ex_matelot

Hello everyone.

Fairly new to Singapore and looking for some advice from those more experienced than I. Apologies upfront for the length of the post/semi-rant.

I came to SG a few months ago on a PEP (old 5 year style) and have been looking for work since. I've finally reached the offer stage (after many many rounds of interviews) but have hit a potentially show-stopping snag.

I work in IT, specifically in the Financial Services space and for the past 3 years have been working at the Senior Manager level.

My previous salary from a global financial institution was paid in such a way that included payments for being oncall, working a shift pattern, paid overtime etc. I understand it's quite unique for my level but it has worked very well for me... up until now that is.

The above were requirements of my role and I had no choice as whether to perform them or not and I have always considered my annual salary to be the amount earned over the tax year minus any discretionary bonus.

Having sat down with the HR lead at my new potential employer it appears that these 'extra' payments cannot be considered or factored into the imminent offer. As they slightly fluctuate per month (mainly due to the number of days or weekends within each month) it seems that they will be flatly ignored.

So my questions are:

How normal is this? They seemed (if the recruiter is to be believed) happy enough to entertain paying me in the ballpark of my previous total remuneration beforehand, so why is the offer now so weighted towards a previous 'fixed' salary amount? I gave them my salary expectations and we, I thought, proceeded on that basis. They clearly had the budget for this, so are they just eyeing a potential cost-saving or is this standard practice in Singapore? They've even mentioned some sort of tax equalisation being required - again how usual is this for a local package? They're also matching salaries where the cost of renting a property is almost doubled but seemingly not acknowledged.

I have a plan b (and c), but have now been told I will encounter this wherever I go - honestly? If that is the case I need to re-evaluate my situation. I understand that I'm looking for a local package but it was the sheer inflexibility of HR when literally crossing out whole sections of my income because they were not perfectly fixed per month or they don't have an equivalent scheme.

The bottom line is I cannot afford to accept an offer that discounts around 40% of my previous salary as a starting point and I'm inclined to walk away, but I have invested a lot of time, money and effort jumping through rounds and rounds and rounds of interviews!

I've provided my last 2 P60's which show the annual salary to be pretty consistent but to no avail I fear.

Any comments, opinions, advice appreciated.

Thanks

ex reg

At the end of the day it's your choice.
Either accept their offer or negotiate hard with the final straw being you walk away.

Talk to whoever is your senior when employed, tell him/her your concerns and lay it on the line. HR are not dissimilar worldwide. You'd think they were paying you out of their own pockets.

OTOH you might talk to other recruitment consultants generally and see if you can get a feel from them what the norm is.

If you are asking more than their budget then they aren't going to up things much. And in IT in Singapore I'd expect they have a few possibilities.

If you sign on the dotted but are unhappy about it it will benefit neither side.


Unless you are their only possibility, but they aren't gonna tell you that.