SHRI) in collaboration with
RDS surveyed 167 companies in June 2012 to find out about their
business prospects, wage, bonus and recruitment plans. Companies
were also asked for their views on NWC Guidelines for low wage
workers and how top management can increase the employees’
productivity.
Summary of Key Findings
Still optimistic but somewhat cautious!
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The first half of this year has turned
out to be better than expected.
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With optimism, probably, spilling over
from the last six months, companies are slightly more
optimistic for the next six months. However, due to the
sluggish US recovery, the continuing euro crisis and China’s
slowing growth, most companies are, not surprisingly,
cautious about next year’s wage increases, bonuses and
recruitment.
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The basic wage increase in 2012 will
average 4.1% for the full year, similar to that for last
year. For next year 2013, the basic wage increase is
expected to remain at 4.1%.
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Variable bonuses (excluding AWS) are
expected to average 1.6 to 2.0 months this year, lower than
the 2.2 months in 2011. For 2013, they are expected to drop
further to 1.6 to 1.9 months.
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The wage increase and lower bonus this
year means a total wage increase of only 1.5% and with the
consumer price index expected to increase by 4.2% there will
be a drop in real wages of around 2.7%.
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For 2013, the total wage increase is
expected to be 3.1% and with inflation expected to be around
3.0%, real wages are likely to increase by only 0.1%.
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On recruitment, 83% of companies hired or
planned to hire staff this year (higher than the 77% in
2011), and for 2013, only 58% are expected to hire.
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This year, 8% of companies retrenched or
plan to retrench staff (more than the 3% in 2011) and for
2013, the good news is that only 1% expect to retrench.
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Staff turnover declined slightly this
year to 4% to 6% and is expected to continue to drop further
in 2013 to 3% to 6% next year.
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Most entry-level salaries increased by
1.9% to 9.1% compared to six months ago; those for PSC
(Secretarial), Diploma (Engineering) and Degree (non
Engineering) remained unchanged.
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On NWC Guidelines for low wage workers,
most companies (78.4%) are in agreement with 64% of them
expecting little or no impact on their overall wage costs.
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However, companies feel that top
management can do more to help low wage workers increase
productivity by re-designing jobs to enrich job
quality/career ladders (68%) and providing special soft
skills/learning training (57%).
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As to whether NWC needs a makeover, 73%
think that more representation & guidelines for different
sectors should be included (73%) and more feedback from
industry associations and focus groups should be solicited
more proactively (66%). Only 9% feel that the current format
should be retained.
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