Yahoo! News Singapore, 20 Sep 2012Calibrate foreign labour policies. Continue social transfers. Invest more in education and healthcare.
These were among the ideas put forth by a financial expert, a minister of state and an opposition politician, the three panellists at a forum on how the income gap in Singapore could be addressed.
Leong Sze Hian, statistician and former president of the Society of Financial Service Professionals, said current foreign manpower policies are a key reason for the depression of wages among the lower rungs of the workforce.
“We need to calibrate and review a lot of the foreign labour policies because currently most of them are applied across the board,” he explained. “They need to be more targeted to different sectors and industries... you cannot have a system where 72 (working) hours a week becomes the norm for everyone. No one can continue working that kind of environment, and wages will continue to go down.” Full story
