Saturday, August 4, 2007 - :

It seems like I cannot set a title for this post because the moment I press any key in the column,the English words will be changed to what looks like Tamil writings. Well, anyway in case you have been wondering about my disappearing act from this blog for so long, it is because since the last post on this blog, I could hardly find the time to post my reflections here. For a moment, my blog entries have become stagnant. Sorry about it =)

Come back to the topic, this post will include my reflections on the income gap between occupations.

The Straits Times recently published an article," S'pore's dirty secret" on July 28 2007. It explains the widening wage rates between people in high ranking professions and cleaners/labourers. There were two main reasons accounting for this phenomenon- increased competition from low-skilled foreign workers and trend of outsourcing.

Despite many claims that the income gap is largely unbridgeable, I believe that the government has implemented policies that help increase salaries of low-paid workers. Furthermore, an importannt factor of determining whether these workers will receive higher pays will be their willingness to upgrade their skills. I think that if workers strive to improve themselves by attending upgrading courses their companies offer, they increase their proficiency in their jobs, hence increasing work productivity. This way, their work and effort will be valued more by companies. When their job is valued, these workers like cleaners and labourers will enjoy higher wages. It is especially important to keep themselves up-to-date with technological improvements that would enable them to accomplish their tasks easily and in a more efficient way.Somehow when people see, for instance, cleaners using high technology to enhance work productivity, they would be impressed too. Hence, I strongly believe that workers themselves must be willing and keen to find new ways of improving as it would also act as an incentive to carry on with their jobs.

The Straits Times article also stated,"different countries look for different solutions- from a minimum wage policy and closing the door on low-skilled foreign workers to paying foreign local workers the same wage...do not neccessarily work"

To enhance the already positive and booming- economy image of Singapore, I believe it is good to improve the profile of low-wage workers by introducing more self-improvement and skills redevelopment courses. In the long run, these workers will enjoy higher productivity with newly-acquired skills and reap the benefits of a higher salary.

The future ain't what it used to be. hugged teddy at 2:51 AM