SINGAPORE'S small and medium sized enterprises are not necessarily poor payers, it seems.

In its latest SME development Survey, DP Information Group said that a majority of SMEs were paying the market average in terms of salary and benefit packages, while 16 per cent of the firms believed they were paying above-average wages.

Now in its fifth year, the survey polled 1,206 SMEs, of which 59 per cent had a paid-up capital of more than $500,000. DP Info compared the firms' average monthly earnings for employees last year with the industry average, and found that wages in firms in certain sectors have kept pace with the industry after all.

Above average

For example, the average monthly pay per employee for SMEs in wholesale commerce stood at $3,504 - 16 per cent higher than the average of $3,017 for the entire commerce sector last year.

Similarly, property firms paid an average monthly salary of $2,956, which was 8 per cent more than the sector average of $2,732.

In the services sector, workers were paid $3,520, marginally higher than the average industry pay of $3,498.

However, in many other sectors such as finance, manufacturing, construction and food and beverage, small and medium businesses were found to lag the industry standard for staff remuneration.

In the finance sector, average staff remuneration in an SME was $4,252 - 29 per cent lower than the industry's figure of $5,949.

Likewise, the small and medium sized manufacturing firms lagged the industry by 16 per cent in terms of staff monthly pay. The figure stood at $2,935 compared with $3,495 for the entire industry.

As well, SMEs in the construction sector offered an average pay of $2,217 - 12 per cent lower than the $2,513 across the entire industry.

Although food & beverage SMEs generally paid lower wages, DP Info said that a significant proportion - 22 per cent - of those companies actually paid higher than average salaries.

However, this was more than offset by the 64 per cent of firms that paid average salaries, and another 7 per cent that offered below-average pay.

Not surprisingly, DP Info said that firms were having difficulties in staff recruitment for more than half of the job categories surveyed.

For example, 45 per cent of SMEs voiced greater concerns in recruiting operational staff with specific technical skills, while 35 per cent of the respondents expressed similar sentiments about hiring supervisory staff equipped with specific technical skills.

Also, the study found a difference in the minimum qualifications required by companies for operational positions in different industries.

Qualifications

For example, more than half of the SMEs in the finance sector required operational staff to have at least a diploma or A-level qualifications.

In contrast, 48 per cent of the retail sector respondents and 45 per cent of those in the communications/ transport/ storage business preferred staff with at least O-level qualifications.

Encouragingly, some 87 per cent of the SMEs have identified the need for staff to undergo training programmes to upgrade their skills.

"Therefore, there lies much opportunity for government agencies to pick up the necessary training programmes for growing our SME community," the report added.

Firms were looking for training in the areas of leadership and team building, marketing and promotion, business planning as well as information technology.

In particular, the need for training in leadership and team building was strongly expressed by firms in F&B (52 per cent), construction (38 per cent) and communications/transport/storage (36 per cent).

Not surprisingly, SMEs in the finance industry saw greater need for training in accounting & finance (38 per cent).

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