A recent survey said that taking on more responsibilities for the same pay is more common in Singapore than people might think, according to a news written by Today.
Specialised recruitment company Robert Half held an independent research which showed that only 17 per cent of Singaporean companies always provide a pay rise with a promotion. The report said that the annual study surveyed 100 chief financial officers (CFO) and finance directors in Singapore.
“The study shows that size of the company may not matter as 21 per cent of medium-sized companies are more inclined to always give pay rises with a promotion. By contrast, only 15 per cent of both large and small companies are inclined to do the same,” Today wrote.
It was also said that about 43 per cent of the finance leaders surveyed said the primary reason for promoting without attributing a corresponding salary increase is because they wanted “to assess an employee’s performance first before remuneration is increased”.
Other reasons cited for not giving a pay rise with a promotion included the lack of “financial resources to increase salaries” (22 per cent). While 11 percent said promotions were given because “the role had to be filled urgently”. And seven percent said that remuneration was too high for the employee’s previous position.
Said Mr Imbert-Bouchard, “With Singapore’s tight labour market and low unemployment rate, and in order to hold on to their top performers, employers need to reward their best employees by giving them career advancement opportunities.”
This information garnered public reaction towards the issue, most of which are negative and some pessimistic about the benefits that Singapore workers can look forward to.
David Hoo wrote, “That is why we Singaporean workers always cannot catch when inflation hits us every year. Bosses can take short cuts & shortchange employee whenever they can they will do it. Government proposes AWS yearly but does companies follows it nobody knows also.”
Riza Marhaban wrote, “This is how CFO and HR tricked workers not to ask for pay raise. Good work! It is common now, IMO, I saw lots of leadership articles, blogs, work lifestyle, etc. that these managerial people creating articles like motivation, productivity, etc. They always use like the term growth mindset and productivity. Hell yeah…! lol… what they want is, you work like hell and should not ask for better pay and life.”
Tony Aw wrote, “And why is it the government of Singapore aren’t doing anything about it? Isn’t there supposed to be a government body that’s supposed to do audits on companies to make sure they’re paying their staff right?”
Some suggestions also written by the netizens. ShaoWei Li wrote, “Heya, I don’t think this is something that the govt can assist. But the govt can mandate 13th months bonus like in Indonesia. Technically it’s hard work and not a bonus. It’s either the salary increase or the cost of living decrease. But companies that have vested interest from stockholders or VC will always have problems paying out bonuses.”
Cedric Lim wrote, “If not happy with your job, quit complaining and start a business then create jobs that pay others well. I hated my job so much. I quit, got into business and never look back. Complains are not productive and these are one of the reasons why Singaporeans are not favourable employees to bosses. The few successful people are producers. The majority are consumers and they complain.”
Abdul Malik Mohammed Ghazali wrote, “Work for MNCs, especially European and US ones. The compensation plans for Singaporean companies are rubbish compared to theirs.”
