I've noticed there is a lot of unhappiness over the recent pay hike for “Civil" servants.
Here is my take on the issue. According to PSD website:
6. Is the Civil Service part of the Public Service?
The Singapore Public Service employs some 110,000 public officers working in 15 Ministries, more than 50 Statutory Boards and nine Organs of State. Within the Public Service is the Civil Service, comprising more than 60,000 officers working in the Ministries and Organs of state. They work in various schemes of service, including the Administrative Service, legal, education, police, civil defence as well as other generic schemes.
http://www.psd.gov.sg/AboutUs/Faqs
So based on the PSD website, it seems to mean in this case that any pay hike for the “Civil� service doesn’t necessarily means those working in the "Public" service will get a pay hike!
Now if you think about it logically, those working in the statuatory boards may have to face the public even more compared to the Ministry staff who may also be drawing a higher salary. MX something scale I believe.
The last salary adjustment for public servants I think was quite a few years back. As it is public money they are spending, I heard that stat board adjustment usually comes in a little late compared to market situation. Neither is it extremely competitive if compared to the latest market situation.
To be fair in this case, neither does the public go out of their way to point out that the salaries for "Public" service has not been adjusted for a long time when the economy is good but calls for a cut to all “Public Sector� when the economy is bad.
At the end of the day, "Public" servants may also have families to feed. It may not be fair and objective to assume they draw the same level of high pay as ministry people and upper tier civil servants and ask for them to have their pay reduced.