A sad salary tale: 4 out of 5 Singaporeans are unhappy with their wages

10-20% pay hike could make them happy.

In the first half of this year, Singapore was named the costliest city in the world for expatriates, causing a stir amongst locals who actively debated its implications on their lives.

In light of that, JobStreet.com conducted a survey recently to find out how the cost of living is affecting Singaporeans.
The results show that 31 percent said that their salary can cover their basic needs and some small non-essential luxuries.

42 percent said it is only sufficient to cover their basic needs. However, 23 percent said they are struggling to make ends meet on the salary. Of this group, 70 percent earn less than $3000 per month. Only 4 percent said they were very comfortable with their salary.

Despite the majority being able to meet their basic needs, the survey showed that 83% were not satisfied with their current income.  

JobStreet,com also looked at how their salary was being spent. As expected, basic necessities made up the biggest portion, accounting for between 30-40 percent of income. Of these basic necessities, housing ranks as the highest expenditure, closely followed by expenditure for food, transport, family (dependents like children and parents) and utilities.

When asked how they are managing to make ends meet, 70 percent indicated that they carefully budget their spending, while another 16 percent said they take on second jobs to cope with the high cost of living. On a positive note, 50 percent said they manage to save between 10 to 20 percent of their salary each month. However, 32 percent of them said they are not able to save any money.

When asked how much they felt the salary should increase by to be satisfied, 66 percent of said it needs to be between 10 – 20 percent. According to Singapore Statistics, the average monthly wage in Singapore was $4,998 in Q4 of 2013. However, 53 percent of respondents to our survey identified $6,000 as the ideal monthly salary to deal with the current cost of living in Singapore.