PAP Statistics: Your monthly household income was $6,260 last year
Average household incomes up, but rich-poor gap continues: report
By CNA
SINGAPORE: The average monthly household income from work for Singaporeans grew by 4.3 percent to $6,260 last year.
One reason for the growth was the sustained economic expansion.
But a Department of Statistics report also noted that the gap between the high and low income groups was continuing.
The report said the expanding economy and improving labour market had benefited all income groups.
Taking inflation into account, employed households enjoyed real income growth of 3.2 percent last year.
Among the lowest 10% of employed households, there was a strong pick-up even though individual wages among lower-income workers had generally remained stagnant.
This might be due to an increase in the number of working persons in the lower-income households.
Professor Chew Soon Beng, Professor of Economics at Nanyang Technological University, said: "During the recession, many household members in the low income group had quit the labour market. Now that the economy is doing very well, many of them, especially housewives, have rejoined the workforce and find gainful employment. That is good news. But I think the pay they get is relatively low."
Higher-income households saw faster income growth, reflecting higher wage increases for skilled workers.
But this was also causing the gap between the high and low income groups to continue.
Professor Chew said: "High-income executives in Singapore, their pay is determined by the pay of high-income executives in developed countries. The pay of low-income workers in Singapore is determined by the pay of similar workers in the developing countries. The Workfare is very important and also the government has to ensure the cost of living in Singapore remains affordable."
According to the Department of Statistics report, the government's policies such as the Progress Package, including the Workfare Bonus, have helped control the household income disparity. - CNA/ir
And I bet more than 50% of the households don't even make half of the ave monthly household income of $6,260. Many thanks to the PAP infiltrated NTUC.
ReplyDeleteThis is AN OUTRAGEOUS LIE !!!
ReplyDeleteDoes the Govt think we we born yesterday ??????
WAH!!! I WISH I HAVE HALF OF THAT!!!
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference between mean and median. I think what the statistics refer to is the mean. Because the rich in singapore are so rich and increasing in numbers, they would naturally pull up the mean income. I suspect that the median income is much lower, and a better reflection of what the average singaporean really gets. By using the term 'average' without qualifying the term, this article is indeed very misleading. Propaganda.
ReplyDeleteReport like this is as good as being useless because it is one that is based on a useless ways of measuring average wealth since it also noted that the rich and poor income gap is increasing. In other word, this is as good as being intellectually DISHONEST.
ReplyDeleteThe report simply reported factually that the average (or mean) income increased last year. I don't think it's intellectually dishonest or misleading. The average is just one of the many ways of measuring wealth distribution. The report did acknowledged that the income gap continued to widen, which would imply that the median is lower than the mean.
ReplyDeleteSo... how much is the difference between the mean and median.
ReplyDeleteAnd I hope someone can enlighten all of us before shooting off which statistics is intellectually dishonest. I am not have majored in statistics but I always thought that mean and median are both taught in Statistics and both a measurement of events, things, etc.
So can a difference between mean and median be as much as 50%, 70%?
loads of B.S .....
ReplyDeleteIntellectually Bias....playing around with statistical figures is so easy....
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wonder why they just can't come up and mention truth and admit certain facts and work to solve it....
maybe they fear investors might leave or Singaporeans will be shocked...like how we all were with TT.
Best is to support independent NGO's and think tanks, who do all this work, so think of donating to NGO's as well...for the future of singapore.
so they can refute the SPH props...
I thought mean and median (together with mode) are taught in lower secondary maths.
ReplyDeleteThe arithmetic mean is simply what the common folk refer to as average or mean, as in average height and average IQ. The obvious way to calculate the mean household income is to divide the total monthly household income with the total number of households.
As for median, a median monthly household income of $X would mean that 50% of the households earn more than or equal to $X per month. The other 50% earn less than or equal to the same amount. Note that the median is not necessarily unique.
Depending on the actual distribution, the difference between the mean and median can vary from negligible to extraordinarily large.
This must be a big big joke right?
ReplyDeleteOf course everyone who had studied economic, math or statistics knows about the means and the medians. As I had mentioned I felt it is intellectually dishonest precisely because of the way it was being "factually" reported albeit selectively, otherwise I would call it "crap". Anyone who learns journalism would know that other than the headlines the first two para is the most important one and what you got from that para is the $6260 increase and the second para that it is due to sustained growth etc.It mentioned about the rich and poor gap but by adding "continues" only makes it seems like a norm so emphasise is still on the "average household income up". Nothing was mentioned in this report about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
ReplyDelete