Chapter 3: Respecting and rewarding every job

Together, we have built a thriving and highly productive economy. Yet, many of us are still anxious about our jobs, in expectation of more economic volatility ahead.

We will need to broaden our society’s definition of success and good jobs, and embrace a wider variety of career pathways, while continuing to pursue excellence in what we do. The types of jobs in our economy, levels of remuneration and career prospects across various industries must also be consistent with what we value and aspire to.

Working hand-in-hand with individuals, employers and unions, we will do more in the following areas:

Further reducing wage gaps across professions

• We will continue to regularly review the schemes that uplift our lower-wage workers, such as Workfare, Progressive Wage Model and Local Qualifying Salary.

• We ask that our communities and employers join us in better appreciating and fairly remunerating those doing ‘hands’ and ‘heart’ jobs. They include our professional tradespeople like electricians and plumbers, as well as those in the healthcare and aged care sectors.

• We will narrow the salary gaps between ITE graduates and graduates from polytechnics and autonomous universities. We will enable more ITE graduates to upskill and upgrade early, and provide more help for them in their upgrading journey.

Empowering Singaporeans to build career agility and resilience

• We will provide more support for Singaporeans to secure better jobs and careers that make full use of their skills. We ask employers to do their part too, by hiring from a wider talent pool, investing in their workers, and rewarding skills.

• We will empower Singaporeans to take ownership of their careers and make longer-term career plans with greater access to information and effective career guidance services.

• We ask employers to join us in doing more to support vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities and ex-offenders, as they seek to integrate into the workforce.

• We will introduce a new support scheme for involuntarily unemployed jobseekers to assure Singaporean workers that they will not have to face employment setbacks alone.

Investing more in Singaporeans, even as we keep our economy open

As we keep our economy open:

• We will ensure that the foreign workforce remains complementary to Singaporeans, by continually managing the flow and calibre of foreign employees.

• We will ensure that employers uphold fair employment practices and take a strong stance against discrimination at the workplace. We will support skills and technology transfers from MNCs and foreign professionals to our local businesses and workers.

• We urge Singaporeans to continue to be big-hearted and accepting of those who are different from us.

• We ask non-Singaporeans to respect our norms, our way of life and make the effort to fit in.

• We will do more to better support Singaporeans with the potential to shine — locally and globally — as specialists and leaders in their respective fields and industries. In particular, we would like to develop and nurture more Singaporean corporate leaders, especially for top regional roles in MNCs.

How should we respect and reward every job?

• Reduce wage gap: Recognition and better pay for those in 'hands' and 'heart' jobs; enable more ITE graduates to upskill and upgrade

• Support job transitions: Empower individual career planning, and improve matching of jobs and skills, with a new scheme to help the involuntarily unemployed bounce back stronger

• Nuture local talent: More Singaporeans to become specialists and leaders in their respective fields

Download reports

• Download and read the full chapter [PDF, 1.8 MB]

• Download Forward SG Report [PDF, 20 MB]

• Download Forward SG Summary Booklet [PDF, 4.6 MB]
  (In English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil)