SINGAPORE: A woman recently took to social media to ask if salary expectations in Singapore have shifted dramatically in recent years.
In an anonymous post on Reddit’s Ask Singapore forum, she said that during the past five years, the perception of what counts as a “good paying job” seems to have changed at a surprising pace.
She recalled that back in 2010, she and her friends would talk about how earning a six digit figure was considered an impressive achievement. It was something they associated with experience, seniority or a highly specialised career path. Yet now, after only five years of working, she feels like many people around her have reached that income level much earlier than expected.
“Many people have easily hit that stage early on,” she wrote. “I don’t even know what to believe anymore. People are saying the job market is horrible, wages are depressed, and not to expect much as a fresh grad or if you were recently laid off.”
“But then I also see the opposite side, with many people actually getting better jobs, jumping to bigger companies with great salaries, even though everyone around them says ‘the market is bad.’”
As an example, she shared that one of her closest friends, who is only 28 years old, is currently working in Big Tech and taking home S$220,000 annually.
“I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t actually seen his damn payslip,” she said. “He’s also not really at risk of layoffs because of his niche role – and he says he wouldn’t really mind if he was. Many of my other friends and schoolmates are also in the same boat (not as high, though), with many earning sizeable six-digit figures at the age of 28.”
She added that she has noticed a clear shift in fresh graduate pay as well. New hires joining her company now receive starting salaries of S$5,000-6,000.
She then reflected on how different this feels compared to just a few years ago. “I would’ve been over the moon if I was offered that in 2021, but now with such a starting salary all it takes is a couple of job hops to reach that S$100,000.”
Seeking perspective, she asked other Singaporeans: “Have salary expectations in Singapore warped recently? What exactly is going on here? It can’t just be inflation causing such a major change right?”
“Was it just a function of the Great Resignation that lingered on? Those with jobs are commanding even higher salaries; it seems like Singaporeans are just getting richer and richer.”
“You are hearing from the top 10% of earners. Majority of people are far from that.”
The post drew responses from Singaporean Redditors, many of whom suggested that perhaps the people in her social circle are simply very ‘smart, talented, or hardworking’ and often work in niche, high-paying fields. They also cautioned that the extraordinary salaries she mentioned might not reflect broader trends across Singapore, but rather her immediate network.
One wrote, “Have you heard of statistics? Not everyone around you is at the median level.”
Another explained, “There are wages, and there is a number of jobs. You are only looking at one of the two. Taking your friend’s example, how many people actually earn that much? We can check online that the median monthly salary for Singapore is around S$5,500 with the employer’s CPF included. Half the population earns below that.”
They continued, “Without the CPF portion (i.e. what people actually take home), it is only around S$3,760 per month before taxes. The reason why you see such discrepancy is simply that there is a big wealth disparity in Singapore. The rich are really rich but the poor are also really poor.”
A third commented, “Your friend got lucky and was hired during the covid tech boom. Citadel and Jane Street pay even more for fresh CS grads. But such tech jobs are extremely few and far between now. Many CS fresh grads can’t even secure an interview these days.”
A fourth added, “Classic survivorship bias. You are hearing from the top 10% of earners. Majority of people are far from that.”
In other news, a Singaporean woman turned to Reddit for advice after her fiancé of 10 years suddenly ended their relationship and allegedly moved to Thailand with another woman.
In her post on the r/sgdatingscene subreddit on Thursday (Nov 13), the woman shared that everything happened too quickly for her to process. She recalled that it was only earlier this year, on Valentine’s Day, when her partner proposed to her during a trip to Venice, Italy.
Read more: Singaporean woman believes fiancé was ‘under a spell’ when he left her for another woman in Thailand
