December 5, 2022

In ‘University grads’ median pay is $4.2k, double the $2k of those with ITE, secondary education: Study’ (The Straits Times, December 2022), Associate Professor Irene Y.H. Ng (NUS Social Work) was featured for her study on the wage gap between young Singaporeans holding a university or post-graduate degree and those with lower education qualifications.

From 2020 to 2021, A/P Ng and her team interviewed 1,905 Singaporeans aged between 21 and 38 to find out the challenges they face at work. As the first nationally representative research on the young working poor in Singapore, the study finds that the top three jobs held by degree holders are engineers, business executives and financial consultants. In contrast, the top three jobs for those with secondary or lower education are delivery drives, administrative assistants and clerks. The median monthly salary for degree holders ($4,200) is 62% higher than that for those with diploma or A-level qualifications ($2,600).

The COVID-19 pandemic also hit the low-wage workers harder. Among the group, 35% suffered from job disruption, and 19% respondents interviewed experienced income loss. On the other hand, 21% of higher-wage workers suffered job disruption, and only 4% of them reported income drop. A/P Ng argues that certain virus containment measures, such as work from home arrangement, may not benefit many low-wage workers because their jobs require them to be at their workplaces physically.

It is therefore crucial to improve the training opportunities and pay for low-wage workers, and employers’ mindsets need to be changed to focus more on work performance rather than academic qualifications. According to A/P Ng, the recent expansion of the Progressive Wage Model to more industry sectors is hence welcome.

Read the article in The Straits Times here: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/community/university-grads-median-pay-is-42k-double-the-2k-of-those-with-ite-secondary-education-study