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Are Asia’s back-office staff underpaid?

18 March 2008

COMMENTS

Singapore's back office staff need to remember they're not doing anything difficult and there are plenty of other people in the Phillippines and India who'd love the cash. Go ahead, demand more money. You won't get it, and if you do, it won't be long before you won't have a job.  Read all comments »

Singapore’s making a name as an operations hub, but back-office staff in the Lion City complain they’re underpaid. Do they have a point?

Whereas the average bonus for middle and back-office staff last year was about the equivalent of three months’ salary, this year the envelopes landing on desks are much slimmer, often ranging from between a month to three weeks or, in some extreme cases, nothing at all.

“The middle/back office normally gets what is left over after paying the front office. For the 2007 bonus, three months will be a good payout,” explains Pan Zaixian, manager financial services at Robert Walters in Singapore.

“I saw one client who had just got a bonus of a month and who last year got four to five months,” says Steve Parkes, manager, financial services division at Michael Page International in Singapore.

Do middle and back-office workers deserve more? In tougher markets, they’re the ones, after all, who keep the cogs running smoothly. Or are demands for higher bonuses misplaced and at risk of eroding Singapore’s competitive advantage?

Your comments please….

COMMENTS

Ronald McDonald, Hedge Funds,  Tue 18 Mar 08

Singapore's back office staff need to remember they're not doing anything difficult and there are plenty of other people in the Phillippines and India who'd love the cash. Go ahead, demand more money. You won't get it, and if you do, it won't be long before you won't have a job.

Add your comment »

Jimbo, Operations,  Tue 18 Mar 08

Yes but you have to remember how much other people are getting paid. It cannot be said to be fair that one man is receiving enough to retire and his support structure, which he would be functionless without, is only getting a small fraction of that. If this crisis is teaching us anything it is that it is not right to pay the visible risk takers and to throw the dregs to everyoen else. bank pay should be fair.

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m lee, Student,  Thu 20 Mar 08

These facts remain to support JIMBO, Operations:
1) the need for commercial secrecy  2)the need for instant professional and technical support.  Please do not further insult your own intelligence, RONALD MCDONALD, by pretending you can function alone.  If you care to read more, you will observe that the super rich nowadays REQUIRE their own personal IT CORP around them physically.  Food can be produced thousands of miles away but then they become impregnated with industrial poisions out of sheer necessity. ditto with distanced support. Think you can survive or thrive by a back office corp stationed in Timbuctu ?  Those employers who are knowledgeable, nurture and support all kinds  of staff WILL emerge the winner.

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HP ProLiant c-Class server blade, Information Technology,  Thu 20 Mar 08

People in back office actually get paid a bonus ?      ??  What for ? I can do their job 100% more efficiently and all I ask for in return is an annual maintainance check-up by a HP engineer.

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Mr Buffet, Asset Management,  Thu 20 Mar 08

Same old, same old ... The world does not owe you a living JIMBO.  If you are unhappy with your lot, then YOU should do something about it and find an employer or industry which you believe will pay you your fair value.  No-one can escape the power of market forces.

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Adam Smith, Research,  Thu 20 Mar 08

If back office staff were indeed underpaid, then companies would have problems filling open positions and they would have to bid up salaries to attract the right candidate.  Actually I think posing such a question only serves to demonstrate a total ignorance of basic economics, which I find unusual to see on a financial website.

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colonel sanders, Private Banking / Wealth Management,  Thu 20 Mar 08

ronald mcdonald, you are just pure ignorant.

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ming, Operations,  Sun 23 Mar 08

I agree with Adam Smith.  Its a ridiculous question to put on a financial website, obviously whoever posed the question has no finance education.  Back office work is like any other market, where supply and demand determine who is under- or over-paid.  The greater the supply of a particular skill, the less you can expect to get paid.  Very rudimentary Economics 101 !

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Mike, Insurance,  Wed 26 Mar 08

Is this a joke ?  For starters the person posing this question is clearly overpaid ! What a stupid question in the current circumstances. Banks have just managed to lose hundreds of billions of dollars in less than 6 months ... and more than likely they will have to writedown more in the next few months.  So how come you think you are underpaid ?  The question should be re-stated, "How many people working in banking still deserve to have a job ?"

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Adam Smith 2, Research,  Mon 21 Apr 08

There is something called "frictions" in the labor market because there are considerable costs involved in hiring and firing people. Therefore, the labor market doesn't always instantly respond to the changing underlying economic conditions, wages can be temporarily out of line with the "equilibrium wage", and certain workforce can be over- or underpaid for a period of time. This is also true with other markets - for example, if the stock market were perfectly efficient, all you analysts and fund managers alike will be out of job already. Think about that. For people who have already taken econ101, it's worthwhile to read a bit more about economics.

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