SINGAPORE — “Life is better overseas,” wrote an anonymous netizen on the SG Whispers Facebook page on Jan 29. He said he was an ITE grad and wondered if a Singapore plumber could earn as much as he was as a plumber in Australia.
He said he recently watched a speech by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong about “‘heart’ work and income disparity.”
“Please lah,” wrote the netizen who explained that in Singapore, as an Institute of Technical Education (ITE) graduate, he earned only $1,600 a month, while in Australia, he makes $80,000 as a plumber yearly, and this is after taxes. He asked if a Singapore plumber could earn as much.
According to a Straits Times report, Mr Wong said at the Singapore Economic Policy Forum in October last year that Singapore does not value workers who do “hands-on and heart work” while placing prime value on those who have academic success, which is seen in the increasing gap in starting pay between ITE, polytechnic and university graduates.
A university graduate’s median salary is nearly twice that of an ITE graduate, for example, and this disparity grows over their lifetimes, he added.
But the netizen on SG Whispers wrote, “I graduated from ITE. my whole life, everyone in sg looked down at me. When I started working as an ite grab (sic), I was only paid $1.6k and was told I ‘deserve’ that pay as I am from ite.
Packed my bags, left for aussie and am now a plumber. I earn more than 100k here, even after paying my taxes, I am easily earning 80k.”
He asked if an ITE graduate in Singapore in a plumbing or similar jobs can earn $80,000 a year after taxes, adding that he isn’t even the owner of a company but just a “simple plumber.”
The netizen then added that people in such jobs as “nursing, construction, plumbing” should leave Singapore for countries with better pay.
He ended his post by writing, “Pls la, minister in sg talk c**k only. End of the day, the poor plumber pay will increase from 1.6k to 1.8k max lo. Coz in sg, always will have cheaper labour across the causeway mah.”
The post has got a lot of attention, with many shares and comments, with some netizens congratulating the plumber on his success and appearing to agree with him.
Others, however, warned that the cost of living might be more expensive in Australia than in Singapore.
In his speech at the Singapore Economic Policy Forum, Mr Wong underlined the importance of valuing different types of work, saying, “All of us as Singaporeans must do our part, and be willing to pay more and bear the higher cost of goods and services delivered by our fellow workers in these different sectors and occupations.” /TISG
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