many who're critical of teacher's pay rise are simply envious, because:

1) MOE rejected their application to become teachers
2) they alr left the education service
3) their current jobs will not be able to offer similar pay rise
4) they're SME owners/bosses

the capable and competent non-teachers would not feel jealous and view the pay rise as unfair, because they know that in current inflationary environment, their pay would eventually be increased too, if it hasnt increased already. usually when there's an increase of pay involving a big number of the workforce, there'll be spillover effects on other industries/service/statboards as well.

as usual, many SME owners/bosses will complain about being squeezed due to rising costs/rentals etc, hence not able to offer more competitive salary. they're the ones making the biggest noise, despite paying themselves quite a handsome bit.

but thats life, unfortunately