Singapore — Workers’ Party (WP) Member of Parliament (MP) Jamus Lim has noted that the progressive wage model (PWM) will raise the salaries of 30,000 workers employed as cleaners. Their wages will begin to go up from 2023. And by 2028, even the lowest-paid among them “will have a gross pay of $2,420, which will be above the #workersparty universal minimum wage (MW) call of $1,300, take-home full-time equivalent,” Assoc Prof Lim wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday (June 9).
“I’ve always maintained that the main beef with the PWM was how slow its rollout had been, and how it doesn’t guarantee that the minimum wage of the lowest-wage sector/category meets the $1,300 take-home amount that would constitute a fair living wage,” he added.
He warned that the higher pay would lead to higher costs.
However, he noted that the slight increase in prices that everyone would pay would help to improve the lives of essential workers significantly. He also said that higher wages stimulate investments that improve productivity and consequently enhance quality.
Assoc Prof Lim hoped that the minimum wage model could be extended to more sectors and changes implemented more quickly. He did acknowledge that it was “a genuine step in the right direction” and it was what the Workers’ Party was striving for.
He clarified at the end that the progressive wage model in the cleaning sector was implemented in 2015 and wages started to increase in 2017. What is new, he noted, is that proposals by the Tripartite Cluster for Cleaners (TCC) were accepted by the Government. Under the proposals accepted by the Government on June 7, the wages of cleaners will go up each year over six years from 2023.
Former Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Calvin Cheng commented on Assoc Prof Lim’s post, emphasising that everyone should realise that there would be price increases to maintain minimum wages.
Some netizens expressed a desire to help employees with low wages but also worried about how the money might end up in the pockets of the employees’ company or its shareholders instead.
Some others questioned why the changes would take such a long time to implement.
Another citizen acknowledged that it was a small step forward.
Cleaners can expect to see an increase of almost 20 per cent of their salary with the effect of the first adjustment in 2023.
/TISG
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