{"id":609,"date":"2020-07-21T07:53:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T07:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/cfpr\/?p=609"},"modified":"2020-08-07T07:55:45","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T07:55:45","slug":"raising-workers-dorm-standards-who-pays-the-straits-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/cfpr\/2020\/07\/21\/raising-workers-dorm-standards-who-pays-the-straits-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising workers&#8217; dorm standards: Who pays? | The Straits Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A\/P Jessica Pan<\/strong>\u00a0and Dr Ong Pinchuan discuss the economic aspects of improving the living conditions of Singapore&#8217;s migrant workers, which has come under scrutiny due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The article explores the questions of who pays and who should pay for mandated improvements in foreign workers&#8217; living conditions. Having lower bargaining power, it is likely that the foreign workers will bear the brunt of the increased costs in the form of lower wages.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ea3\" class=\"collapse in\" aria-expanded=\"true\">The article suggests that a minimum wage for these workers could cover the increased accommodation costs, which forces employers and consumers to bear the increased costs. An alternative policy proposal would be to use the tax revenue collected from foreign worker levies to subsidise the costs of improving housing conditions. Although many Singaporeans want foreign workers to have better living conditions, it is also unclear how much society is willing to bear the cost of this provision. The authors point out that finding a long-term solution to this issue requires Singaporeans to consider what we value as a society.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A\/P Jessica Pan\u00a0and Dr Ong Pinchuan discuss the economic aspects of improving the living conditions of Singapore&#8217;s migrant workers, which has come under scrutiny due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The article explores the questions of who pays and who should pay for mandated improvements in foreign workers&#8217; living conditions. Having lower bargaining power, it is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-straits-times"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Raising workers&#039; dorm standards: Who pays? | The Straits Times - Centre for Family and Population Research<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/cfpr\/2020\/07\/21\/raising-workers-dorm-standards-who-pays-the-straits-times\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Raising workers&#039; dorm standards: Who pays? | The Straits Times - Centre for Family and Population Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A\/P Jessica Pan\u00a0and Dr Ong Pinchuan discuss the economic aspects of improving the living conditions of Singapore&#8217;s migrant workers, which has come under scrutiny due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 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