Singapore pays highest wages for manufacturing workers in Asia

It's three times higher than Hong Kong wages.

The chart on the right which was screen grabbed from Ernst & Young report titled 'Beyond Asia:New patterns of trade" compares average hourly rates of compensation in manufacturing across countries to the relative value of sophisticated exports (defined as machinery and transport equipment and passenger cars) to low-end manufactured exports (defined as other manufactured goods).

Singapore manufacturing workers receive the highest average hourly wage of US$19.1 which compliments its technology sofhistication of 5.6%. Hong Kong counterparts meanwhile only receive US$5.8 with technology sophistication ratio of just 2%.

Ernst & Young predicts a rapid shift shift toward high technology going forward especially in China, with the Government’s 12th Five-Year
Program for China’s Economic and Social Development (2011 to 2015) encouraging research and development and innovation. In 2010, China accounted for around one-third of global ICT equipment exports.  Forecasts indicate that it will account for close to half of the expansion in global exports of ICT equipment over the next decade, it said.

"South Korea stands out for its relatively large contribution to the “other transport” subsector (including transport equipment other than passenger cars), forecast to contribute around 25% of the increase in machinery and transport equipment during 2010 to 2020.

Vietnam and Indonesia are the only two Rapidly Growing Markets in the sample where the machinery and transport equipment sector does not dominate export growth. In part, this is because these two economies have a relatively lower initial share of manufactured products among their
exports. Their competitive advantage tends to reside in lower value-added products such as clothes and shoes," it added.