Income inequality: Challenges in bridging the gap

• Main Author: Singapore Management University
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2012
• Subjects: income inequality; minimum wage; social mobility; social welfare; Economics; Social Welfare Law; State and Local Government Law
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/pers/22; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1018&context=pers

Increase social spending. Fine-tune foreign labour policies. Create more job opportunities. These were just a few of the suggestions made during a forum organized by the anti-poverty group, ONE (Singapore) and Singapore Management University's Wee Kim Wee Centre on how to bridge the income inequality gap in Singapore. Halimah Yacob, the Minister of State for the Ministry of Social and Family Development, said in the forum that a concern with income inequality is its impact on social mobility, as people need to have “a sense of hope and optimism that they can aspire to a better life”. How each society deals with the problem depends on its political will and resources.