There have been numerous research studies backed by HR consultancies on pay and many have been quoted on this forum. They largely say what many people who share online are getting. The problem is that when people see it is higher than what they are, most get very defensive & start to rationalize by either declaring that it’s all just outlier values or claim that it’s a conspiracy by consultants to generate business.
Same thing you see with the high salaries that
NUS/
NTU/
SMU publish about what their alumni are getting, they usually get a lot of flack by people who are not doing as well for being elitist, bias to promote their reputation etc. For me it’s very simple, my social circle, data from consultancies & my alumni all corroborate, so it makes no sense for me to doubt that somehow numbers are being fudged by multiple parties at the same time consistently.
I also have friends who’s career have tanked and done poorly pay wise, they usually start to bitch about their employer, FT, gov, colleagues during our kopi session. Although my pay is much higher than them, I lend them a listening ear and make non-committal agreements just to allow them to let off some steam as a friend. For all you know, I might become one of the “social circle” of the so called low paid crowd. Go for hard data, not hearsay, your friends could be agreeing with you or acting poor just to be empathic.