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This is an extremely interesting report from the MOM. If you're interested in how much the grad from NUS EEE earns on average or how much a bellboy earns or what is the average differential in earnings between males and females for the same position, this report will shed some light.
I have yet to study the report in detail (not sure if I want to), but here are some observations from the report.
Diploma holders who graduate and then go on to serve NS earn more
They earn more than than their counterparts who do not have NS liability or served their NS before going on to study. I would have thought those who enter the workforce immediately after graduating would have earned more. They still earn less than degree holders though, by what I think is not a small margin.
Income bracket grouping for CPF contributors
All earnings refer to monthly wage.
About 14.2% of them earn $5000 and above.
About 29.2% of them earn $1499 and below.
The largest group (for intervals of $1000 in monthly wage) stands at about 22.8% for those earning $2000-$2999.
Wage differentials between the sexes
I gave it a quick look and found that most of the time, men do earn more than women.
For managers, the guy gets about $1000 more each month for basic and gross compared to the gal.
For professionals, the guy gets about $400 more each each month for basic and gross compared to the gal.
Information technology positions were among the lowest earning group among professionals.
Quoting the report "Highlights on Occupational Wages, 2005":
Occupying the lower five positions were mainly information technology related occupations, namely systems designers & analysts ($2,200); software engineers ($1,711) and applications programmers ($1,700). This reflects the strong competition of programmers from low-cost countries.
Not very surprising huh? From what I know, degree holders still have a better cut of the deal, as in most of them will still earn above $2.2K. Asking around, diploma holders are a lot worse off, I have heard of them being paid from $1.4K to $1.6K. This also ties in with my observation that there are many PRCs, Indian nationals, Indonesians and Vietnamese working in IT locally because the barriers to entry for the IT profession in Singapore is much lower than say, medicine, law, engineering or teaching, and the strong Singapore dollar.
The situation is more complex than that since wages are rising in India and PRC, in addition to other costs brought about by the high turnover rate. Moreover, mutual recogntion agreements that accompany FTAs will lower the barrier to entry to various professions including doctors and accountants. What we may see could be stronger competition in professions other than IT in a few years time.
Other interesting information
The report is really full of interesting tidbits, like what is the average commencing salary of fresh grads from each course in the local universities. One of the more interesting tables is the one titled "Median Monthly Basic and Gross Wages of Selected Occupations by Age in All Industries". If you believe in benchmarking yourself against others from the same job and age group, this one could give you a sense of bearings.
If you are interested in salary guides, here's another one from Kelly Services, but I don't think it'll be as accurate as MOM's but it's a guide.
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