LACK OF DECENT WORK

Current work conditions disadvantage those with low education, with family responsibilities, and with limited social capital.

Labour MP Zainal Sapari has described the working conditions that low-wage workers experience as akin to “slavery” in speeches in Parliament and commentaries, due to “the very limited jobs they can undertake given their age and skills”.

Our research finds that women, in particular, feel the greatest impact of both limited work options and poor work conditions, because they carry the additional responsibility of caregiving.

Work conditions such as being on-call, keeping unpredictable hours, and working on weekends are hard for everyone, but more so for mothers who have young children to look after.

Moreover, low-wage casual jobs (which many low-income women are engaged in) neither provide employment benefits like childcare leave or annual leave, nor basic protection against unfair termination on grounds of having family responsibilities. Without such protections, taking time off to care for their sick children has resulted in many of our respondents being penalised by hostile employers, leading to resignation or termination of employment.

One woman was fired from her last job as a childcare assistant because she had to take time off whenever her son fell sick. “I was supposed to work full-time… because my husband could not take leave, most of the time I had to take leave. My boss was quite unhappy. After that, there was conflict. I was actually fired by them.”

The jobs that these mothers take on tend to be low-wage. The median monthly basic wage in sectors where women are over-represented, such as food and beverage, was between $1,100 and $1,400 in 2016.

Without an official poverty line or a minimum wage, it is hard to state definitively if this wage is sufficient to support a basic standard of living. However, if we were to use the eligibility criteria for public assistance – per capita income of $650 monthly – as a proxy, these wages would easily fall below the basic monthly income required for a household of four.

It is also notable that the Workfare Income Supplement, which aims to support low-wage workers, does not apply to those in informal employment – as many of our respondents were.

PAID WORK OR UNPAID CHILD-CARING

The expectations we have of women, to assume primary responsibility for childcare, apply equally to those who are low-income.

The big difference between well-to-do and low-income mothers, however, is the level of support available to alleviate their caregiving responsibilities.

For example, childcare centre operating hours are incompatible with shift-based working hours, which many low-wage workers put up with. One of the respondents, for example, was forced to choose between work and caregiving because “they (the employers) want full time, long hours, can work weekend… childcare only open weekdays”.

Low-income mothers who work also have to carry out, often with no other support, the invisible and unpaid work that usually falls upon women in a household – caring, cooking and cleaning.

Middle-class and better-off families do likewise but are better supported. They can hire a foreign domestic worker or rely on family to help. Low-income mothers cannot afford the former, and may lack family support if family members do not live in the country, are unwell, or are also low-income and cannot afford to leave wage employment to take care of their grandchildren.

Our systems must be geared to do more to support low-income women’s rights to work and care for their children, especially if they lack family support to do so.

If the Government’s approach to alleviate poverty is self-reliance, work, upskilling for adults and education for children, then we must grapple with these questions: Is the current level of wages (median of $1,300-$1,800; Labour Force 2017) for people who have less than secondary school education enough to meet basic needs?

Do they have any or enough paid childcare leave to care for their children when they fall sick? What options are available to a family that is not able to access subsidised childcare? Even if childcare is available, how do low-wage workers take care of their children outside of childcare hours?

Do employees experience discrimination in hiring or retention because of caregiving responsibilities? Given that the Employment Act does not cover casual workers, how do these workers deal with companies that treat them unfairly?

The findings of our research show very clearly that the poor wages and working conditions at the bottom end of the economy, combined with the difficulties in accessing formal and informal childcare support, strongly discourage low-income mothers from joining the labour force.

Given the state of our economy and labour rights and protection in Singapore, there are no easy solutions to address this issue. But if we start by looking at the structural issues of wages, working conditions and the lack of childcare support, and focus on addressing these challenges, without fear of challenging fundamental assumptions that have stopped serving us well, we will be able to find ways to make things better for lower-income families.