Let's be clear. Are you talking about Singaporeans vs PRs or locals (Singaporeans & PRs) vs foreigners?

If it's Singaporeans vs Malaysian PRs (or PRs of any other nationality), then I think chess_gal is absolutely correct. I have not seen nor heard nor experienced a situation where citizens and PRs have different payscales. Of course, that doesn't mean that the salaries are 100% identical because within every pay scale, there is a range of salaries. But then this range discrepancy will apply to everybody under the same pay scale. At the end of the day, in terms of job level, salary scale and seniority (ie. years of service calculation in case of retrenchment), they are the same. If not, it is discrimination. And if I'm not mistaken, it is a criminal offence.

If it's locals vs foreigners... of course there is a difference. Their resident status and employment status are different. Their legal responsibilities, entitlements and commitments are different. You cannot expect them to receive the same salary, no?

i see, school days for u must be hectic travelling in & out of JB. some students travel into s'pore as early as 4am.

i think u guys don't sing the s'pore national anthem right?

as i said in my industry which is construction
msian/hk/china/Filipino/Burmese or wherever pr n sg citizen diff promotion or pay scale.well how do u prove tat there's discrimination for not promoting/paying u more? complain to mom tat ur boss did not promote u?? its very subjective

local vs foreigners depending on wat "kind" of foreigner. the ang mo vs the asian foreigner both same qualification jus come from diff country n back ground who gets paid more??

Are you a PR and if you are, are you getting a very different salary from your Singaporean peers?

I don't know about yours, but in my company and most of the MNCs, the pay is the same. I for one, will not accept it otherwise. The only difference is if they are here as expats.

hi guys, i got an important update for PR application.

applicant need to have appointment for the full submission!!!!!

this morning, i went to lavender ICA building at 7am. the officer told me that i need to have appointment before i can do the full submission. i can go through e appointment or submit the Form 4A (the application form) WITHOUT the supporting documents into the drop off box at the ICA building (which is what i did). 3-5 working days later ICA will send me a appointment letter and assign me a time to do the full submission (need to bring the supporting documents + photocopy).

they just changed it not long ago so...

reference link: http://www.ica.gov.sg/page.aspx?pageid=151&secid=150

This post has been edited by B-Mecha: Jun 8 2009, 08:47 AM

I know that since long time ago..
anyway, thanks for the info..

This post has been edited by giorgene: Jun 8 2009, 10:17 AM

thanks for the information

i beleive we shud add tat info on first page?

nope not pr n yes diff salary from wat i know very much diff.

even designation n responsibilities are diff eventhough the local eng n the foreign one have the same amount of xp and capabilities.

i' know filipino/china engineers who hav 10-20years of xp worked all around the world in mega projects yet come to sg they r only designated as engineers not even senior title which is same as me who have only 2-3years xp. pay wise no need me to say gua impossible engineer get snr engineer pay right? y work here u say? jus like u n me the currency rate exceeds wat they get in their home country.

as u said u will not accept who does?
if an ang mo got into the comp same post as u will u know his salary? salary figures r mostly kept p&c unless u r abloody good fren of his n he tells u or u know hr very well

anyway the info i got also is hear say (from sum reliable sos n see the working situation wif my own eyes) no b&w impossible for me to prove to u the pay figure of each employee ang mo or other wise. so dont need to be so serious peace

Better to make e-appoinment, save a lot of hassle!

These sound like work permit or employment pass holders, not PRs. If so, then it's to be expected. Nobody will pay the foreigners more than what it takes to get them here.

Same thing for locals, but for the fact that the employer cannot employ beyond a certain ratio of locals vs foreigners. So if there are more foreigners going for jobs allocated to foreigners but fewer locals going for jobs allocated for locals, then you have a disparity. No country in the world (except maybe the Eiddle East) will allow your workforce to be 100% foreign by the exclusion of locals.


I think my company is quite transparent in that the payscales are published on the intranet and our job titles reveal exactly which job level we're at. If you're an expat, it's also common knowledge.

If that angmoh is not an expat but is paid higher than me, it's because he's on a higher pay scale ie.. higher ranked than me. If we're both doing exactly the same job, then it's a matter of why is someone who's higher ranked doing the same thing as I am. In my company, this is something I can bring up to my supervisor and expect a serious answer. And we have asked the question too because not long ago, our peers in the Shanghai office were often 1 or 2 levels higher than us but doing the same job. The reason given is that because the job market in Shanghai is very competitive and MNCs needed to pay more to hire English speaking Chinese. Our feedback was that the salary scales for Shanghai should be adjusted upwards, instead conveniently slotting them into a higher job rung... causing a mismatch of experience/capability vs managerial authority. This has since been rectified.

This post has been edited by seantang: Jun 8 2009, 06:36 PM

nope no wp vs local/pr. even filipino wif pr or china wif citizenship with master still are sadly not graded up to a citizen level.

well good for your comp for the transparency level not all comps practice tat. i havent seen any comp in the industry i'm working in do that.

It's not like they point a gun to their heads and force the foreign PRs to accept a lower salary than the locals, no? At the end of the day, companies will only pay you what it takes to keep you. You can't expect them to increase your salary to match someone else if they know you're not going to leave even though you're being paid less.

Anyway, we've just proven that the Singapore job market is not homogenous. What is the norm in one company or industry may not be the norm in others.

So the next time someone asks if Singaporean companies favour local born Singaporeans over foreign born ones / PRs etc, perhaps we cannot be too quick to confirm a motherhood YES or NO. Obviously, it depends.

This post has been edited by seantang: Jun 8 2009, 06:50 PM

my company treats everyone the same, employment pass, PR or Singaporean, all subjected to the same salary scale. But then again, it's an American company. They tend to treat everyone fairly.

This post has been edited by Mackiddo: Jun 8 2009, 08:32 PM

Same here, my firm even allow foreigners to take 4 mths of maternity leave (Subject to approval la), though the government only subsidised local employees.

Perhaps Nicvoo's industry is very much localised, thus the Chinaman mentality. International corporation cannot afford to be too bias, otherwise may reflect badly on them. You know corporate image, corporate responsibilities are highly regarded in western companies.

eh. chess_gal ...ur F1 tickets which zone ?

ermm... no one wants to meet up with me on 21st june?

hi everyone here,

i'm here new, though i worked in singapore for about 9 months dy.
my friend told me about you guys having gathering and talks...

any gathering lately?

i'm staying in yishun, working in yiochukang

where will u be ? town area ?


come AMK eat Botak Jones wif me this saturday lah.

Hi guys,

I need your advice here:-

SGD 1.00 = RM 2.40
AUD 1.00 = RM 2.80
AUD 1.00 = SGD 1.10

Tat's mean if i use my SGD to convert all to AUD and then convert back to RM, I will gain alot on this? Anyone try this before?

This post has been edited by dveHetal3: Jun 10 2009, 11:39 AM