How Do You Survive?

 Around 10-years ago, I remember a Vietnamese lady asking me how much I earned. I told her that on average, I made around $3,000 a month (this being the average of my billings from self-employed freelance work). Her reply was “How you survive? You Singapore Age Three-Five – not enough to survive.”

I remember this conversation because it sums up the one topic that winds up Singaporeans from all walks to life – the costs of living in Singapore. There are variations of this “national dialogue,” but generally speaking the conversation runs something like this:

• 1.      We, the people will complain about the rising costs of everything except salaries; and
• 2.      The government will reply by pulling out statistics about how they’re giving away so much in subsidies so that a toilet cleaner can afford to own a property and then there’s also the reminder that if the said toilet cleaner has the audacity to ask for a dollar an hour more, it would raise the costs for foreign investors and therefore kill off jobs for everyone else.

The government in particular gets very defensive whenever you bring up the fact that Singapore stayed on top of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) “most expensive cities for expats,” for several years.

As my Vietnamese friend understood, Singapore is an expensive place and you need a lot of money to survive. Singapore is on paper, a very wealthy little place. Data from the World Bank shows that our GDP per capita stands at US$ 65,233.28, which is one of the highest in the world – way higher than Germany, the anchor economy in the European Union (EU).

However, things might not be so rosy behind the “sexy statistics,” on income. The median income in Singapore last year was around S$4,563 (though the take home is $3,331 after deduction for compulsory Central Provident Fund savings). If you take this at face value, it would seem that the average Singaporean earns a decent enough wage. What the government does not like publicized is the fact that two thirds (2/3) of the population earn below this figure.

That alone would not be a major issue if the “buy” side of things for most people would not be on the rise. An illustration of the costs of living has been aptly summed up by money.smart.com, a local blog that tracks financial affairs. Their article on the cost of living can be found at:

https://blog.moneysmart.sg/budgeting/cost-living-singapore/

The figure that stands out here is S$1,190, which is what one needs to live a very minimal lifestyle, of sharing government subsidized accommodation and not taking anything more than public transport.

Th next question is then, what does the average blue-collar worker need to do in order to earn this existence?

As a guide, I was paid around $10 an hour to work as a waiter at the Bistrot. A glance at the recruitment ads would indicate that this is the market rate for part-time waiters, so one can assume I was earning what the average blue-collar worker takes home. If you use this rate, the average blue-collar worker would need to work around 101 hours a month (1,190 divided by 11.70 made up of $10 an hour plus 1.7 for employers CPF contribution).

To provide one with further perspective, one has to take into account that the average working month is around 160 months based on a working day being eight hours and the working month being 20 days long (assuming Saturday and Sunday are free). Thus, the average blue-collar worker needs to spend about 63 percent of his or her working time just to sustain a minimal existence and extreme frugality would be required for one to save up enough for a home.

Now, you could argue that I was a “poster child” for the government in as much as I was a graduate who went from a corporate PR agency existence to working as a waiter earning a shade above $1,000 a month. So, how did I survive on $1,000 a month (which in practical terms is $800 since 20 percent is taken for CPF employee contributions)

The answer is that I was very lucky. I was living with family, so the biggest expense of accommodation was taken care of. I was also in a position that blue-collar workers are generally not in. I was in control of my hours. I worked the night shift only because this gave me a steady income. I had the day to work on my projects, which provided the cream.

My situation was not like the average blue-collar worker because I had some control of my time. I could work more or less according to my needs as I was on an hourly rate and so it made sense for me to work more hours.

The reality is that most blue-collar workers are tied to a single employer and funnily enough, under exclusive contracts that prohibit them from doing work on the side. The tradeoff is simple – there’s a regular pay cheque but the worker is obliged to work more hours at the employer’s discretion.

 It’s especially tough for foreign workers who are prohibited from earning a side hustle, even if the actual employer does not pay them (apparently, it’s a privilege for foreign workers to get denied what is due to them, particularly in insolvency situations).  

Somehow “productivity” is an issue when it comes to raising the wages of blue-collar work. So, what can be done about it? Thinking about things like a minimum wage cannot be done without some well-heeled member of the ruling class lecturing you on how it scares away foreign investors. How can this be sustainable, especially when you have some of the best paid politicians in the world lecturing you on being poor and slogging to earn a few pennies.

Surely, its time we actually looked at the social contract. What can we do to give blue-collar workers a better negotiating position? How can we make blue-collar work more appreciated? Can we reward blue-collar workers for doing good work thus giving them an incentive to be better at their jobs, which in turn can only be good for society. Back in my military days, we were told that the generals can make beautiful plans but only remain plans if the soldiers don’t execute. Isn’t it time that Singapore’s highly militarized government remember this wisdom and start looking at how blue-collar workers get the respect they deserve and the chance to live a relatively comfortable life from the sweat of their labour?