over 50% of voting age singaporeans earn less than 2.5K a month
Median income (50th percentile) last year was $4,563...
https://stats.mom.gov.sg/Pages/Income-Summary-Table.aspx
This includes PR as well.
I get you. 1.4 million out of 3.5 million citizens in 2019. 40% of citizens are earning less than $28k annually, seemingly.
We had 4 million citizens and PRs in 2019. Of this:
• 3.5 million are SCPRs born on or before 1999 (cut-off age for GSTV 2020)
• 1.85 million are SCPR full-time employees born on Jun 1994 or before (aged 26 years & older)
• 1.57 million are SCPRs born on Jun 1994 or before with take-home pay exceeding $2,000 (85% of previous figure)
link
• 1.93 million are SCPRs born on Jun 1994 or before without full-time jobs or earning less than $28k annually (48.25%)
• 443,000 are PRs born on Jun 1994 or before (automatic disqualify)
We are then left with 1.49 million SCs born on Jun 1994 or before eligible for GSTV solely on the basis of age.
The number is not the full picture as we have missing data, but I expect them to reduce the extra 90k from the official figure of 1.4 million:
• Plus ≈274k SCs born between Jun 1994 and Dec 1999
• Minus ≈35k SCs born between Jun 1994 and Dec 1999 earning above $28k annually
• Minus SCs born on or before 1999 whose AVs exceed $21k (this group has ≈369k, but ≈75% should have been excluded earlier due to income requirements)
• Minus SCs who own more than one property (this group has ≈168k, but ≈75% should have been excluded earlier too)
Of the 1.93 million SCPRs, 225k are jobseekers, leaving us with 1.675 million SCPRs out of the resident labour force category.
Now, I'm not going to go into the reasons why one would choose not to work, because there are many personal factors involved. Some may be housewives with kids to look after, some may be working overseas full-time, some are just not fit for work etc. Let's not dismiss their contribution to the nation, even if it has no or little direct economic value.