Rising wage bills not caused by foreign worker levy hike

Tight labour market is the cause of rising wage bills, said Finance Minister Tharman.

According to OCBC, Finance Minister Tharman stated, "rising wage bills are due to tight labour market, and not the FW levy hike."

In his recent round-up speech, Finance Minister Tharman said, "We want to make a quantum leap in productivity. Ten years from now, we want to be in a very different place from where we are now. And we know we will not get there if we continue to rely extensively on low-skilled foreign labour."

"We introduced one round of foreign worker levy increases last year, and we extended and accentuated the increases this year. But the foreign worker levy increases are not the fundamental driver for the business upgrading that has to take place."