1. On offshoring:

Offshoring has been happening for years. At first, the banks move their back office staff to places like Changi and their not so important functions to places such as Alexandra etc to alleviate staff costs.

For the lowest of the value chain, these get outsourced to India, Malaysia. How else do you think that front office gets paid so well? Something got to give.

The only positive thing right now is that we are still cheaper than HK. For regional operations, the executive office have to be hubbed somewhere (HK, Sin). So for front office staff, we are still safe. For back-office, it doesn't matter where you sit. Any country with cheap labour, housing and rent will fit the bill.

2. On base pay moving on to new job:

Employers usually discuss on total compensation (instead of base pay) basis. So it doesn't mean that moving on with high base will definitely be a plus for you. It actually make work against you. Companies maybe quick to term you as expensive if your base pay appears high for the job.