By Terry Xu/ Singapore Rat Race
It is noted that Singapore has been given the title of the world’s most expensive city through a survey in 2013 conducted by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
We look back at the statistics on the Household Income Trends report 2013 released by the Singapore’s Department of Statistic on 18th February 2014. (link)

A noticeable difference between the 2013 report and with the year before is that the report no longer shows income figures excluding employer CPF contributions. Previous reports have always shown the income figures in both flavours, including or excluding employer CPF contributions.
The media reported on the the good news that the income gap has narrowed, and with the due credit going to the generous government transfers/effective curbs on the supply of foreign labour.

“The income gap has narrowed for the first time in four years, with the Gini coefficient — a measure of income equality — falling last year to a nine-year low.And after taking into account Government taxes and transfers, income disparity last year was at its lowest since 2000, when such data was collated.” – TODAY

But get this, the Gini coefficient was 0.478 in 2012 and  0.463 in 2013, a mere 0.015 drop.  In comparison, France where Paris, the city with the title of 2nd world’s most expensive city is located at, has a gini coefficient of 0.303 in 2010 (source: OECD). (Singapore was 0.480 in 2010)
The Gini coefficient is a number between 0 and 1, where 0 corresponds with perfect equality, the lesser the better.
Analysis for report of 2013 that was not mentioned in the media:
  • The bottom 10% (1st decile) increased a meagre $67 to $1,711 in 2013. Mind you, this includes employer CPF contributions!
  • Comparing the 1st decile and 10th decile, the average monthly household income per household member for the 1st decile is a paltry $463 (A wonder how a person were to survive/raise kids in Singapore?). The 10th decile is a whopping $11,198 per household member, which is 24x the 1st decile. The income level that the rich individual enjoys for 1 month, can last the poor person for 2 years!

householdincome2013

  • Big income gap even between the 9th and 10th deciles. The average monthly household income per household member for the 9th decile is $5,192 and the 10th decile is $11,198 (more than double that of the 9th decile!)

The app site, Singapore Rat Race is now updated with the new data with the released report and users can choose to see income figures including or excluding employer CPF contributions.

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