foreigners who have become Singapore permanent residents. Excluded are foreigners on Employment or Professional Visit Pass, partners, sole proprietors, the self-employed and employees working overseas.
Earnings:
average gross monthly earnings refer to total cash remuneration due or granted to employees in respect of their employment, before deduction of employees’ CPF contributions and personal income tax. They include basic wage, overtime payments, commissions, allowances (e.g. attendance, cost of living, dirt, education, holiday, housing, maternity, meal, productivity, service, stand-by allowances), leave pay and other monetary payments, annual wage supplements and variable bonuses. They exclude the value of payments in kind and employers’ CPF contributions.
Classifications
Branch of economic activity (industry):
Title of the classification:
Singapore Standard Industrial Classification (SSIC) 2000.
Number of groups used for coding:
54.
Applied to:
earnings and distribution of employees.
Link to ISIC:
Rev.3 (1990) at the 3-digit level.
Status in employment:
employees only.
Other classifications:
earnings: by sex;
distribution of employees: by sex and age group.
Data collection
Size and coverage of the administrative system:
in 2001, over 80,000 employers contributed to the CPF on behalf of over 1.2 million employees.
Data collection method:
statistics of average monthly earnings are based on the returns on social security and savings contributions that every employer is required by law to send to the Central Provident Fund (CPF). Each month, employers must declare the earnings of each employees and send their contributions within 14 days after the end of the month for which such contributions are due and payable. Manual and electronic payment forms are available. The earnings data are then compiled by the CPF monthly and processed two months after the reference period. Quarterly statistics of average monthly earnings are based on the average of the three months.
Updating of the administrative system:
continuous; the CPF Board’s computerized system detects defaulting employers and lists them out each month for follow-up action by Employer Services Officers. Industry spot-checks on employers’ wage records are also conducted to determine the level of compliance of employers to CPF rules and regulations.
Data processing, editing and consistency checks
The data are processed by computer.
Information on consistency checks is not available.
Adjustments
None.
Types of estimates
Average monthly earnings are computed by dividing the sum of the monthly earnings of all active CPF contributors (employees) by the number of active CPF contributors (employees). Quarterly statistics are based on the average of the three months.
Average real monthly earnings correspond to nominal earnings deflated by the corresponding year’s Consumer Price Index (at present, on base November 1997-October 1998=100).
Construction of indices
None.
Indicators of reliability of the estimates
Coverage of the administrative system:
it is assumed to cover all resident employees.
Available series
Quarterly and annual series of average monthly earnings by economic activity and sex.
Annual series of average real monthly earnings by economic activity and sex.
Annual distribution of CPF contributors by monthly wage level (at year-end), age group and economic activity.
History of the statistics
Starting date of the statistical series:
1981.
Major changes and revisions:
prior to 1992, the statistics of average earnings included self-employed persons who had made voluntary CPF contributions. Since 1992, the data exclude all identifiable self-employed persons.
Since 1998, the earnings data from the CPF Board by economic activity are compiled using 5-digit fields, instead of 4-digits. From that date onwards, the statistics are therefore not strictly comparable with the previous years.
Prior to 1998, the statistics were classified according to the Singapore Standard Industrial Classification (SSIC) 1990; between 1998 and 2000, according to SSIC 1996; and since 2001, according to SSIC 2000.
Documentation and dissemination
Documentation:
Ministry of Manpower, Manpower Research and Statistics Department: Singapore Yearbook of Manpower Statistics (annual, Singapore); published five months after the statistics’ reference year;
Idem: Report on Wages in Singapore (annual), published within six months after the statistics’ reference year.
Ministry of Trade and Industry, Department of Statistics (Statistics Singapore):
Monthly Digest of Statistics (Singapore) (monthly, ibid.); published three months after the reference quarter;
Idem: Yearbook of Statistics Singapore (annual, ibid.); published five months after the statistics’ reference year.
Methodological information is not published.
Dissemination:
on Internet:
Ministry of Manpower, Manpower Research and Statistics Department: http://www.gov.sg/mom/manpower/manrs/manrs.htm Ministry of Trade and Industry, Statistics Singapore: http://www.singstat.gov.sg
Information on the definitions of employees covered and wages, and on the CPF procedures, is available on the CPF web-site: http://www.cpf.gov.sg
Data supplied to the ILO for dissemination
The following statistics are published in the Yearbook and Bulletin of Labour Statistics:
Average monthly earnings by economic activity and (annually) by sex.
Other administrative sources of data:
employment statistics are compiled monthly from administrative records of various government agencies.