Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
Regulatory compliance top of my head.
There are many IT and data people in MAS who have grandeur visions of thinking themselves as hot shot data scientists comparable to those in Facebook and Google and like to showboat that they will be paid XXX amount if they move to private sector. Nutcases. |
It's not so much that the IT and data people believe that they are worth that amount, but more of
MAS staff are underpaid compared to bank staff for performing the exact same job, even if they are just of average ability.
Generally, the inflow and outflow of staff between
MAS and the financial industry is in a sort of equilibrium, with the higher pay in banks (say, 30% including good company performance bonus) offset against the perceived job security and public service benefits in
MAS. However, banks recently had large pay adjustments across the board due to excellent performance of the whole financial industry last year while
MAS had a pay freeze in line with economic performance and the rest of the public service, so the 30% existing pay discrepancy grew even larger (maybe even more than 50% for top talents). Previously, banks may have offered only up to 10% increase for a "very average"
MAS staff, but they would now have the leeway to offer up to 30% increase for the same "very average"
MAS staff - an offer that many would take up especially if they know that they are only "very average" in
MAS.
The financial and tech industries just need people to grow their businesses (preferably already trained so can just "plug-and-play"); they don't really have the luxury of picking and choosing only the top talents. Remember also that COVID-19 restrictions are exacerbating this shortage - both industries have to offer high pay as they are competing for a limited pool of trained tech workers who already possess the right to work here, regardless of whether they are exceptional talents or not.
Overall, this has shifted the equilibrium to the point where far more staff were quitting
MAS to join the private sector, especially the financial industry. Management panicked at the high resignation rates and implemented a mid-year pay adjustment across the board (very extraordinary as adjustments are usually done at the end of the FY) - but this adjustment is still too little too late (in percentage terms) compared to that given by banks last year, so while the net outflow may be reduced, it is still there.