Young Generation's Salary Expectations in Singapore Spark Debates: Are They Realistic?

SINGAPORE — Singapore’s young generation of university students have recently stirred the pot with their salary expectations upon graduation. In a video posted on Sunday (Jan 29), a few university students were interviewed on their expected salaries. One young lady said, “I study Business Administration, Majoring in Finance, and I have a double Major in Economics.”

When asked how much she expects to earn when she starts working, she replied, “Okay, there’s a difference between expect and hope…” The interviewer then rephrased the question, asking, “Okay, that you think you will earn.” The young woman then answered, “10,000 SGD.”

The next interviewees were two individuals in their year two Computer Science students. “Do you guys study so hard?” the interviewer asked. “Pretty much the whole day,” they responded.

“But the best salary in NUS would be a law or a medicine degree?” they were asked.

“I think based on a study done last year, it was actually Computer science,” one of them said. “But if you’re looking at the whole Singapore, I think the first ranking is like Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Computer Science and Business double degree… followed by the Law and Medicine.”

“So even doctors don’t earn as much as Computer Science?” asked the host. “Initially… for starting salary,” they responded. “I think the last time we saw was 5,000 to 6,000 SGD… that was the average.”

A third Singaporean who is a Philosophy student said, “I want to go into academia. That’s the trajectory. I think with a Philosophy degree, it’s quite versatile because it teaches you critical thinking skills, so you can go into, like, business, banking, consulting… law even. I know that some of my friends have an expected salary of 9,000 SGD per month.”

In response to the video, many Singaporeans with much more experience expressed their surprise over the high expectations of the young generation of Singaporean workers.

“Do you think money comes very easy?” said one, “They don’t have any experience, they’re (just) fresh graduates (and they) expect 9k?”

Another commented, “Ask any business owner (if they would) pay a zero experience master degree holder for 10k.”

Still, someone wrote, “Truly amazing…with zero experience.”