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Higher wages for tradespeople: Who pays the bill?
A mentality of celebrating bargains should give way to a culture where we respect and pay fairly for other people’s work.
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Those who are concerned about high income inequality in Singapore should be prepared to stump out higher prices for domestic services, says the writer.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
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Each time I see another post on social media about a super-cheap hawker meal, I cringe. Noodles for $2.50; kopi-o kosong for 70 cents, or a plate of economy rice with meat, vegetables and rice for $3. Such posts often attract favourable comments from others, who extol the virtue of the stallholders who keep prices down so that the low-income can afford such budget meals.
The only trouble with such a scenario is that, very often, the ones sharing about the super-cheap hawker meals are not the ones for whom such meals are designed. While some hawkers in low-income neighbourhoods keep prices down for their clientele,
