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Working poor ‘not earning enough to make ends meet’

SINGAPORE — A new study has shown that the working poor in Singapore are not getting enough pay to make ends meet. “Working poor” is defined as someone earning less than half of the average monthly income of a Singaporean, which is now S$3,000.

SINGAPORE — A new study has shown that the working poor in Singapore are not getting enough pay to make ends meet. “Working poor" is defined as a working person whose income per household member is less than half of the national median per capita household income of Singapore, which now stands at S$1,920.

The survey on poverty attitudes by the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Social Work Department showed that those who need money want to work, and that there are jobs available for them. It has been reported that there are more than 300,000 Singaporeans and permanent residents who earn less than S$1,500 a month (excluding employer CPF contributions) despite working full-time.

The study, released yesterday, showed that 66.4 per cent of respondents said there are jobs available for aid recipients who want to work. But 85 per cent said these jobs are not paying enough for them to support a family.

Among the reasons is the fact that about 90 per cent of the one million jobs created in the last decade are from the services sector. Observers say such jobs are lowly paid to begin with.

About 60 per cent of respondents said the Government is not spending enough to help the poor, and about half said they are willing to pay more taxes to help the Government raise social spending to help the disadvantaged.

Experts at a dialogue session also made a call for a minimum wage, saying that it was one way to force firms to pay workers decent wages.

Singapore already has the Workfare Income Supplement Scheme, in which the Government subsidises the wages of a low-income worker. The Government has said this is a form of minimum wage. But participants questioned if it has the desired effect. The study covered 383 Singaporeans across various income levels and ethnic groups.

Associate Professor Hui Weng Tat of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy said: “We do have a problem because we do have a large number of households, who are earning income in the lower end, not having enough to cover their household expenditure, especially at the lower 20 per cent.”

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