Pinoy in Singapore

For Pinoys planning to work in Singapore who may not be aware, companies in Singapore pay a levy for every foreign worker (ie  non-citizen, non-PR) that they employ. Levy is defined in the dictionary as a fee that is imposed – like a tax.  But in the past, despite the levy, it still comes out cheaper for companies to employ foreigners who are willing to accept job offers at lower salaries than their locals counterparts. 

This caused citizens to complain because they have to compete for work with the cheaper and abundant foreign talent available especially at the lower ranks.

So in a move to wean Singapore off being dependent on foreign talent, the Ministry of Manpower will increase the levy for foreign workers starting July 2010.  This will increase operation costs of companies that are heavily dependent on foreign workers and rethink about employing them.

The sector I feel that will be greatly affected is services.  I see a lot of Filipinos in the services sector here.

I wonder how this move will pan out.  Based on what I read, locals shun jobs that they think are menial.  Will this move encourage locals to take up lower ranked jobs?  Or could it force companies to employ the locals at the salary they are demanding?

We’ll see.