Nearly 1 in 5 employees hit by stagnant wage growth in 2018: study

Singapore workers lament the lack of transparency regarding pay level settings.

Almost one in five or 17% of employees in Singapore experienced no increase in their salaries in 2018, according to Hays’ Asia Salary Guide 2019 report. 

Singapore candidates also raised concerns over the transparency of pay level setting. Although a clear majority or 86% of employees feel that transparency is important, only one in 10 strongly agree and one in five or 22% slightly agree that their organisation is transparent in this area.

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“Employers looking to keep employee satisfaction levels on salary matters should, therefore, be more upfront about how the management reviews and distributes employees’ pay rises,” Grant Torrens, regional director at Hays Singapore, said.

Meanwhile, Hays’ salary guide revealed that that fewer companies are compensating employees through alternative means. Employers who stated that they offered no bonus as part of remuneration packages increased from 9% in 2018 to 12% in 2019.

“Whilst the percentage of guaranteed bonuses is also declining from 67% in 2018 to 63% in 2019, slightly more employers are instead tying them to factors such as individual, company and team performance,” the firm noted.

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On top of offering bonuses, 83% of Singapore companies are said to offer benefits in addition to financial packages with health and medical benefits emerging as the primary offering.

“Singapore leads the way in Asia in offering health and wellness programmes to employees as an added benefit. Whilst on an Asia-wide average, only a quarter or 25% of companies adopt such practice, nearly one in three Singaporean employers provide it,” Hays added.