Real total wages in Singapore up 5.4% in 2015: MOM

REAL total wages in Singapore, including employer CPF contributions, went up by 5.4 per cent in 2015, higher than the 3.9 per cent a year ago.

The latest figure takes into account the 0.5 per cent fall in consumer prices last year, according to the Manpower Ministry's new annual report on wage practices released on Thursday.

Nominal total wages in the private sector grew by 4 per cent last year, lower than the 4.9 per cent increase in 2014. After factoring in employer CPF contributions, the growth in total wages remained stable at 4.9 per cent last year.

The report also found that fewer firms were more profitable than the previous year. Some 79 per cent of private establishments said that they were profitable in 2015, down from 82 per cent in 2014.

Most employers also indicated that they had implemented some form of flexible and performance-based wage system. Nine in 10 private sector employees were under some form of flexible wage system in 2015, which is the highest since 2004.

Having a narrower maximum-minimum salary ratio remained the most common wage recommendation adopted, covering two in three private sector employees in December 2015. This was followed by linking variable bonus to key performance indicators (52 per cent) and having a monthly variable component (32 per cent) in the wage structure.