If you're looking for a minimum wage that pays workers for what their work is worth, it has to be the sectoral minimum wage and not a national minimum wage.

If you're looking for a minimum wage that pays workers for what their work is worth, it has to be the sectoral minimum wage and not a national minimum wage.

A sectoral minimum wage pays a worker according to the skills he/she brings to the sector. This is why different sectors have a different sectoral minimum wage because jobs in different sectors require different skills.

As the sectoral min wage is carefully negotiated by tripartite partners, it is sustainable as it takes into account the interests of all stakeholders .

All these make the PWM superior to a national or universal min wage.

A national minimum wage does not pay workers according to what their work is worth because it has to be kept low in order for it to apply to all sectors without loss of employment.

It is pitched at the lowest level of skills. That's the only way for it to apply to every sector. This means only workers with the lowest level of skills are paid for their work. The rest are underpaid.

The Progressive Wage Model has been with us for many years now.

Since it was implemented for the cleaning sector, it has been expanded to other sectors including landscape, security and lift and escalator sectors. More sectors are included with works in the pipeline.

The PWM is hard work. It does not just end with a model. Tripartite partners continue at it by meeting and updating it, agreeing on wages for subsequent years so that even the minimum wage for particular sectors does not stagnant.

Why all the hard work when you could just settle for a national minimum for everyone and leave it at that? In the words of union leaders, it is a moral obligation. 

Minimum wage will result in job losses. Period.

Minimum wage will result in job losses. Period.

A new paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that of all the available research on the subject they reviewed, there is a “clear preponderance” of findings that show a job-killing impact. The documentation of job losses is even more pronounced for teenagers, young adults, and the less-educated.

“[The] body of evidence and its conclusions point strongly toward negative effects of minimum wages on employment of less-skilled workers, especially for the types of studies that would be expected to reveal these negative employment effects most clearly,” economists David Neumark and Peter Shirley write.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐍𝐨 𝐄𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞-𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐦 𝐖𝐚𝐠𝐞

When the government mandates a price for labor—aka a minimum wage—that exceeds the market rate, employers will inevitably purchase less labor. It’s just like consumers would purchase less soda if the government arbitrarily mandated higher prices for it than what it’s actually worth to people. In fact, that’s the exact point of “soda taxes” passed in the name of public health; they reduce soda consumption. The same thing happens with labor.

The lucky workers who end up being able to keep their jobs may benefit from the artificially high wage, but many others will not find work at all.

The job losses that come with minimum wage hikes are a fundamental economic reality. This latest research offers yet another reminder that, no matter how much wish-casting progressives engage in, there’s no escaping trade-offs in public policy.

https://fee.org/articles/new-research-debunks-claim-that-a-15-minimum-wage-would-not-reduce-employment

If all that you propose is a minimum wage to help low wage workers, then you just want to be popular without the hard work.

If all that you propose is a minimum wage to help low wage workers, then you just want to be popular without the hard work.

We already have the sectoral minimum wage in the Progressive Wage Models which already cover the cleaning, security, landscape, lift and elevator sector. It will be extended to the waste management sector, food sector, F&B and retail sectors. Proposal for the waste management sector was already submitted last year.

A blanket minimum wage across all sectors is not only arbitrary, it will result in a flattening of wages for workers. It's bad from the perspectives of motivation and reward for upgrading one's skills.

Progressive Wage Model is hard work. It is a sustainable way to raise wages without loss of work. It is minimum wage with maximum employment.

Helping the low wage workers is more than just about wages. It requires a holistic approach across multiple agencies. And that is also hard work.

Did Jamus even read his party's manifesto?

Nothing more than just letting the plain facts speak for themselves.

What's more interesting is that all along, it was in WP Manifesto 2020 that $1300 is minimum take-home pay.

The manifesto has disappeared from online for quite some time. But most people would already have a copy downloaded to read during the election period.

Question: Did Jamus read the Workers' Party manifesto?

Political elasticity from Jamus Lim

For someone 'full of compassion', who came to lecture the House on the need to be compassionate, Jamus Lim has clearly not given much thought to the minimum wage.

He did not even know the minimum wage proposed in his own party's manifesto. He came to give a lecture on compassion over efficiency without any idea what the minimum wage should be

It took him 2 months to discover that his party proposed $1300 TAKE-HOME minimum wage.

It is quite clear that Jamus prefers to impress with economics and economic theories and studies.

In economics, elasticity is the measurement of the percentage change of one economic variable in response to a change in another.

Andy See was spot on when he described Jamus' extraordinary transition from "don't know" to "gross pay" to "take-home pay" as political elasticity. LOL

Dear Pritam Singh, your cleaners are among the 32,000 earning less than $1300 a month

It's taken too long to roll out the Progressive Wage Model. 32,000 is not a small number. It's simply not acceptable that any Singaporean earn less than $1300 a month.

Thus have WP Chief Pritam Singh argued in Parliament.

"And if we can do something about it in double quick time, let's do it," said Pritam Singh.

Well, among the 32,000 earning less than $1300 are the cleaners from Mr Pritam's Town Council.

There is something that WP can do in double quick time and reduce the number of workers earning less than $1300.

And that is, pay their cleaners according to the PWM. $1442 a month.

Pritam Singh complained that the Progressive Wage Model had taken too long to be rolled out. Yet, his cleaners are not even paid according the the PWM already rolled out for the cleaning sector.

Still want a minimum wage of $1300 when you can earn at least $1850?

The Progressive Wage Model for the fourth cluster, the Lift and Escalator cluster, will be phased in in stages.

Here's how it looks like.

Still want a $1300 minimum wage? That's what you will get if it is the legislated national minimum wage.

The Progressive Wage Model is sector-based. The minimum wage in the model is sector specific. This allows the minimum wage to be set differently according to each sector.

The set of skills required in different sectors is different and therefore wages will also be different.

The minimum wage in the PWM is set through consultation and negotiation among tripartite partners, taking into account all needs and sustainability.

Wages are tied to productivity. They are determined by output and decided by employers. A more productive worker will be paid more.

It really does not make sense for a third party - politicians - to decide arbitrarily by themselves, what a suitable wage should be. That's an unbalanced equation.

If you're in the lift and escalator sector, you wouldn't want $1300 when you can earn at least $1850.

A minimum wage of $1300? Under the PWM, workers are already earning that and MORE.

A minimum wage of $1300? Under the PWM, workers are already earning that and MORE.

The 3 clusters - cleaning, security, landscape - together have benefitted more than 78,000 workers.

Be progressive. Why support a $1300 min wage when you can earn more than that?

If such a min wage policy is adopted, your wages will come down to that minimum. Is that what you wish?

Stop talking about the minimum wage

If the Workers' Party feels strongly about a minimum wage, it should move beyond a critique of outcomes to examining the merits and demerits of the policy measures to help the poor and address inequality. Show why these policies are inadequate and propose alternatives.

Singaporeans are not ideologically fixated, so if a better policy solution can be found, we will do the right and pragmatic thing to help citizens live a better life.

Jamus' virtue signalling

Donovan Choy wrote:

This is fantastic. Tharman sees through Jamus' virtue signalling and calls it out exactly for what it is. These rhetorical tactics are so typical of figures on the Left. I cannot recall how many times I've heard progressive speakers push the insanely empty-headed "we shouldn't only be concerned with economic efficiency" trope, as if being financially efficient and prudent was a factor to consider in isolation, separated from having basic human compassion or decency.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐤𝐢𝐝𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲'𝐫𝐞 "𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐮𝐩 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲", 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 "𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞" 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐤𝐢𝐝𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬. Every dollar spent on A is a dollar not spent on B. Inefficient and wasteful policies merely means that the people of a specific group today benefit at the expense of another group tomorrow.

https://www.facebook.com/1534710122/posts/10223260700855867/?extid=xiZ76oyy8LuAMWug&d=n