Is gender pay gap a real thing in Singapore? — Netizen asks ‘given the two-year benefit females get over same-aged males’ because of National Service

SINGAPORE: A Reddit user wondered if the gender pay gap is real in Singapore when considering that women start working two years ahead of men because of mandatory military service.

AWARE Singapore states, “full-time female employees aged 25 to 54 earned $0.856 for every $1.00 earned by their male counterparts.” Singapore ranked 54th out of 156 countries in the 2021 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report.

u/ComprehensiveLeg9523, who works in the tech industry, wrote on r/askSingaproe that he doesn’t see pay disparity by gender.

“If anything females my age in the same subfield and same tier of company earn even more than me since they’re over two years ahead. And those in my batch (ofc two years younger) working at my firm all pull roughly the same, barring ofc, performance-based increments.”

He added that his peers in engineering had said the same, except for the highest management levels.

“And in public stat boards, it is my understanding that only a nominal fresh grad pay difference is given, barely a few hundred dollars (2-300?) which honestly when compared to a full two year duration of increments and climbing, doesn’t even compare.

I’d argue the full two years they get ahead of same-aged males already more than accounts for, or exceeds the ‘gender discrimination’ they face right? Not accounting for ofc the top 1-5% of both genders in upper management.”

One male commenter wrote that he “lost 2 years of pay, 4 bonuses, only to get slightly ‘increase’ pay.”

A woman commented, however, that the pay gap “depends on the industry and management level.”

“When I joined the company after NS, a lady who is a few months younger than me is already fast track in a team lead position as she had joined 2.5 years ahead. And qualifications wise, we are near on par.

Now this isn’t to rag on her capabilities or sour grapes. But for any competent ambitious person, the 2 years headstart is an incredible advantage especially when you are looking for a management role. Basically you are a fool to give that up,” wrote another.

“I’ve seen women who get promoted later than their peer level males when they are ‘out of action’ during key projects because of maternity leave(s). So this might be when men play some “catch up” the NS gap at the start? With multiple maternity leaves, could the effect become greater then NS gap?” a commenter chimed in.

“Yes, gender pay disparity is a real thing because it is calculated by comparing the wages of all women relative to all men,” argued another.

/TISG

Gender wage gap still prominent even in Singapore