Will minimum wage laws work here?

[BBCWatcher]

Alamak JAL went bankrupt a few years ago, and the airline is still shaky now so management should not be rewarded. The whole thing is fair.

Right, and that means CEOs can be and should be paid less than their employees quite often.

I remember reading aomething about the average ceo on the s&p500 making few hundred times more than the average worker in those companies, so in general ceo pay is very obscene.

Right, and there are numerous examples of CEOs (and other managers) who are objectively, vastly overpaid.

I agree that government should regulate labour market like restricting the number of migrant workers, but for them to tell shareholders that their ceo is overpaid is too much, they should be the ones to decide that.

OK, but government has an important role in assuring that shareholders have that meaningful level of control. In most countries shareholders don't, and bear in mind that the whole construction of a corporation is a legal, government-enforced construction. Corporations as such wouldn't even exist without government. There are some interesting policy proposals to mitigate what seem to be outstanding defects in managers' compensation levels.

Benchmarking government performance is difficult. What KPIs do we use to determine the benchmark? Gdp? Happiness index? Income equality? Hdi? Its very difficult. Some of these things aren't even easily measurable, if you noticed.

OK, but how about my proposal for a 7 member compensation board, democratically elected? They then figure that out based on benchmarking against other small, developed, low corruption countries.

 

[ftpofmpo]

There is no shortage of such leaders.

Wait. Why must wait for government to help the poor?

Civil society is not as strong as in other countries for certain reasons which requires a thread of its own

You are a doctor. Can you give us a free consultation?

comments need to be objective to differentiate here from edmw

 

[Toni90]

Everywhere govs are on fire, stupid and dangerous leaders in control of the world. Singapore gov now is actually the role model. Other countries should follow Singapore.

 

[Mecisteus]

comments need to be objective to differentiate here from edmw

There is no such ruling and protocol to follow.

https://sph.com.sg/legal/member_conditions.html

 

[mummy1234]

Civil society is not as strong as in other countries for certain reasons which requires a thread of its own




comments need to be objective to differentiate here from edmw

That was not even written by me.

 

[mummy1234]

There is no such ruling and protocol to follow.

https://sph.com.sg/legal/member_conditions.html

Why u misquote me?

 

[Mecisteus]

OK, but how about my proposal for a 7 member compensation board, democratically elected? They then figure that out based on benchmarking against other small, developed, low corruption countries.

Are those countries comparable to Singapore?

Singapore don't have natural resources but yet as wealthy as those countries.

 

[Mecisteus]

Why u misquote me?

Edit: I think something wrong with the quotes.

 

[mummy1234]

I am talking about a minimum LIVING WAGE for the Sg citizens like those toilet cleaners, roadsweepers, dishwashers etc. Those in the lowest 10 percentile of income earners....not a minimum wage for the high income earners who r already earning an obscene amt of money in comparison. Those in the highest percentile ought to be taxed more.

Income inequality is a big problem around the world, not just in Sg.

I admire those ultrawealthy who gives away a portion of their wealth to charitable causes like Bill Gates.

Heal the world, make it a better place. For u and for me and the entire human race.

 

[mummy1234]

Edit: I think something wrong with the quotes.

Ok, technical problems. That is what freaks me out about online payment and smart nation. Money , hard earned money can be lost due to a technical glitch. Does SDIC cover scams and technical glitches?

 

[d5dude]

Right, and that means CEOs can be and should be paid less than their employees quite often.


Right, and there are numerous examples of CEOs (and other managers) who are objectively, vastly overpaid.


OK, but government has an important role in assuring that shareholders have that meaningful level of control. In most countries shareholders don't, and bear in mind that the whole construction of a corporation is a legal, government-enforced construction. Corporations as such wouldn't even exist without government. There are some interesting policy proposals to mitigate what seem to be outstanding defects in managers' compensation levels.


OK, but how about my proposal for a 7 member compensation board, democratically elected? They then figure that out based on benchmarking against other small, developed, low corruption countries.

I don't know what you are trying to say man. If you agree that ceos are not all receiving huge compensation for their work then this must mean the system is working and most are being paid accordingly. Why is there a need for the government to get involved?

I don't agree that shareholders have no say when it comes to ceo pay, most shareholders only have no say because they are the minority, the big shareholders are usually institutions and they are mostly fine with the pay unless the ceo is underperforming, nowadays top management pay is paid in the form of options anyway so the share price must perform for them to get paid, a higher sp benefits shareholders so nobody is going to complain.

I don't see how benchmarking to other countries is going to help, every country is different, nobody is perfect.

 

[Mecisteus]

I am talking about a minimum LIVING WAGE for the Sg citizens like those toilet cleaners, roadsweepers, dishwashers etc. Those in the lowest 10 percentile of income earners....not a minimum wage for the high income earners who r already earning an obscene amt of money in comparison. Those in the highest percentile ought to be taxed more.

Income inequality is a big problem around the world, not just in Sg.

I admire those ultrawealthy who gives away a portion of their wealth to charitable causes like Bill Gates.

Heal the world, make it a better place. For u and for me and the entire human race.

Mummy income and expenses are related.

Why do you need a minimum wage? Because expenses are high.

If you can minimize or help the expenses, I'm sure the lower income earners will be thankful.

So back to my earlier question. You are a doctor. How about helping the lower income earners with their medical expenses?

 

[mummy1234]

Mummy income and expenses are related.

Why do you need a minimum wage? Because expenses are high.

If you can minimize or help the expenses, I'm sure the lower income earners will be thankful.

So back to my earlier question. You are a doctor. How about helping the lower income earners with their medical expenses?

I am only a locum and locums usually don't have the authority to waive consult though sometimes I do for cases that I cannot help much. And we try to give lower income patients non branded medicine which r cheaper.

 

[BBCWatcher]

Are those countries comparable to Singapore?

Comparable, yes, if they're small, developed, and have relatively low or lower corruption. Perfectly comparable, no, but that's never true in compensation benchmarking. A board of compensation experts can figure that out.

I don't know what you are trying to say man. If you agree that ceos are not all receiving huge compensation for their work then this must mean the system is working and most are being paid accordingly.

No, there's no logic in that. I pointed out that there are at least outliers in terms of top executive compensation: managers who are merely well compensated (not ridiculously compensated) who generate excellent results. So "always" is not correct. But we could still be talking about outliers in today's world, and that could be a big problem.

Why is there a need for the government to get involved?

Government is already involved, a lot. Corporations are legal constructions, not at all natural.

I don't agree that shareholders have no say when it comes to ceo pay, most shareholders only have no say because they are the minority, the big shareholders are usually institutions and they are mostly fine with the pay unless the ceo is underperforming, nowadays top management pay is paid in the form of options anyway so the share price must perform for them to get paid, a higher sp benefits shareholders so nobody is going to complain.

I disagree. Institutional shareholders routinely complain about their relative lack of oversight power, too. For example, in many jurisdictions it's legal for managers to ignore the expressed wishes of shareholders (big and small) unless they muster a majority of votable shares, not just voted shares. And even then government often allows managers to ignore shareholder votes.

I don't see how benchmarking to other countries is going to help, every country is different, nobody is perfect.

There are lots of reasons why service in the public sector is different than working in the private sector, including the important fact that government isn't supposed to be maximizing profits. Government is supposed to be in the business of maximizing other outcomes, and one would certainly think that the talents required to maximize other outcomes, such as social welfare, are quite different. Yet the Singapore government benchmarks the compensation of ministers against the private sector. I'm arguing that it would be much better to benchmark the compensation of ministers against their peers in small, developed, low corruption countries. Possibly in addition to benchmarking against the private sector, but the private sector is an obviously imperfect comparison given that the KPIs are quite different.

There is no perfect comparison available, no clone of Singapore to benchmark against. All comparisons are imperfect. But, if you're going to benchmark, benchmarking against other small, developed, low corruption countries is a most reasonable choice.

 

[Merg91]

So let's start with you first.
Show your sincerity.

Doing locum for $100 an hour is not considered as
one. Cheaper generic medicine is the clinic decision
Is never a charity.

I am talking about a minimum LIVING WAGE for the Sg citizens like those toilet cleaners, roadsweepers, dishwashers etc. Those in the lowest 10 percentile of income earners....

 

[Mecisteus]

Comparable, yes, if they're small, developed, and have relatively low or lower corruption. Perfectly comparable, no, but that's never true in compensation benchmarking. A board of compensation experts can figure that out.

It's tougher to govern a country with no natural resources. People in Singapore is the only resource. I think our government has done well to integrate all the ethnics and races in Singapore. People live in harmony.

Talking about people, I search for racism in Sweden and Switzerland.

Sweden has the most segregated labour market of people with foreign background in Europe, when measured against both high and low educational level by OCED statistics.[

“I think in Switzerland it’s [discrimination] a double thing. If you are a person of colour, but you have money and your appearance shows it, you are still treated quite fairly,” says Lau. “But if you are of colour, but you have no money and you’re just hanging out somewhere, I think you are very, very discriminated against – especially by the police in certain places.”

So have the governments there done well apart from promoting wealth and economy?

 

[fzhfzh]

I am talking about a minimum LIVING WAGE for the Sg citizens like those toilet cleaners, roadsweepers, dishwashers etc. Those in the lowest 10 percentile of income earners....not a minimum wage for the high income earners who r already earning an obscene amt of money in comparison. Those in the highest percentile ought to be taxed more.

Income inequality is a big problem around the world, not just in Sg.

I admire those ultrawealthy who gives away a portion of their wealth to charitable causes like Bill Gates.

Heal the world, make it a better place. For u and for me and the entire human race.

I think sg system makes sense, even for jobs like cleaners. In many western countries jobs like cleaner are covered by minimum wage or union. What happens is that if you have no good education and no job, you can't even get a job as cleaner easily, because they are already all taken up. You end up homeless on the street, getting addicted to drug or get into crime.

Whereas in Singapore, as long as you work, even if it's a cleaner job, the government tops up your pay if it's too low. It's actually a much more practical and fair system that encourages labor participation, rather than a lottery of whoever can get the limited unionized/min-wage covered jobs.

Bill gate doesn't just give away his wealth, because he understand that wealth is actually infinite. Just because he owns money, doesn't mean that others have less money. He uses his wealth on things he think the society is not doing enough on, like aids, cancer research etc. So he's basically voting with his money, not just giving them away randomly to strangers.

You are what we call a bleeding heart liberal. You don't really understand the feelings of the poor and just using them to justify your own agenda, or to make yourself feel better like petting a pet.

 

[d9_lives]

He uses his wealth on things he think the society is not doing enough on, like aids, cancer research etc. So he's basically voting with his money, not just giving them away randomly to strangers.

You are what we call a bleeding heart liberal. You don't really understand the feelings of the poor and just using them to justify your own agenda, or to make yourself feel better like petting a pet.

This man gets it.

 

[d9_lives]

I am only a locum and locums usually don't have the authority to waive consult though sometimes I do for cases that I cannot help much. And we try to give lower income patients non branded medicine which r cheaper.

Come on. You're full of excuses..there're many ways to help them if u want to.
Practise what u preached.

I know your kind,
The somebody (except me) should do something kind of people...

 

[BBCWatcher]

It's tougher to govern a country with no natural resources.

It's also tougher to govern a country that is subject to several more natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes/typhoons/tornadoes, avalanches, blizzards, tsunami, etc.), hazards that Singapore does not face.

When benchmarking against other countries, if the compensation board feels that a particular difference ought to be taken into account in determining ministers' remuneration, it can do so.