Is 150K USD per year ( 227,288 SGD) a good salary in Singapore for family 3

[WhatYDo]

OP: Tell me what do you do? how do you do?

I can never imagine that amount at least for next 5 to 10 yrs.

[fritjes]

WhatYDo maybe you can tell us what you do so we can figure out what you can't imagine earning that in the next 5-10 yrs.

[Vulcanl]

The below story puts things in perspective, at least as far as financial Services hiring goes:

E-FinancialCareers.HK
Recruitment Roundtable part II: direct hiring dilemmas
4 June 2009

Simon Mortlock

In the second of a two-part report, delegates on the recent eFinancialCareers recruitment roundtable in Singapore discuss the topical issues of compensation, expats and direct sourcing. The roundtable was attended by attended by 11 senior HR professionals from major international banks. Attendees asked not to be named in this article.

Compensation: cream of the crop still in command

In the words of one roundtable delegate: “Some candidates, especially juniors, egged on by recruiters, have unrealistic, inflated salary expectations. They are still trying their luck. I even had one person some asking for two years of guaranteed employment."

For low to mid-level jobs, banks obviously have the upper hand when it comes to comp. Base pay in Singapore is staying fairly stable, with new recruits generally unable to force large increments. “We’re no longer seeing candidates who have three or four offers on the table at the same time. This has helped to cool salary inflation.”

By contrast, banks which were hit hard by subprime (and have been further damaged by the defection of leadership-level staff) are now looking to increase very senior salaries to stop their top talent defecting to less tarnished competitors. “Firms will go to great lengths to keep their best people, and that includes raising base,” remarked one attendee.

Senior private bankers – the people who the banks are really battling for – are even still getting guaranteed bonuses at some firms. “It’s an ego issue. Private bankers like to talk to each other about who’s negotiated the best deal."

End of the fat cat expat

It’s a similar story when it comes to expat perks – a handful of business heads are still commanding packages with all the trimmings (accommodation, school fees, car etc), while the rest must settle for local deals.

Roundtable attendees showed little sympathy. One of them commented: “The low tax rate should be enough to draw people to Singapore. Expats need a reality check. There’s still a lot of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ within the expat community. If you send your kids to a state school in your home country, you can send them to one in Singapore too, or pay your own private fees.”

Direct dilemmas

The roundtable delegates also discussed the challenges of recruiting in the current climate. With their budgets getting tighter, HR professionals are trying to source more candidates directly and reduce their spend on costly external recruitment agencies.

Banks have boosted their employee-referral and competitor market-mapping programmes, although specialist search firms are still commonly used to fill senior roles.

But the recruiters aren’t going down without a fight. “They are running amok throughout our entire business because they have separate relationships with line managers, independent from us in HR. Contingency recruiters are being squeezed, so they’re trying to circumvent HR,” bemoaned one panelist.

Neither is going direct as simple as it seems. “Our main challenge is internal resourcing. We don’t have enough people. Asia is generally a bit behind the West when it comes to in-house recruitment, and HR staff lack the skills needed. We need to scale up internal teams.”

It’s also difficult to discourage line managers from relying on recruiters, admitted one attendee. “We must educate the line that direct takes longer, but can produce better quality candidates. Agencies might be quick to hand over CVs, but how many candidates have they actually met? How well to they know them?”

And how do candidates feel about being approach by a bank, rather than a recruitment agent? “They enjoy this. It’s a more honest approach and their questions about the job can be answered more effectively. They also feel more of a connection if it’s a peer calling them, rather than a third-party search firm.”

[Richard Li]

Me, Isabella and Ethan need 150M USD a year, so 150K USD is not a good salary for my family.

[BarackObama]

"Yes, you can!". I Barack Obama approve this message. 

[Vulcanl]

This is interesting...

World 
June 25, 2009, 7.25 pm (Singapore time)

Expats in Asia best paid: poll
*Despite crisis, Asia home to best-paid, wealthiest expats
*Russia No 1 country for expats' wealth, luxuries
*Britain, United States less attractive by comparison

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SINGAPORE - Want the good life despite the dire economy? Head east, according to a survey showing some of the world's highest-paid expatriates live in Asia and the Middle East.

A third of all expats in Russia - the highest proportion in the world - earn more than US$250,000 a year, followed closely by expats in Japan and Qatar, according to the 2009 Expat Explorer survey, commissioned by HSBC Bank International, the offshore financial services arm of HSBC Holdings.

Between a third and a quarter of foreigners working in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand and India earned annual wages of more than $200,000, while countries such as Malaysia, China and India, were ranked among the cheapest for accommodation.

'Asia is home to the highest paid expats in the world, with one in four expats earning more than US$$200,000 per year,' said the survey.

Russia was ranked the number one country overall for expats in terms of wealth. The rest of the top nine were all in Asia and the Middle East.

Building a nest egg is one of the perks of expat life for many people, and the survey showed that Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar, India and the United Arab Emirates were the top five countries where people have increased their savings.

But the global economic crisis has taken a heavy toll on expats in Britain and the United States, where close to a quarter are considering returning home, compared to just 15 per cent overall, due to the high cost of living, lack of savings and lower wages.

Generous salaries are also relatively scarce in Australia and Belgium, the survey showed. More than 60 per cent of expats in both countries earn under US$100,000, making them the poorest expats wage-wise when compared to a global average of 35 per cent.

LARGEST SURVEY
'We have seen some interesting trends in terms of how expats are reacting to the credit crunch, but what is also interesting to see is that they remain a wealthy group of individuals,' Paul Say, head of marketing and communications for HSBC Bank International, said in a statement.

'Over half the expats surveyed are actually earning US$100,000 and over - no mean feat particularly in the current climate.'

Expat Explorer, now in its second year, surveyed more than 3,100 expats from various nationalities living in 26 countries.

HSBC said it was the largest survey of its kind.

More than two-thirds of expatriates worldwide said the credit crisis had changed the way they spend their money, with luxuries and day-to-day spending the most affected. Nearly 40 per cent said they were saving more for a rainy day.

Over half of the expats in Japan - the highest globally at 53 per cent - said they were cutting back on holidays and other perks, while almost one in two expats in Thailand and Hong Kong - the second and third globally, were also scaling back.

In contrast, two-thirds of expats living in Qatar said the global financial crisis would not change their spending attitudes at all, followed by more than half of those living in Bahrain, which HSBC said indicated that some oil-rich Gulf Arab states have not been hit as hard by the downturn.

Expats in Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Russia were also the least likely to cut back on luxuries, the survey showed.

Those polled in the survey were chosen by four main criteria: annual income in excess of US$200,000; a monthly disposable income in excess of US$3,000; an increase in saving while working abroad and having at least two luxury items in the country they live in.

The survey was conducted between February and April 2009. -- REUTERS