Median household income from work in Singapore up 2.6% in real terms in 2016

THE median household income from work among resident employed households in Singapore rose to S$8,846 in 2016 from S$8,666 in 2015, up 2.6 per cent in real terms, Singapore's Department of Statistics (DOS) said on Thursday.

This is a drop from the 4.9 per cent increase in real median household income from work in 2015, said DOS's latest paper, Key Household Income Trends, 2016.

After factoring in household size, the median monthly household income from work per household member rose 3.8 per cent in real terms, lower than 2015's 5.4 per cent growth in real terms.

While households experienced real growth in average household income from work per household member in 2016, the growth has slowed down across the board.

In 2016, the top 10 per cent of households saw the slowest growth with a marginal 0.2 per cent real growth in average household income from work per household member, while it grew 7.2 per cent in 2015.

The bottom 10 per cent of households saw a growth of 1.4 per cent in 2016, when the average household income from work per household member grew 10.7 per cent in real terms in 2015, attributable to the shrinking household size and thus fewer working persons per household, said DOS.

The Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, fell to 0.458 in 2016 from 0.463 in 2015. After taking into account the redistributive effect of government transfers, the Gini coefficient fell to 0.402 in 2016 from 0.409 in 2015.