Netizen asks why engineering graduates in Singapore earn $4.5K while in the US they make more than $7K

SINGAPORE: A lively discussion was spawned when a Reddit user posted a question asking why the salaries of engineering graduates in Singapore are lower than in other countries.

“Why are engineering salaries so low in singapore compared to US/Australia?” asked u/Hurt_cow in a Reddit Singapore thread on Wednesday (March 1), adding, “According to the GES, the median starting salary for an engineering student in singapore is $4.5k while in the US the overall average is more than 7k. Why are engineering salaries so low here?”

The 2022 GES, or Graduate Employment Survey, says that the average salary for a fresh graduate of engineering from a Singapore university such as NTU or NUS is $4,600, which is higher than it was in 2020 and 2021, when it had $3,900, and a quick Google search does show that the post owner was right in saying their salaries in the US and Australia are higher.

The post has received over 200 comments so far and in one of the most upvoted comments, a Reddit user who is an engineer who has worked for ten years in Singapore painstakingly laid out five reasons why.

He wrote that “engineering work is not well understood by many in management” in Singapore, manufacturing has been given a greater push than research and development (engineering), and systemic factors like a small domestic market make it difficult to do R & D in the country, Singaporean engineers face cost pressure from cheaper foreigners, and “all the above factors combine to contribute to the fact that there aren’t big engineering opportunities in Singapore.”

Another Reddit user chimed in that “engineering is one of the sectors where wages are heavily pushed down due to unrestricted exposure to FT engineers from CH, PH and of course MY etc.”

Meanwhile, a commenter wrote, “The cost of hiring one engineer in Singapore is the same as that of hiring 3 engineers in Malaysia or 5 in Thailand.”

“Engineers are not that appreciated in Singapore sadly,” one agreed.

One netizen pointed out that “Most Civil Engineers don’t become engineers. They rather do finance where all the money is at.”

“The only engineer which is paid well in Singapore is the Sales Engineer,” another wrote.

You can continue reading the Reddit thread here. /TISG

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