Have you ever wanted to know where you stand among the working crowd in terms of pay? Or have you always been curious about how long it will take you to earn as much as your peers?

Now you can get the answers to those questions and more with the new JobsCentral Salary BenchMarker.

Based on data from the Ministry of Manpower's Report on Labour Force in Singapore 2008, the JobsCentral Salary BenchMarker will help you to benchmark your salary against the rest of Singapore's working population, based on your options for comparison. Last but not least, the tool will even tell you how long it will take to reach your next desired salary level.

Eager to get started? Click here to use the new JobsCentral Salary BenchMarker!

The Public Service Division (PSD) announced yesterday that civil servants will not be getting a mid-year bonus this year. The bonus is part of their salaries’ Annual Variable Component (AVC), which is adjusted according to economic conditions.

As a result of this and other wage cuts, civil servants’ salaries will drop by between 6% and 21%, depending on seniority. PSD claims that this is commensurate with private sector pay fluctuation. “The zero mid-year bonus will align the public sector with what is widely practiced in the private sector,” said Madam Halimah Yacob, the NTUC deputy secretary-general.

Government economists forecast that Singapore's economy will contract by between 6 and 9 percent this year. There are, however, signs of recovery and indications that the recession will not be as severe as expected. PSD declared that civil servants' year-end bonus will depend on such optimism holding true.

If you have something to say about the announcement, tell us what you think on the JobsCentral Forum.
.

Most of us, faced with higher bills and rising costs, would love to have an increase in salary even though it is not time for the company’s annual review. So we fantasize about how to approach the boss and make the request for a raise.

Most of us would think that a good reason for such a request is that we need more money to pay our bills, our children’s rising tution fees, and so on. However, your personal financial needs are not your company's problem.

HR experts advise that it is best not to talk about your financial needs. Instead, your request should be based on your added skills, productivity, tasks accomplished, your contribution to the company, and the market rate for the job position you are holding.

1. Draw up your job description. You should have two kinds of job description: a formal one given by the HR department, and an informal one you produce that includes all the actual tasks you do that are not mentioned in the formal description.

Salaries in certain industries have dropped by between 10 to 20% since last year, as a result of the economic recession. In particular, salaries in engineering, sales and marketing, and logistics and warehousing have been hardest hit.

Engineering managers’ monthly salaries declined by 18% to S$9,000, as manufacturing output plummeted. In the retail sector, retail assistants and sales coordinators have seen their salaries cut from $1,700 to $1,600. With falling export orders, warehouse supervisors now earn a minimum of S$1,600, down from S$1,800 last year.

Nonetheless, salaries remain stable in other, more resilient industries such as healthcare, biotechnology, and energy. This is indicative of a continued demand for talent in these industries. For instance, with the rise of medical tourism and mushrooming of research hubs, there is still a need for skills-specific talent for the healthcare industry.

Similarly, there remains a shortage of talent in the IT & telecommunications industry, especially of those skilled in new media web technologies, internet and mobile content development because of the breakneck speed of technological development. It is also partly due to government funding for projects, with the aim to develop Singapore as an IT hub.

These figures and trends were revealed in recruitment agency Kelly Service’s latest Salary Guide. Looking at the big picture, Mr. Dhirendra Shantilal, Senior Vice-President (Asia Pacific), feels that the statistics are a cause for caution.

Increase in average annual salary is expected to be 2.1 percent this year, according to a survey conducted by human resources firm Hewitt Associates.

This figure is lower than last year's average increase of 5 percent, which might not come as a surprise considering economic performance for the first quarter of 2009. A total of 53 companies were surveyed in March, and wages for the hi-tech sector are expected to increase marginally by 1.1 percent. Equally dismal is the expected annual salary increase for senior management, which stands at 1.9 percent. A follow-up survey will be conducted in June, and Hewitt expects figures to go even lower then.

Faring better are companies in the energy sector, which may have a pay increment of 4.1 percent this year. The survey also indicated that more than 70 percent of companies have undertaken compensation cost control measures, with 43 percent implementing some kind of salary freeze.

Civil servants in various ministries and in both senior and junior positions all received an email circular from the Public Service Division on 16 March notifying that a pay cut was imminent. Supposedly, base pay will be cut, and performance bonuses will be scaled down.

Given that civil service pay is tied to the country's economic performace, and in the light of the florid publicity of the fiasco in Washington over the awarding of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bonuses to executives of banks bailed out using taxpayers' money, such news was surely to be expected.

However, this still begs the question: Should the move to cut civil servants' pay be applauded as being altruistic and sensitive? Or should it merely be acknowledged as the dutiful responsibility of civil servants to share in the hardship of the private sector. After all, those working in the public sector are paid less than their private sector counterparts in good times. Should they also be made to suffer when times are bad? Would that be tantamount to letting them have the worst of both worlds?

Furthermore, the public sector is already indirectly compensating the private sector by virtue of its intensive recruitment drive. MOE and MINDEF in particular have announced five-figure recruitment targets. In effect, this means that wages budgeted for existing public officials are being diverted to "rescue" the victims of the slack labour market in the private sector. Is this fair?

Granted, public officials have an obligation to "serve the country". But where does duty end, and where do rights begin? Should the performance bonuses of excellent civil servants suffer because of factors out of their control? Will this not dampen the incentive for civil servants to perform at their very best, and for talented individuals to join the civil service in the first place?

Have something to say? Tell us what you think here.

Barely two weeks ago, I blogged about a survey by Mercer Singapore, that suggested wages in Singapore increasing by 4.2% next year.

But the forecast has been deemed an unrealistic one by analysts, who mostly expect salaries to rise more modestly, stay stagnant or even shrink.

Those who are certain that wages will not grow include representatives from Standard Chartered, HR consultancy Robert Half Singapore and Michael Page International. The consensus is that wages for industries such as manufacturing and the financial services are least likely to increase.

Some like Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong have described predicting wage increases for 2009 as "treacherous", and that the focus should be on saving jobs and businesses. I personally agree with such a stand, because of how volatile the job market has been, and will continue to be for the months ahead.

Nevertheless, expect more upcoming surveys which will attempt to shed light on salary trends. For instance, the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) will release the results of a similar survey next month, while Robert Walters' salary survey will be out in February.

> Discuss salary issues on the JobsCentral Forum!

Despite the gloomy outlook for 2009, salaries are still expected to increase across industries in Singapore.

On average, base salaries will rise by 4.2%, according to a survey of 230 firms by human resource consultancy Mercer Singapore.

The figure is 0.9% lower than that of this year, and the smallest wage increments are expected in banking, property and electronics manufacturing. All three industries have been adversely affected by the current economic slowdown.

Here are the salary increment projections for various industries, based on the survey: