SINGAPORE – Some care workers here may have been surprised to learn that their recommended pay in 2023 seemed to have decreased from 2022.

This was based on new social service sector salary guidelines posted on the National Council of Social Service’s (NCSS) website.

It was announced in March during the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s budget debate that salaries would go up by between 4 per cent and 15 per cent from April 1. The salary guidelines were last reviewed by the ministry and NCSS in 2018.

But some noticed that while the recommended starting pay for care staff had gone up by close to 15 per cent to $1,790, that for senior care staff had fallen almost 6 per cent to $2,330.

And the reference point for care staff had fallen by around 10 per cent to $2,280, while that for senior care staff had dropped by around 27 per cent to $2,910.

According to the NCSS website, the reference point denotes those who are competent on the job and is not the maximum point, while the recommended starting salaries denote positions that do not require significant transferable experience.

Speaking to The Straits Times, a social sector employee who declined to be named asked: “Is this a new way of differentiating between skilled and unskilled workers?”

Responding to queries from ST, Mr Anjan Ghosh, group director of the sector capability and transformation group at NCSS, said the council had taken reference from job roles in the Skills Frameworks for Social Service and Healthcare developed in consultation with the sector.

These reflect job titles and responsibilities based on specific competencies needed for those roles.

Mr Ghosh said: “With the salary review that took into consideration changes in job sizes, some job roles in certain professions have been merged, while some have been right-sized. This is to better align the job roles and corresponding salary ranges with the knowledge, skills and competencies required.”

In particular, senior care staff roles were previously tagged to social work associate grades in the FY2022 guidelines. Associates help social workers with coordinating casework and support interventions.

The review found that it was “more appropriate and reflective of ground practice” to tag senior care staff roles to social service assistant grades, said Mr Ghosh.

These assistants provide administrative and logistical support, and/or support clients in activities of daily living.

“Nevertheless, existing senior care staff with the same competencies and job sizes as social work associates should continue to be paid similarly to social work associates. In addition, the skills framework provides room for progression for care staff to upgrade to larger job roles,” Mr Ghosh said.

To help social service agency leaders and human resources (HR) practitioners understand and implement the guidelines better, NCSS has organised a series of webinars, workshops and clinics to engage the sector to build HR capability and good people and workplace practices.

A social service agency leader who declined to be named said she pays her care staff $2,000 a month to facilitate her organisation’s community and corporate projects.

She stressed the need to clearly distinguish between the work of care staff in residential homes and other settings. The former, she said, would be akin to healthcare assistants in hospitals with heavier duties, with starting salaries and ranges that ought to be commensurately higher than the social work assistant range.

“Fundamentally, the bigger question is: What priority do we place on this essential work compared with senior management staff?” she said.

Melrose Home director Cindy Ng said the realigning of roles based on tasks performed is reasonable.

“NCSS had benchmarked all the jobs to the closest competing markets and made systematic adjustments... based on actual gap to market, economic outlook, inflation rates, and prevailing expectations of salary budget increases. These are very typical and sound HR principles that most sectors use during salary reviews.

“Optics-wise, it is not surprising that members of the public are going to notice the reduction in range. And this reduction is even more stark given that we just emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic, where we finally recognised the important work essential workers like care staff do.”

Ms Ng also noted that social service assistants are less likely to require a social work diploma, unlike social work associates.

But more importantly, organisations should look into the job roles needed and pay in accordance with competencies and job sizes, instead of just pegging remuneration to job roles or titles, she said.

For example, staff of Melrose Home have to perform at a higher level than care staff and senior care staff in the skills framework, due to the younger age profile of the home’s residents and their complex trauma presentation.

“Our care staff and senior care staff actually need to... repair past experiences and nurture development in the areas of psychological and emotional development,” explained Ms Ng. 

Having to design and manage trauma-informed activities also makes their role more similar to that of a programme coordinator, which involves programme development, evaluation and implementation.

“I would need at least 60 per cent of my staff to be of senior care staff calibre and above – performing almost at beginning social work associate level job sizes and competencies – to manage a residential facility that cares for 50 traumatised children at any time, to give these children a good shot at recovering,” Ms Ng said.

Another social sector employee said that beyond NCSS’ guidelines, sector leaders should take a leaf out of the corporate world’s book by reviewing salaries yearly and benchmarking them to similar institutions, to attract talent and grow their organisations.

“Passion is important but people have families to feed. We want to attract young blood,” said the employee. “The last thing we want is for this sector to become a retirement job, where people would be more willing to accept lower pay.”