A TWC2 volunteer (in blue) assisting migrant workers as they do the survey on their phones
About 5.6% of migrant workers in the Work Permit and S-Pass categories are still paid in cash. Although this figure is a big improvement over the situation in the previous decade, there seems to be a recalcitrant, albeit small, minority of employers flouting law.
TWC2 conducted a simple survey on 31 October 2024 of mostly Tamil migrant workers, asking the men how they were paid and when then received their salaries for September. We had 180 valid responses. We only surveyed non-domestic workers.
The great majority of the respondents in our study were Work Permit holders and living in dormitories, for whom the law requires that they be paid electronically. With limited exceptions, S-Pass holders are also to be paid electronically. Yet among those who said they were paid in cash, there were S-Pass holders too. Our data points to incomplete compliance with law.
As for the timing of salary payment, about 12.2% of respondents, roughly one in eight, reported that their September salaries were not paid until the third or fourth week of October. The law says that salaries should be fully paid by the fifteenth day of the following month. These workers’ employers are in contravention of law too.
Our study also asked questions about the industry sector they were in, the kinds of accommodation and company size.
In the light of our findings, TWC2 urges more active monitoring and enforcement. From our casework experience, cash payment is often associated with short-payment of salaries – because cash payment makes proof of underpayment less visible – so the situation we’re uncovering is not just that of mode of payment, but likely points to cases where salary abuse is also happening.
The full report can be downloaded by clicking the icon at right. It is 15 pages in PDF format.