Salary.sg – Your Salary in Singapore

There’s an interesting letter in the career adviser column of today’s Sunday Times.

Basically, the letter writer in his 20s is asking if it is worthwhile taking the chartered financial analyst (CFA) exams. He is considering switching from his engineering career to a finance/investment one.

The adviser’s answer is that all things equal, passing the CFA exams should help. But at the same time, many successful professionals in the banking and finance industry do not hold a CFA title. (Why so?)

The adviser goes on to say:

There are 2 routes you can take… seek a job in the sector now… (or) stay put in your current job.

My recommendation is that since he’s young, he should try to get a position in the finance industry immediately. In fact, there’s currently a shortage of staff in areas such as risk management (due to Basel II implementation, etc). Then, after gaining some experience, he should look for a better position with another firm, after 1 or 2 years.

It helps a lot if he has friends working in the banking and finance industry. Recommendations and referrals are common – in fact, they are the first channel to get people in.

Finally, I personally think that getting a good job in the finance industry is much harder than passing the CFA exams or even getting an additional degree (MBA, Master in Financial Engineering, etc). I hope you get what I mean.

[Update 5 Jan 2012: See our latest post Pay Cut for Prime Minister and Ministers, But Note the Make-Up Pay.]

The Straits Times released some interesting income figures today.

As you may know, the income benchmark for ministers and top civil servants is pegged at 2/3 the median income of all the top 8 earners in these 6 professions: lawyer, accountant, banker, MNC executive, local manufacturer and engineer. These means that we take the 48 top earners (top 8 from 6 groups), sort them according to their income, take the middle guy’s income, and multiply it by 2/3.

Now, the interesting bit is in how much the top earns make. We have these figures from today’s Straits Times:

• Lawyer – $4.29 million
• Account – $3.72 million
• Banker – $3.33 million
• MNC – $2.70 million
• Local Manufacturer – $2.30 million
• Engineer – $0.62 million

The figure given for each profession is the median income of the top 8 earners in that profession. It is equivalent to the average of the top 4th and top 5th earnings.

And yes, the engineer profession has the lowest income. The top engineers make only about a quarter of the next better profession (local manufacturer).

Poor engineers.

Delving deeper, Straits Times also mentioned the income ranges of the top earners:

• Lawyer – $1 million to $6 million
• Accountant – $1 million to $6 million
• Banker – $800k to $6 million
• MNC – $300k to $4 million
• Local Manufacturer – $250k to $3 million
• Engineer -$200k to $800k

Now, is this better or worse? The no. 1 engineer can’t even match the 8th accountant and 8th lawyer! He is making only what the poorest benchmarked banker is making.

This is a sad day for all engineers.

According to the Straits Times, the average starting pay of SMU graduates is $2,850 per month.

The ST article mentions:

The top 20 per cent of wage earners among them earn an average of $4,630, about 20 per cent higher than the $3,840 average in 2005.

Among them are 26 graduates who earn more than $4,000, with eight of them making more than $8,000.

Most of these top earners are investment bankers.

Let’s assume that the 8 get 8k each, with the remaining in the “top 20%” getting 4k each. To obtain a average of around $4,630, the number of graduates in the “top 20%” is only 51, implying the survey is conducted on 255 individuals.

At first glance, you might sense something amiss. However, if we use 4.5k instead 4k, the survey then covers 1,100 individuals.

One SMU graduate is even making a whopping $12,000 per month, according to Channelnewsasia.com yesterday.

SM Goh is encouraging high-income Singaporeans to donate at least 0.5% of their income to charities, as reported in today’s Straits Times. He defines high-income as making $7,000 or more every month. The ST article also mentions that the top 10% of income earners made $5,625 or more in 2004 based on Manpower Ministry data.

Business Times reported today that there have been signs of strong hiring in certain high-growth sectors. Among the industry sectors cited are: financial services (i.e. banking and finance), engineering and technical, call centres, life sciences, and healthcare. The BT report is based on information from Kelly Services’ Singapore Salary Guide 2007, which provided minimum and [...]

Business Times reported today that the number of taxpaying millionaires has increased to 1,738. It was just 1,481 in 2004. According to the latest IRAS Annual Report, there were 1,724 resident taxpayers with assessed income of more than $1,000,000. Non-resident taxpayers in the same income group numbered 14. The number of taxpayers who reported income [...]

The current chairman of the Singapore Medical Association (SMA) contributed an article to today’s Straits Times. The gist of Dr Wong Chiang Yin’s article is that heartlanders, i.e. those who stay in HDB flats, are under-represented in the medical profession. While 80% of all Singaporeans stay in HDB apartments, only about 45% to 50% of [...]

Ministry of Manpower has released the latest Report on Wages in Singapore 2005. It’s a compilation of surveyed data collected in 2005, and released this year (2006). Notably, the jobs with the top median starting salaries are: advocate and solicitor ($3,800), semi-conductor engineer ($3,595), financial analyst ($3,167), electronic engineer ($2,850), and aeronautical engineer ($2,600). Based on [...]

CPF Board sent out a news release today on CPF changes announced by the government last year. First, the Medisave Contribution Ceiling (MCC) will be raised from $32,500 to $33,000 with effect from 1 July 2006. This means that your Medisave account can hold a maximum of $33,000. Any excess will be channelled out (see [...]

Thank you for visiting Salary.sg! If you’d like to see certain topics discussed here, please feel free to make a suggestion – just fill up the comment box below.