Singapore salary comparison with Australia

[tenden]

Hello people,

I am from India and working in the field of IT(SQL Server DBA) and have been working here in an Investment Bank in Singapore for the last 1 yr. I have been earning 6.5k per month(78K a yr)

Like some Singaporeans love to go to Australia, I am just wondering if I should be ambitious and look at other countries.

Will I have a better life/better savings with say 100K before tax in sydney or melbourne? I love Singapore so far, just that the opportunities here are so few that if I lose my job or get fed up of my job, I dont think I can find another job here very easily, whereas when I did a quick search on Australia's Seek.com.au, I could find numerous jobs with 100K+ in my field.

So Australia definitely looks like has lots of opportunities. Singapore is has its advantages like less crime, less racism etc, but disadvantages being expensive to own a nice property like condo or landed house and car. Also being a PR doesnt give many benefits, just lets you stay here, but what's the use if you its going to be very difficult to find a job.

I am preety sure of getting 100k+ job in Australia, just that I need to apply for PR before hand.

Please advice. Is 78K SGD better or is 100K AUD(before tax) in terms of quality of life and savings. I am currently saving about 50% of my salary as I am renting a cheap HDB at $1500 per month. But during my next renewal I am sure the rent will be higher atleast 1800$

[sundaymorningstaple]

From what I have been given to understand. Recently, the IT sector in India has started paying that which is highly competitive. Maybe you should contemplate returning to India where you won't have the Racism problems nor the problems with residency requirements. Lot's of Indians in the US have returned to India in recent years as well due to the upswing of incomes in India itself.

Just a thought. Don't forget, Australia has some humongous tax rates! That coupled with the racism that made all the news earlier this year and the cost of properties in the big cities. You might not be that much better off at all. Do a lot of research before jumping into the deep end.

[Nath21]

Presuming no visa problems.

You will be paying $25k in tax on $100k salary in OZ. You would probably get more than that salary though for you experience. In Singapore you will pay $4,100 on S$78. So pretty much the same. Your next biggest cost is housing and Singapore is more expensive at the higher end but has more affordable and available housing at the lower end. Australia will have more bang for your buck than Singapore as well on like for like cost. So the question you would have to ask is what sort of accomodation do you want and check up the sites. The rest is personal preference. Sing is easy to get around, Sydney is tough without car but still manageable if you choose accomodation wisely. Different experiences.

On racism - In my opinion you will get the same racism in both countries but that depends on where you live in OZ. And I would say it would be negligent enough to not even consider as an issue.

Racism is overplayed in australia. My ex room mate from Inida lived in Collingwood in melbourne and never had a bad thing to say over four years he lived there and thats was a rough neighbourhood but multicultural inner city. The problems occur in the deprived outer suburbs with high youth unemployment where many inidan students attending cheap schools flat together. Media focuses on what it wants to focus. Theres a website in australia that shows indian crimes in australia and they appear to outnumber those reported in the media against indians. I bet if I pulled statistics about australians victims of crime in india as a percentage of all crimes that would show a higher inclination as well. Stats can prove any arguement. I would doubt you would regret going to OZ if you could.

[beppi]

"Good life" means different things to different people, but for most "good life" and a high savings rate are mutually exclusive.
I personally think that choosing the path you want to go solely on financial terms is not wise.

[observer]

Perhaps you should not base your career objectives and medium term life choices on a search from "Australia's Seek.com.au". I'm sure if you do a search on Singapore's equivalent, the grass will seem greener on any side.

[paperbags]

Australia can tax you up to approximately 40% and that's really alot!

I currently reside in Brisbane, somewhere near the city and I'm paying a rent of 400 per week ($1600 per month). So its not much of a diffenrence in term of rent but the living standard here is really high.

A single roti-prata can cause you AUD$7 and I could get it for SGD$1 plus in Singapore aye? Most of the meals outside would cost you at least AUD$10. Nevertheless, it is still good trying out different countries and getting to know their culture. As for me, I do not have any problems with racism and I do have great Australian mates. Definitely love Australia but I still miss home.

hope it helped!

[revhappy]

Interesting comparison. I think Australia is a high cost center akin to US, UK where most of the corporates exist. Countries like India are on the other end of the spectrum which act as a back office/offshore development center for customers in US,UK & Aus.

Singapore along with Hong Kong(Well Singapore definitely much behind Hong Kong) is somewhere in between. They do have some business activity here especially financial and also some banks have their ofshore development center.

So with SG & HK you get the best of both worlds. You get the living stds of the west. You get to participate in the emerging Asia story. The cost of living is not as exhorbitant as the west. So I am lovin' it.

[makale]

Think you will find alot of that "racism" you are talking about was media beat-up. and gave the Foreign Secretary more FF miles. What was never fully published was that 3 of the incidents were family feuds !!

[weewaa]

I think if you earn 100k+ per year in Australia you would be really comfortable..that is a very high salary (but you will lose alot of it to tax )!

Living costs really depends on your lifestyle - there will always be cheap and expensive alternatives.

I personally don't think racism is a big issue in Australia (I'm an asian aussie who was born and grew up there)...although you may be unlucky and meet some racist bastards (most of the time they are crazy anyway )

[amiee40]

It all looks good but there is a down side. Most Australian employers will not hire you because you don't have 'local' experience. Those Seek.com.au ads are not always real. Its a recruiters gimmick, trying to get you to sign up with their recruitment agency to bump up their numbers.

An Indian friend from my Singapore MBA study group migrated to Australia last year and it took him and his wife over 16months to gain employment. It is tough. With over 15yrs of international banking IT experience, he had to take a junior role and his wife working in a total different field earning minimal income.

[sparkling]

Australian PR may take years to process.

AU employees may not consider your application unless you have residency because without residency, you do not have a right to work.

Like the previous poster, it is not that easy to secure employment in Australia.
If you take the plunge, you have to have the means to see you through the unemployment period, if necessary....

[makale]

Not sure what the requirements are today, but i managed to get citizenship in just two years, getting in may take a bit of an effort, they work on a points system, so many for your trade, family there etc

[tenden]

Perhaps you should not base your career objectives and medium term life choices on a search from "Australia's Seek.com.au". I'm sure if you do a search on Singapore's equivalent, the grass will seem greener on any side.

@observer: Well before you are so sure, let me prove it to you

Search for SSAS which stands for "sql server analysis services" which I specialize on:
1)Seek.com.au(Australia)
http://www.seek.com.au/jobsearch/index. ... from=quick

109 jobs

2)Dice.com(USA)
http://seeker.dice.com/jobsearch/servle ... sas&WHERE=

455 jobs

3)Naukri.com (India)
http://jobsearch.naukri.com/mynaukri/mn ... search.php

105 jobs

4)Monster.com(Singapore)
http://jobsearch.monster.com.sg/searchr ... submit.y=7

3 jobs

Now you decide!

[sundaymorningstaple]

tenden,

Are you sure that all those jobs posted on the various boards are all valid available jobs? As a former recruiter, I know we used to keep many IT positions up on the boards just to keep our databases full of current CV's. I find it hard to believe that Australia, with a population only 5 or 6 time larger than here could require 30 times more positions. Don't you see the irony of that? Choose wisely my friend.

[observer]

Well, all that those links tell me are:
1. monster.com may not have a strong presence in SG (I think jobstreet has the largest market share. Or maybe JobsDB?)
2. Your job is called something else in different countries, just like a programmer here can be called a software engineer there.

I will be the first to admit, I don't know the first thing about SQL servers, so by all means go ahead. Looking at your "analysis", it's a sure thing to get a higher paying job in Australia considering the abundance of them. Like SMS said, choose wisely! Because it's hard to see other perspectives if you've already chosen.