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Quality Jobs for Singaporean Talents
The Problem of Underemployment
Singapore’s education system is amongst the top in the world and, globally, Singaporeans rank amongst the most highly-educated.
Yet, we see more young people struggling to secure good jobs. At the same time, wages are depressed to the point where they cannot keep pace with rising cost of living.
Instead of opportunities further up the employment ladder, an increasing number of PMETs are facing premature retrenchment and chronic underemployment.
This stems from decades of the government’s flawed manpower policy with regards to foreign labour.
As a result of the government’s “cheaper, better, faster” approach, more foreigners are displacing Singaporeans in key roles across several sectors of the job market.
In addition, there is little incentive for firms to hire and groom our talented and well-educated Singaporeans for leadership and managerial positions.
A Pro-Singaporean Labour Policy is Needed
Right now, Singaporean Talents are disadvantaged because our citizens are more expensive to hire. A levy that levels the playing field is justice for the Singaporean worker. I will press the government to implement a levy on foreign PMETs that is:
(1) The same amount as the 17% of wages that an employer must contribute to a Singaporean staff’s CPF, and
(2) Includes 50% of the difference in take-home pay between a Singaporean and foreign PMET
Presently, if a Singaporean and an EP Holder are both given $4500 a month in gross wages, a company has to pay the Singaporean 17% more in CPF contributions on top of that, making his overall salary higher than the EP Holder.
Adopting my scheme, a levy combining (1) and (2) would make the EP Holder more expensive to hire.
So, if their skills are on par, employers are incentivised to hire a Singaporean PMET instead. The wage difference as a result of the levy will also prompt employers to hire and groom a moderately-skilled Singaporean to competency.
Implementing a basic $1200 levy on foreign PMETs will also raise roughly $3 billion a year.
This EP levy should increase as the Minimum Qualifying Salary increases.
This increase in tax revenue from EP levy can replace the need to raise taxes like the GST.
Increasing taxes only when necessary is key to reducing the high cost of living in Singapore. Read more about this here.
Let's Fix Things for our Singaporean Talents
When our citizens are well-employed and financially secure, they are emboldened to start families, pursue their ambitions (and hopefully start another Tesla or BYD), and plan for retirement rather than worry about how to get by day to day.
As a Chinatown boy who worked his way up the corporate ladder, thankfully with some luck on my side, ensuring good opportunities for fellow Singaporeans is important to me.
If this is just as important to you, give me your support and let’s fix things.
