Median workers’ real income growth rises to 2.1% in 2022

The growth, however, was still lower compared to the pre-pandemic average of 3.8%.

The real income growth of median workers rose to 2.1% in 2022 from 0.9% in 2021, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) reported.

According to MOM, the increase was possible because the strong nominal income growth outstripped higher inflation.

The 2022 median income growth was still slower than was still lower compared to the pre-pandemic average of 3.8%.

The median workers’ income growth was also weaker than the increase seen by the lower-wage workers.

Data from MOM showed that real income for the 20th percentile worker grew by 4.8% in 2022, faster than the previous year (4.4%), and the pre-COVID years (2014-2019: 4.4% p.a.).

MOM attributed the stronger income growth of lower-wage workers to tripartite initiatives such as the Progressive Wage Model (PWM).

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia