The least sanguine appear to be electronics manufacturers. And among those paying increments and bonuses this year, the payouts, while lower than before, are still fairly decent amounts. Wage increases are declining from 4.8 per cent at the start of the year to 3.7 per cent for the second half of the year, giving an overall increase of 4.2 per cent for the whole year. Engineering companies, on the other hand, have given the lowest raises, averaging 3.4 per cent. But 5 per cent of companies have already frozen wages while another 15 per cent plan to do so when they review wages later this year.
Some companies are very badly affected and have already resorted to retrenchment.
About 11 per cent of the companies polled cited staff retrenchment as a cost-cutting measure. About 22 per cent of the companies polled by RDS have an MVC, averaging 2.5 per cent of total pay. About 56 per cent of companies also said they would prefer another restoration of the CPF cut by January 2002. SPH AsiaOne Limited. Privacy Statement .