Remisiers should stop complaining

I REFER to the article, "Share traders calling it a day as market volume dries up" (BT, Oct 23). It is true that trading volume on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) has trended lower for a couple of years now; figures released by SGX bear this out. The financial performance of broking houses shows a similar trend. It is also undeniable that remisiers who are self-employed have seen their take-home pay reduced as a consequence.

However, I am intrigued as to how the figure of net income of S$6,000 to S$8,000 a decade ago was derived. Similarly, how did the figure of S$1,000 average net commission come from? Were these figures just plucked from the air? Or perhaps, as Kishore Rochey stated, he heard it on the grapevine? One local broking house recently stated the average gross commission was around S$5,000. A more reliable data set - say, from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) - would give us a better picture of the state of affairs.

In any profession or trade, there is a wide range of remuneration, from the very high to the very low. Just as there may be some remisiers earning S$1,000 a month, there remain a sizeable number who earn more than S$10,000 a month and who are not complaining. One local broking house has its top remisier earning gross commissions of more than S$400,000 a month and a few remisiers earning more than S$100,000 a month. If the average pay of remisiers is S$1,000 a month, more would have left the industry rather than just 400 in the last two years (down from 4,300 to 3,900, according to the BT article).