Introduction 

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	​	​	​	Gross Monthly Income From Employment Gross monthly income from employment is the widest measure of income from employment, covering both employees and the self-employed. For an indication of workers’ economic well-being or how much a typical worker in Singapore is earning, we look at the median income. This is the income of the worker in the middle of the income distribution, i.e. half of the workers earned more than this income and half, less. When determining how workers’ income has changed over time, it is also more meaningful to focus on the income growth among those in full-time employment. This will avoid clouding the income trends with the changing mix of full-timers and part-timers among employed persons, as part-time work involves shorter working hours and correspondingly lower income. Moreover, full-timers form the bulk of workers in Singapore. While the growth in median income from employment is a measurement of the progress in income of the employed pool as a whole, year-on-year income changes which are derived from a sample survey are prone to fluctuations and hence should always be interpreted with caution. Income growth studied over longer periods (e.g. 5 or 10 years) smooths out these fluctuations and hence provides a more direct indication of income growth. The quarterly average (mean) monthly earnings (AME) has been replaced with the quarterly average (mean) gross monthly income (GMI) from employment. The GMI provides broader coverage by including both salaried and self-employed individuals. Unlike the AME, which incorporates bonuses, the GMI excludes them, offering a clearer reflection of actual income trends for short-term comparisons. The quarterly mean gross monthly income provides a timely gauge of average wage movement. The change in mean gross monthly income (change in income per worker) is a suitable statistic for comparison with the change in labour productivity (change in value-added per worker) as both are expressed on a “per worker” basis. When studying the change in mean gross monthly income of any quarter, it would be more meaningful to compare it with the same quarter of prior years, so as to limit seasonal variations that mask the underlying actual trend in income.​
	​	​	​	Annual Wage Changes If you are interested in wage increases that employers give over the year, then look at the annual wage changes. This indicator provides a breakdown of changes in total wages into basic wages and bonuses and for three categories of employees, namely the rank-and-file, junior management and senior management.​​ The data refer to wage changes that employers give their full-time resident employees in continuous employment of at least one year.
	​	​	​	Average (Mean) Monthly Earnings Average (mean) monthly earnings (AME) provides a rough gauge of average wage movement. However, the AME can be influenced by the changing mix of full-time and part-time workers and variations in overtime as the data are compiled based on the payroll of contributors to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) which do not allow for breakdown separately to full-timers and part-timers. Also, as AME pertains to mean earnings, it can be skewed upwards by a small number of very high income earners. For income of a typical worker, users should refer to the median gross monthly income from employment and for wage growth of employees over a year, ​users can refer to the annual wage changes.
	​	​	​	Occupational Wages If the interest is in wages of common occupations, we refer to the Occupational Wage Survey for the wages of over 4​00 occupations. Commonly used for salary benchmarking, the occupational wage data do not include bonuses, which are more closely linked to performances of the individual and establishment. Data on occupational wages pertain to full-time resident employees and are available in terms of monthly basic and gross wages (excluding bonuses).
	​	​	​	Graduate Starting Salary Data on starting salaries of the graduating cohorts from the local publicly-funded institutions of higher learning facilitate the comparison of starting salaries across various courses from the universities, polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education. Collected through the Graduate Employment Surveys conducted by the various institutions of higher learning, monthly gross starting salary comprises the basic salary, fixed allowances, overtime pay and commissions, but does not include bonuses as the graduates generally would not have worked long enough to get bonus payouts. The data pertain to graduates in full-time permanent employment, including those on contracts of one year or more.

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