SG bus driver & cleaner wages lowest compared to Nordic counterparts: Netizens reshare Tommy Koh’s 2012 ST article, comparing SG high tax rates & low salaries

The GST tax hike from 7 to 9 per cent is set to be raised one percentage point each time on Jan 1, 2023, and Jan 1, 2024.

Resharing a 2012 article in the Straits Times by Tommy Koh, netizens point out that if one wants to talk about the tax rates, they should also look at salaries as well.

Ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh wrote in a 2012 article ‘What Singapore can learn from Europe’ about how four Nordic nations do better in birth rates, equality, heritage, and the environment. In his piece, he wrote: “The average monthly wages of the cleaner and bus driver in the five countries are as follows:

Singapore Cleaner S$800
Bus driver S$1,800

Denmark Cleaner S$5,502
Bus driver S$6,193

Finland Cleaner S$2,085
Bus driver S$3,910

Norway 3 Cleaner S$5,470
Bus driver S$6,260

Sweden Cleaner S$3,667
Bus driver S$4,480″.

Though his statistics may not be entirely accurate today, they served as a talking point for netizens in a Facebook group SG Opposition, who commented on Singapore’s high tax rates and what they felt were very low salaries.

Their post on May 20 also came just before the May 23 announcement by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) that Singapore’s core inflation had reached a 12-year high of 3.3 per cent. 

“The increase was driven by higher inflation for food, retail & other goods, as well as electricity & gas,” the statement said.

Core inflation, which excludes accommodation and private transport costs, is now the highest it’s been since January 2012, when it was at  3.5 per cent. /TISG

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