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SINGAPORE – Opposition leader Pritam Singh and fellow Workers’ Party (WP) fellow Associate Professor Jamus Lim engaged in strong exchanges with the Minister of State (SMS) for Health, Dr. Koh Poh Koon, in between of a parliamentary debate on the merits of a minimum wage versus the government’s preferred progressive wage model (PWM).
In a lengthy speech to the House on Thursday (October 15), Dr. Koh alluded to Singh’s Facebook post on Monday calling for a universal minimum wage of $ 1,3000 across all sectors, which the latter called a “moral imperative”. Dr. Koh, who is also deputy secretary general of the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC), said such a move ran the risk of generating a “political auction.”
“In a political contest, a political party is sure to come and say, well, $ 1,500 will reflect higher ‘moral imperatives’. Yet another will come and say that $ 1,300 is good, $ 1,500 is better, but $ 1,700 must surely be more divine, more imperative. It can become a political auction. “
It would also be difficult to establish a single national minimum wage in different industries with different skill requirements. Also, any cost increases for a minimum wage will have to be passed on to consumers at some point.
It could also hurt small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are already suffering amid the economic downturn.
Instead, Dr. Koh stated that the progressive salary model was superior, as it is based on the consensus of the tripartite alliance: “We look at the data, but we incorporate the consensus of all stakeholders, including companies, so that they should also be prepared to include this in your business costs and have a way of socializing it with consumers as well. “
The 48-year-old also quoted a Hokkien saying from veteran union leader Toh Hock Poh, which translates as: “(If minimum wage were) so easy to do, we would have done it a long time ago.
The Workers Party Strikes Back
In response, Professor Lim said that it was not advisable to rely on the “wisdom and popular beliefs” of union leaders. Instead, the Sengkang GRC first-term member of Parliament cited studies showing that the minimum wage does not lead to any appreciable increase in unemployment, based on “careful consideration.”
Professor Lim, an associate professor of economics, alluded to the 16th century belief that the sun revolved around the Earth. “But that belief is not in fact, the same as the evidence, and all the evidence from countries around the world, shows that a minimum wage has a minimal impact on unemployment, as long as it is not too high.”
On the subject of potentially harmed SMEs, the 44-year-old cited automobile inventor Henry Ford. “He said he has to pay his workers enough so they can buy their cars. So when we pay our workers enough, our small businesses don’t have to end up suffering as a result. “
According to official data, around 100,000 workers earn less than $ 1,300. This number is reduced to 32,000 after taking into account the salary supplements of the labor income supplement. This equates to approximately 1.7 percent of the local workforce.
“My question is simply, do we have to wait that long to cover these Singaporeans? I don’t think it is acceptable for any Singaporean to earn below this number, ”said Singh, who suggested that the National Wages Council could implement the minimum wage, to avoid politicizing the issue.
Warning of “potential speculation” in PWM due to rising wages for Singaporeans, he asked what mechanisms the government had to prevent it. The head of WP also clarified that the minimum wage proposed by the WP does not include foreign domestic workers or labor at this time.
The official data is not ‘clean’
Dr. Koh responded to Singh’s inquiry by noting that in a PWM, salaries are tied to a skill scale that can be verified through participation in a course or through an industry-accredited program. With an increase in skills, the individual will be justified for a salary increase, based on a broader scope of work or a more productive result in the work delivered.
He also noted that the official figure of 1.7 percent of the local workforce “is not a very clean figure” because it also includes people who are technically employed. “They could work jobs as a street vendor assistant, help a family member, collect a salary, but they’re happy to get only $ 700 a month, help a parent or something like that, run a store for example. “
Therefore, legislating a minimum wage for these people would be difficult, said the SMS, adding that this segment of workers could also include those with disabilities.
In response, Professor Lim dismissed these arguments as “straw men.” He noted: “We are not comparing these particular special cases, we are talking about people who are working only one regular work week full time and without disabilities, and yet they are struggling to make ends meet.
“And even if it’s 32,000 people, I don’t think any of these 32,000 people feel like they’re being cared for, and I don’t feel like we should let them, in a society as rich as we are, reeling on their own.”
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