During Question Time today in Parliament, Sengkang MP He Ting Ru queried the Senior Minister of State (SMS) for Manpower how the Local Qualifying Salary (LQS) is determined and how often the level is reviewed. She was one of several MPs who filed questions on this topic.
After the SMS’ reply, I asked a supplementary question. I pointed out that the LQS was not meant to be a minimum wage quantum. It exists to ensure firms don’t hire phantom local workers to meet their dependency ratio ceiling (DRC) for the purpose of hiring foreign workers. It is merely a coincidence that LQS of $1,400 is similar to the Average Household Expenditure on Basic Needs (AHEBN) for the bottom 20% of income earners.
As such, I asked the SMS if it would be better to peg the minimum wage to the AHEBN instead of the LQS? This will allow the MW to rise in tandem with cost increases, so that low wage workers do not lose out over time. (The SMS’ answers will be published in the Parliamentary Hansard within two weeks.)
Incidentally, the Workers’ Party used the AHEBN as one of the factors for coming up with our proposed minimum wage of $1,300 take-home salary per month in our General Election 2020 Manifesto.
