Comparison of Wages Between Cleaners Under Cleaning Contracts and Cleaners Under Direct Employment

Date: 9 April 2012

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance: 

If he will give a breakdown by Ministry and statutory board (i) the average gross monthly wages of cleaners currently employed on a contract basis via cleaning contractors; and (ii) the average gross monthly wages of cleaners currently employed directly.

Reply by DPM and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam:

1. Last year, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the National Environment Agency (NEA) conducted a survey on public sector cleaning contracts. Responses from contractors were sought on a voluntary, in-confidence basis via the respective Government agencies. Based on the returns, contractors pay full-time cleaners a gross monthly wage of between $700 to $1,200, with those performing supervisory duties earning above this range. The wages received by general cleaners engaged to clean Government offices are comparable to the industry average of about $800^[1].

2. Currently, only four officers are directly employed by the Government to perform estate maintenance functions inclusive of cleaning. These officers, aged between 58 and 65 years old, have many years of service with the Government. They receive a gross monthly wage of between $1,200 and $1,500.

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^[1] According to MOM’s Report on Wages in Singapore 2010 (http://www.mom.gov.sg/statistics-publications/national-labour-market-information/publications/Pages/report-wages.aspx), the gross median wage of Office Cleaners is $800, while that of the "Cleaners, Labourers and Related Workers" category is $960.