goodness, how many steve jobs are there? the super rich can do creative tax reporting, but i'm saying the BULK of the people here, including you and me, are normal salarymen with almost zero room to be creative in taxation.

since the banking industry is sucking away all the talent from various industries, and obviously this industry is making such huge profits enough to reward its employees so well, governments around the world should consider imposing a heavier tax on this industry (on top of the banking licenses, etc).

if not, the world will sooner or later be full of bankers, traders, brokers and no more farmers to grow rice. heard of the story about a thriving island with 10 traders and 1 farmer?

May i know what is yr starting salary? Are you getting more than 20% increament each yr? Typically, if you work in a factory, the increament is only about 3 to 5% excluding time when in crisis with pay freeze, pay cut or retrenchment

https://forums.salary.sg/17208-post36.html

someone in that link state that getting $4700/mth is consider low after 4-5 years exp if staring working from fresh grad....
sg male grad from university at abt 25-26, mean by age 29-30, you must earn at least $4700/mth (exclusive all bonus)
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for me
grad in 2007 NTU engineering
Job: engineer with my 1st job, 29 age male
up to now is 4 years + exp
basic only 3.7k
annual(inclusive aws, bonus) = 60-62k

even If I continue to work for my company for the next 6 years, which make me have a total of 10 years engineering exp with the same company, my basic salary would be only about $4900 (inclusive of 2 promotion factor in), well that is when I am age 35!!!

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how old are you now?
how many years of working exp?
Is this your 1st job since grad from university?
In which line of engineering are you in (aviation/marine/electronic/oil n gas...?)
Private or government sector?
Starting pay?

I am in the very early thirties, working in the public sector. My pay doubled over six years. Had two promotions. Won't go into any more details here.

The bottom line is that engineers are not well paid in Singapore. I am lucky to have joined a decent place that bothers enough about staff retention to keep on increasing our pay.

public sector and yet there's staff retention? not common for that to happen as public sector is well... public sector! The pay is commonly below average.

I think you made a very correct statement, espeically to sales industry.

Even for self-employed personnels who make up a chunk of the market, I believe they under-report too.

Well, one thing is for sure, people will only under-report, and never over-report (unless they want to get credit card, maybe).

That would make the median and mean pay given by IRAS misleading to a small to large extent.

There's no need for creative accounting to take place. There are so many people who would just key the lesser amount thinking, "well, even if I got caught, it's only my first time and I can feign ignorance anyway."

then I suppose that you are 2-3 years older than me

so you are an Engineer with the public sector(government sector) with 6 years exp.

you either from DSTA/PUB/HDB/BCA/EMA/NEA....highly chance from statboard.

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i m having 2nd lower degree
company is local GLC current stock price $2.8+/-, very good hint already

i can just estimate if I stay in my currently for 6 years(currently 4 years already, mean 2 more years later), my basic will be between 3.9k-4.2k only(with total 2 promotion in 6 years), not even double my starting salary!!!

3.9k-4.2k is only 42% more than my starting salary !!!

:(:(

Be contented. Not everyone is a banker or a minister.

Hi xtrasaver (your moniker is a good name for a supermarket or a mobile phone plan!).

I can think of a few reasons. Lower-paid earners might not want to post about their salaries. Sometimes typing it makes one more depressed than just reading about others. And yes, the ones who feel more confident to post would be the ones who think they have done fairly well in life. That is the way things are. Like going back to school reunions. Usually the successful ones and those with beautiful wives turn up. :D