Singapore managers bag Asia's third highest disposable income

A new report by management consultancy Hay Group finds Singaporean managers enjoying more disposable income compared to most of their Asian peers.

It lags behind Hong Kong, which continues to dominate the disposable income rankings in Asia, outstripping closest competitors Thailand and Singapore by over 35 percentage points.

Ranked after Singapore in the same category for disposable income was Korea, followed by Japan and China.

According to Hay Group, a scarcity of senior management talent and the laws of supply and demand have outweighed the impact of the crisis on senior managers pay, leading to greater pay gaps. In terms of management spending power, it reports that the Gulf States still dominate the rankings, although Chile, Romania and Turkey are surprising hot spots for managers

In terms of the pay gap between managers and clerical staff, the developing economies of China, Indonesia and Thailand continue to top the global rankings.

In Singapore the pay gap has widened slightly from 4.9 times in 2006 to 5.0 in 2009, partly as a result of the global financial crisis.

However, it is suggested that government schemes in Singapore have helped the country to ameliorate the issue of the widening pay gaps that is happening globally.

“Not only has proactive government measures like the Jobs Credit Scheme helped save jobs this year, they have also helped limit the pay gap in Singapore. However, as these assistance measures are only short-term, lower level staff should continue to upgrade their skills and look for ways to create value so as to attract higher pay,” observed Victor Chan, Country Manager for Reward Information Services of Hay Group Singapore.

“A widening pay gap is indicative of the divide in skills and capabilities between managers and clerical employees. Clerical staff can take heart that the pay gap increase here relatively small, compared to neighbouring countries like Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, and Thailand, who have seen significantly bigger jumps in the pay gap in the past four years. This is indicative of how skilled and educated our lower-level staff are in Singapore,” he added.

Philip Spriet, managing director for reward information services Hay Group comments, “The disparity between managerial spending power in high and low growth economies is likely to increase over the coming year. The full brunt of the crisis has yet to filter down fully to managers’ spending power. Managers whose governments have increased public spending to help organizations weather the crisis are likely to experience a rise in tax and living costs, and will feel the real impact on their disposable income in the coming years.”