<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Govt benchmarking social workers' pay
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->WE REFER to Mr Benjamin Soh's letter on Monday, 'Social workers' abysmal pay falls further'.
The 14.7 per cent drop in real earnings quoted by Mr Soh was for workers in the community, social and personal services sector. We note that this category includes a very diverse range of industries and personal services, such as hairdressing and laundry. Consequently, the figure quoted is not representative of wages for social workers.
In April last year, the salary guidelines for social workers were revised upwards. This increased funding to the sector by $14.7 million, or 13 per cent. A poll of social workers conducted by the Singapore Association of Social Workers last March revealed that about 67 per cent of the respondents received an average pay increase of $230 a month as a result of the increased funding. The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) is also working on benchmarking the pay of social workers to that of their contemporaries in the civil service.
We agree that social workers bring with them passion and skills to the sector and we need to attract and retain them. Currently, fresh graduates could be paid up to $2,700 a month while experienced social workers could earn up to $6,000 a month.
Besides salary revisions, two new initiatives last March will help retain talent. The sabbatical leave scheme provides paid sabbaticals for outstanding social workers in order to further raise their skills. The professional and leadership scheme provides training to help groom future leaders for the sector. In addition, the social worker accreditation framework will be implemented by the end of the year.
We encourage the public to continue to support and recognise the invaluable contributions of social workers. Ang Bee Lian (Ms)
Chief Executive Officer
National Council of Social Service
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->WE REFER to Mr Benjamin Soh's letter on Monday, 'Social workers' abysmal pay falls further'.
The 14.7 per cent drop in real earnings quoted by Mr Soh was for workers in the community, social and personal services sector. We note that this category includes a very diverse range of industries and personal services, such as hairdressing and laundry. Consequently, the figure quoted is not representative of wages for social workers.
In April last year, the salary guidelines for social workers were revised upwards. This increased funding to the sector by $14.7 million, or 13 per cent. A poll of social workers conducted by the Singapore Association of Social Workers last March revealed that about 67 per cent of the respondents received an average pay increase of $230 a month as a result of the increased funding. The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) is also working on benchmarking the pay of social workers to that of their contemporaries in the civil service.
We agree that social workers bring with them passion and skills to the sector and we need to attract and retain them. Currently, fresh graduates could be paid up to $2,700 a month while experienced social workers could earn up to $6,000 a month.
Besides salary revisions, two new initiatives last March will help retain talent. The sabbatical leave scheme provides paid sabbaticals for outstanding social workers in order to further raise their skills. The professional and leadership scheme provides training to help groom future leaders for the sector. In addition, the social worker accreditation framework will be implemented by the end of the year.
We encourage the public to continue to support and recognise the invaluable contributions of social workers. Ang Bee Lian (Ms)
Chief Executive Officer
National Council of Social Service
