Singapore workers earning more

Singapore workers earning more
Mid-point in range of incomes up 5.3% from last year to hit $2,633

By Cai Haoxiang

THE monthly salary of Singapore workers went up this year, for the second year in a row.

Their median income – the mid-point in a range – was $2,633 in June compared to $2,500 a year ago, a 5.3 per cent increase led by economic growth and a tighter labour market.

The rise is even steeper when part-time workers are taken out of the equation, according to a Manpower Ministry report yesterday on the earnings and employment of residents, including permanent residents.

It shows full-time workers’ median income to be $2,925 a month against $2,708 last year – an 8 per cent rise.

After taking into account projected inflation of about 5 per cent, their real wages rose by an estimated 2.8 per cent, said the ministry’s Singapore Workforce 2011 report.

But for all workers, including part-timers, the real wage increase was just 0.1 per cent, said labour economist Hui Weng Tat of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

Noting the Government’s goal to raise real median incomes by 30 per cent over 10 years, Dr Hui said it would require an average increase of 2.7 per cent a year.

‘Attention thus needs to be focused on improving the wages and work opportunities of the 194,700 part-time workers, as they are increasing in number, and half of them indicate they want to work longer hours,’ he added.

The report also disclosed for the first time median income figures that include the Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions of employers.

With CPF, the income of full-timers soared to $3,250, which is $250 more every month than last year.

Explaining the new move, a ministry spokesman said employer CPF contributions form a ‘significant part of compensation… and can be used for housing and health care’.

Hence, it will publish the figures yearly to give ‘a more complete picture of residents’ income growth’, she said.

The rise in income this year builds on last year’s increase, which was a turnaround from the decline caused by the 2008-09 recession.

Last year, the strong economic recovery lifted the monthly income by 3.3 per cent, from $2,420.

This year, the increase is fuelled largely by strong employment growth, especially in the services sector, coupled with curbs on the inflow of unskilled labour and stricter conditions for employing skilled foreign workers, said economists interviewed.

‘Wages were pushed higher with the big projects like the Marina Bay Sands and Sentosa resorts needing a lot of labour, together with the tightening of foreign worker inflows like increased levies,’ said National University of Singapore economist Shandre Thangavelu.

These moves pushed the employment rate to a new high of 78 per cent for residents aged 25 to 64.

At the same time, immigration conditions were tightened, causing a decline in the number of permanent residents.

As a result, the resident labour force went up by just 1.6 per cent to 2.08 million, compared to an annual average of 2.6 per cent in the past 10 years.

On the other hand, more older residents and women were working this year.

A record 61.2 per cent of residents aged 55 to 64 were working, up from 59 per cent a year ago.

Similarly, with women aged 25 to 54, the number of employed rose to 73 per cent, from 71.7 per cent last year.

Labour leader Cham Hui Fong cheered the increases in these two groups, saying they show that efforts of unionists are paying off. Said Ms Cham, assistant secretary-general of NTUC: ‘Companies are now prepared to hire and spend time training these workers.’

Also, more government funds are available, she added, citing the Advantage scheme that helps companies redesign jobs for older workers.

Another is the Inclusive Growth Programme, which gives grants to companies to invest in high-tech equipment and redesign jobs for low-wage workers in return for raising their pay.

‘We hope these schemes will continue because we need to build up the momentum,’ said Ms Cham.

Singapore ranked 4th most costly city

Singapore ranked 4th most costly city
PropertyGuru.com.sg – Fri, Sep 23, 2011

Singapore has been ranked as the fourth most costly destination in Savills’ World Cities Review report, with the average value of luxury homes in the country increasing 144 percent over the past five years.

“Singapore has the highest concentration of millionaire households in the world (16 percent with US$1 million plus), and the capacity to buy residential property is obviously high,” said Savills.

Home values of the super-rich in the top 10 cities worldwide climbed 10 percent in the first six months, according to the report, higher than the average price growth of six percent for ordinary properties in similar cities and lower than the 65 percent growth in ultra-prime properties over the past five years.

“We recently identified ten world class cities whose real estate markets have more in common with each other than the mainstream markets of the counties in which they operate, and they are all attracting billionaires’ dollars, whether generated at home or overseas,” said Yolande Barnes, Director of Residential Research at Savills.

In a league of its own for super prime prices, Hong Kong led the list at £6,700 psf, ahead of Tokyo and Paris at £5,190 psf and £3,290 psf respectively. In addition, prices of ultra-prime properties in Hong Kong are more than double London’s average luxury property prices and over 10 times that in Sydney, which has been ranked the cheapest location for billionaires.

“At the foot of the table, Sydney still offers great value and is extremely well located to take advantage of Asian wealth if and when its policies restricting international buying are relaxed,” said Savills, adding that the average price of Sydney’s ultra-high-value homes stood at £590 psf.

Since 2005, the price growth of ultra-high-value homes has been the highest in the emerging “new world” economies of Singapore at +144 percent, followed by Mumbai at +138 percent, Moscow at +110 percent and Hong Kong at +83 percent. This pattern reflects the geography of the new wealth generation, as well as the creation of new billionaires over that period.

Higher starting pay for fresh graduates

CNA
14 September 2011

SINGAPORE: Fresh graduates salaries are showing an upward trend this year, according to the Fresh Graduate Pay Survey by global management consultancy the Hay Group.

The findings showed engineering jobs are still in demand and fresh engineering graduates can expect to earn about $2,745 per month.

This is slightly higher than the starting salaries for jobs in the legal (S$2,738) and production (S$2,728) services for fresh graduates.

The survey in July this year drew participation from 100 companies across general industries in Singapore.

It showed that average starting salary for degree holders was S$2,593 per month.

Diploma holders are also expected to fare better this year in the jobs market.

Their average starting pay was $1,799 per month.

Design and creative jobs topped the list of hot jobs for diploma holders who can command slightly higher starting salaries of about $1,900 per month.

The survey said employers place a premium of 44.7 per cent for degree holders over diploma holders in terms of starting salaries.

The premium which employers place on a master’s degree over general degree holders is lesser at 11.1 per cent.

One in four employer surveyed said they pay premiums to male employees who have completed National Service, with the average premium at S$166.

Bengawan Solo

Domestic goddess
by Huang Lijie
The Straits Times

Mrs Anastasia Liew, 62, fumbles to hide her hands from the camera.

Wearing a single diamond ring and no nail polish, the founder and managing director of Bengawan Solo cake shop says to the photographer: ‘Can you not photograph my hands? They don’t look good. These hands have been making cakes for more than 30 years.’

Her remark is more self-conscious than vain. But really she should be prouder of her hands – they have helped build her confectionery business from the kitchen of an HDB flat into an empire with a turnover of $43 million last year.

And its cookies such as gula melaka (palm sugar) kueh bangkit and pineapple tarts will retail at London’s famous Selfridges for a week in October in a shopping aisle dedicated to Singapore food products. This is a tie-up facilitated by International Enterprise Singapore, which promotes the overseas growth of home-grown businesses.

The cake chain is also actively scouting for locations in Hong Kong and Japan to open outlets in the next two years.

She says: ‘Our business in Singapore is stable so I dare to take the risk and open in places such as Hong Kong and Japan where we are well known. Their tourists form a large part of our customers.’

Bengawan Solo’s overseas expansion plans were prematurely announced at least six years ago by her son Henry, the younger of her two children and the company’s business development director.

‘He was new to the business and spoke without thinking. I scolded him afterwards,’ she says while affectionately slapping the knee of the 31-year-old National University of Singapore business administration graduate, who sits beside her during the interview in her Holland Road bungalow.

She acknowledges that her strict demand to maintain the standard of her products delayed the company’s move into foreign markets.

Sourcing key ingredients such as fresh pandan and coconut for overseas manufacture was an obstacle and she refused to compromise by using processed substitutes.

She says: ‘Ours is not a bread business where with one dough recipe you can make many different types of bread. Our kueh and cakes have individual recipes that need to be perfected by the workers.’

Her solution: a second factory. The new factory located in Woodlands Link, built at a cost of $5.2 million, began operating this year, almost doubling its production capacity so it can now export its confections without worrying about inconsistency.

Good quality has been the hallmark of Bengawan Solo since day one.

Mrs Liew would buy fresh pandan and coconut rather than stint and use bottled pandan essence or packet coconut milk for the cakes she sold to supermarkets in the 1970s. The effort paid off. Although her cakes cost more, 45 cents compared to the market rate of 30 cents, because of more expensive ingredients, they were a hit.

‘The supermarket manager asked me why I sold my cakes so expensive but I knew mine were better, more fragrant. My cakes always sold out,’ she says with pride in her voice.

Most of Bengawan Solo’s more than 50 types of kueh and cakes, including kueh lapis and lapis sagu, continue to be handmade by more than 130 factory staff to preserve their homemade goodness.

Yet she readily embraces technology if it improves her confections.

‘In the past, you could throw my pineapple tarts against the wall and they wouldn’t break. Now, they melt in the mouth,’ she says.

The secret: machines imported from Japan in the 1990s that produce a thin and even crust.

Another key to Bengawan Solo’s success: Mrs Liew takes feedback seriously.

Earlier this year, some customers complained that her premium pineapple tarts, which use a blend of top-grade butter from Australia and Holland, tasted too strongly of butter.

Eventually she found out that the quality of the Dutch butter had slipped and she immediately reverted to using just one type of butter.

Madam Chen Lee Fung, 40, head of the icing department at Bengawan Solo and an employee of 16 years, says: ‘If we are lazy and take short cuts, she will tell us off. But she is also patient enough to show us the right way to do things when we make mistakes.

‘Once, when the cake moulds were not cleaned to her standard, she rolled up her sleeves and showed the workers how to do it.’

From young, Mrs Liew was assiduous. When she was schooling, she always made sure she was among the top three in class.

Born Tjendri Anastasia to a housewife mother and provision store owner father in Bangka Island off Palembang, Indonesia, the third of eight siblings grew up in Palembang.

After civil unrest in the country in the 1960s forced her to stop school at Secondary 3, she signed up for baking and cooking classes to upgrade herself.

Improving on the recipes she was taught, she conducted culinary classes for housewives and young women in the kitchen of her family terrace house.

The income from these classes allowed her to take more lessons in cooking as well as dress-making in Jakarta before coming to Singapore in 1970 to brush up on her English.

In 1973, she married accounts executive Johnson Liew, a fellow Indonesian Chinese based in Singapore who is 15 years her senior. They are both Singapore citizens and their two children were born in Singapore.

Two years after marriage, the restless housewife began making butter and chiffon cakes from the kitchen of her four- room flat in Marine Parade to sell to friends. It became so popular that a department store in Lucky Plaza went as far as to set up a special retail counter selling her cakes.

The store, however, did not have a licence to sell food so when the law caught up with it, it pointed its fingers at Mrs Liew, who was unaware that her unlicensed home-baking business was illegal.

She stopped her business immediately but customers kept asking for her confections, so a couple of months later, she invested a few thousand dollars to open a store in an HDB shophouse close to home. She named it Bengawan Solo after the popular Indonesian song about Indonesia’s Solo River.

A 1981 Sunday Times article praising its cakes and kueh turned the already popular shop into an overnight sensation.

All-day queue

She says: ‘People would queue outside the shop before it opened and there would still be a line at closing time when all the cakes had sold out.’

The enthusiastic response led to the opening of another outlet in Centrepoint in 1983 and her husband joined her as the company’s accounts director.

By 1987, Bengawan Solo had five stores and a central kitchen in Harvey Road. It became so successful that investors knocked on her door with huge bids to buy over the company, which has never experienced negative growth and remains in the family to this day.

The tempting offers continue to pour in for her company but she remains unmoved because she cannot bear to part with her ‘baby’.

Besides, her son is interested in carrying on the legacy.

She says: ‘When my son, then about 12, overheard that a company wanted to buy us, he said, ‘Mummy, you cannot sell it. I want to run the company.’ ‘

Her younger sister and daughter- in-law also work in Bengawan Solo as the head of the kueh-making department and store operations manager respectively.

Her daughter, Rissa, 35, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point, prefers to pursue her interest in real estate for now. The mother of two is a property agent.

Although Bengawan Solo is a family- run business, not all recipes are known only to family members. The heads of certain cake departments know the recipes for products under their charge and they are told to keep them to themselves.

Sure, her recipes may leak out, Mrs Liew admits, but she prefers to trust her employees and few have betrayed her good faith, she says.

She says: ‘Many years ago there was a worker who learnt my recipes and started his own shop. But it did not take off and the shop closed down after a short while.’

Her soft-hearted nature is what endears her to her employees.

Workers with difficulty paying off their home loans for example, have received five-figure interest-free loans from her that are repaid by monthly deductions from their salaries.

Staff who encounter emergencies such as severe illness in the family have also received help from her in the form of doctor recommendations and cash.

And when busy festive periods end, she often rewards her workers with a meal and karaoke session where she lets her hair down and sings along with the group.

Mrs Elizabeth Ong, 58, director of a biomedical company who has known Mrs Liew for 10 years through volunteer grassroots activities with the Jurong GRC, says: ‘She is an unassuming person who is able to relate to people from all walks of life.’

Mrs Liew continues to be hands-on with the business, making trips to the outlets to gather customer feedback and going on inspection rounds at the factory seven days a week.

With the opening of its 43rd store at Ion Orchard next week, she certainly has her work cut out for her.

She is, however, trying to slowly hand over the reins to the next generation because she understands that age is catching up with her.

‘I certainly hope Bengawan Solo will continue as a family business through the generations and become an internationally renowned brand.’

Singaporeans want to marry but don’t look actively for mate: Study

ST, 17 August 2011
By Theresa Tan

MOST Singaporean singles here long to be married, but are just leaving it to fate. Few actively hunt for a spouse, and believe that Mr or Miss Right will appear magically when Cupid strikes.

That’s one of the main findings from new research on Singaporean Chinese singles by Professor Gavin Jones, a demographer with 45 years’ experience who has been based at the Asia Research Institute here since 2003.

He also found out that most singles here will not lower their expectations of a life partner just for the sake of marrying. Many are just too busy with work to hunt for a mate, while some avoid the dating market for practical reasons.

For example, less educated men who feel they don’t have enough money to start a family or find it hard to get a girlfriend, he noted.

When it comes to finding a husband, his findings showed that Singaporean women place great emphasis on a man’s ‘economic success’. They want a man who has greater – or at least equal – earning power.

One study respondent, a security guard in his 30s who earns about $1,500 a month, said that his girlfriend broke up with him because his pay was too low.

Prof Jones noted this materialistic streak is ‘very widespread’ and ‘more marked’ among East Asian women.
Continue reading “Singaporeans want to marry but don’t look actively for mate: Study”

Avoiding gossip is secret to 113-year-old's long life

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An ex-Hongkonger, social worker known as ‘Mother Teresa of Singapore’ tries to keep a peaceful mind
Joyce Ng
SCMP Aug 08, 2011
Steering clear of gossip is the key to a long life, a 113-year-old Singaporean woman says.

Returning to Hong Kong in a wheelchair seven decades after she left the city, Teresa Hsu Chih said keeping a peaceful mind was her secret to longevity.

A well-known social worker in the Lion City, Hsu said she still occasionally did counselling work.

She was speaking as a guest at event held by the Hong Kong Health Care Association on Aging a few hours after flying in from Singapore.

Assisted by a care-giver, she can communicate slowly in Cantonese, Putonghua and English.

Daily meditation was also important, Hsu said.

“You just sit in peace. Think about what pain people suffer and what you can do to share your love,” she said.

Staying single may also have helped.

“I am not married. There’s no guy there to yell at me,” she said with a broad grin.

A vegetarian diet with lots of fruits is another secret to Hsu’s longevity. She starts a typical day by eating two raw eggs, with the yolk used as a facial mask. She likes soft fruits, such as melon, papaya and avocado.

Hsu said she did not have any disease common among the elderly, such as diabetes and osteoporosis.

Taking the flight yesterday, however, raised her blood pressure a little, as a doctor found when he measured it at the event.

Hsu is often referred to as the Mother Teresa of Singapore, where she started a non-governmental organisation to help the aged and sick in 1961.

She was born in 1898 in Guangdong and moved to Hong Kong aged 16, working as a cleaner while taking evening lessons in English.

During the second world war, she quit her job as a secretary and bookkeeper and went to Chongqing as a volunteer. At 47, she began to train as a nurse in Britain, where she worked for the next decade.

In 1961, she settled in Singapore and began her lifelong vocation of helping the needy.

Hsu returns to Singapore today.

Sim Kee Boon 沈基文

Sim Kee Boon (simplified Chinese: 沈基文; pinyin: Shěn Jīwén) was one of Singapore’s pioneer civil servants – men who worked closely with the Old Guard political leaders and played a key role in the success of Changi Airport and turned the fortunes of Keppel Shipyard around.

He graduated with Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Economics from University of Malaya in 1953, and joined the civil service that year. By 1962, at just 33, he was made acting permanent secretary in the National Development Ministry, before taking charge of the Finance Ministry as well as Intraco, the state trading company. He was also Chairman and member of the Council of Presidential Advisers.

As Permanent Secretary at the Communications Ministry from 1975 to 1984, he made his name in the history books as the man behind was then the biggest civil project in Singapore – the construction and opening of Changi Airport – managing every aspect of the project from land reclamation to squatter resettlement. To Sim, Changi Airport project was his ‘national service’ to Singapore.

When Sim was given the mammoth task, he knew little about building an airport. Yet he approached the task as a layman, often asking questions and consulting his officers and staff. His hands-on, consultative management style kept staff on their toes, making sure they understand the importance of Changi project and nothing was to be overlooked. Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) chairman Liew Mun Leong remembered that Sim asked for mosaic tile samples from contractors to be displayed so staff could give feedback on tiles for the airport walls.

Sim was also known for his attention to details. As Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) for 15 years from 1984, he ensured that the airport had kept up with if not, exceed world-class quality standards. From airport management software to the texture of trolley handles, he insisted every aspect of customer experience must keep up with its impressive infrastructure. The quality of toilets at the Airport was even under his radar. He was quoted saying that the first and last point of exposure to an airport is the toilet. It gives you an impression of the country.

He also introduced free local phone calls in the transit area and the famous ’12-minute rule’. This means the first bag must be ready for retrieval 12 minutes after an aircraft grounds to a halt. He would even walk around the Changi terminals frequently, instituting the habit of ‘Management by Walking Around’ in CAAS. Mr David Lum, Managing Director of Lum Chang Holdings remembered that he would make an effort to look around airport, by reaching the place one or two hours earlier and board the plane at the last minute. And finally, he also stressed that the different players – CAAS, immigration and customs authorities, airport retailers, eateries – must work together as a team for Changi to succeed.

Sim’s success in his work did not stop with the development of Changi Airport. Between the years 1984 and 1999, Sim was serving concurrently as Chairmen of Keppel Corporation and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore. It came to him at first, that he would end Keppel as it was making losses then. Instead he took the reins and once again demonstrated his canniness and swift in his decision-making and implementation. Mr Lim Chee Onn, who was executive chairman of Keppel Corporation at the time attributed Sim’s visionary abilities and his optimism ‘during those very trying times’ as factors which led to the renewed growth of Keppel within 5 years. With first signs of rejuvenation for Keppel, Sim diversified Keppel’s portfolios into other fields like engineering, property, financial services as well as developing shipyards in other parts of the world. Keppel Corporation had become a success story that befits the image of a Singapore business icon.

Another success story of Sim was when he was the founding chairman of Tanah Merah Country Club, where he built it from scratch on a barren land, and into one of Singapore’s best country clubs.

As Sim and his wife Jeannette were avid golfers, Tanah Merah Country Club was like his ‘second home’. He would also personally greet new Tanah Merah Country Club members. In October 2007 his illness took a turn for the worse, and had to undergo chemotherapy. Even so, Mr Edwin Khoo, committee member at the Tanah Merah Country Club, would still see Sim regularly at the club and walking with a tube under his shirt. When he could not get himself on the greens and play, Sim would still putt around and join golf buddies for drinks most weekends for two hours.

Of his contributions to the club, Mr Khoo said Mr Sim, a passionate golfer, single-handedly turned the barren land into the “best-run club in Singapore’, and was very proud of it.

“He always had a simple message for us committee members: to run this club well, and to make the best of what we can do. It was a simple but powerful message,” he said. He added that Mr Sim went to the club’s golf course every weekend for about two hours even when he could not play golf because of his failing health.

Businessman and Singapore’s Ambassador to Turkey, Mr Chandra Das, 68, who worked directly for Mr Sim when he was in the Economic Development Board in the mid-1960s and mid-1970s, said his former boss had taught him two things.

“First, there is no such thing as black or white. There are no fixed answers and there isn’t just one way of doing things. You must be flexible. There is a lot of grey. He was a specialist in the grey,” Mr Das told The Straits Times.

“The second thing he told me when I left EDB to join Intraco: He said in EDB there are two people playing chess and you are giving advice. In Intraco, you are a chess player.”

He described Mr Sim as “a very sharp and intuitive man, and a good teacher.” “He said you can make mistakes so long as you don’t repeat them. He was also very task-oriented and a stickler for work,’ added Mr Khoo.

“I remember I took a day off to go to the Registrar of Marriages to get married. After the ceremony, he called the ROM and said: Is Chandra Das there? Tell him to come back to work.”

Added Mr David Lum, managing director of Lum Chang Holdings, where Mr Sim was adviser since 2000, : ‘Whenever he’s at any airports, he would make an effort to look around. He’d try to go to the airport about one or two hours earlier and board the plane at the last minute.’

A hands-on man with exacting standards, he made frequent unannounced walks around the Changi terminals, instituting the habit of Management by Walking Around (MBW) in CAAS. The demand for the best holds true even on the greens, as the founder chairman built the Tanah Merah Country Club into one of Singapore’s best.

Said the club’s president Tan Puay Huat: ‘He’s not satisfied until everything is near perfect.’

Ms Mavis Tan, who was personal assistant to Mr Sim for 19 1/2 years since 1984 till he retired in 2000, said he was a boss with a kind heart but had high expectations of his staff, always challenging them to come up with solutions.

“I learnt a lot under him as I always had to anticipate what he would ask. It never failed to impress me that he had such wide first hand connections in the region,’ she said.

Staff at Keppel Group also said they benefited from Mr Sim’s leadership during his 16 years tenure as Group Executive Chairman.

Leading the tributes from the group, Mr Lim Chee Onn, Executive Chairman of Keppel Corporation, said: “He developed a strong and stable platform for Keppel upon which we have been able to develop and grow at a sustained pace during these last 8 years. Keppel’s success today is a result of his vision and efforts.

‘As his colleague, I have learnt much from him through his inimitable style, particularly his great sense of optimism and cheerfulness even during very trying times.’

Ms Wang Look Fung, General Manager of the group corporate communications, added: ‘Mr Sim was respected and loved. In all his years at Keppel, he has taught me always to be first a Singaporean and then a Keppelite in my thinking process because what is good for Singapore will be good for the future of Keppel. I learned a lot from one of the finest masters in the art of communication.

‘I will always remember him as one who has a meticulous attention for details as well as an infectious joire de vivre, always affable and charming to everyone he meets.’

Mr Choo Chiau Beng, Senior Executive Director of Keppel Corp, and Chairman and CEO of Keppel Offshore and Marine, said he will remember Mr Sim as a successful man who was always able to balance well the demands of business and public service with family life and a passion for golf.

“He was an excellent boss – he demanded results but was human and caring. He always kept his cool like holing the final putt in an important 18th hole!’

He died on 9 November 2007 at the Singapore General Hospital, after a 17-year battle with stomach cancer.