Ex-Garbage Collector Says Colleagues Could Earn up to S$10K But Netizens Are Skeptical

Last Updated on 2023-05-08 , 5:19 pm

Many of us dream of landing ourselves a high-paying job which requires minimal effort.

But alas, the reality is that high pay often comes with heavy job responsibilities. Some might not mind working overtime every day if it means getting that first pot of gold.

But what if this high-paying job involved collecting rubbish?

If you think we’re spewing rubbish, think again.

A local podcast interviewing an ex-garbage collector suggests that such blue-collar jobs may be well-paying.

Here’s what you need to know about the topic making waves in Singapore.

Ex-garbage Collector Says That You Can Earn Up to $10K Collecting Garbage

A two-part podcast posted yesterday on the YouTube channel, TheCommonFolks SG, has been attracting quite a bit of attention for the topic discussed.

Salary.

While salary is not a new topic which raises eyebrows, this particular discussion attracted eyeballs and ears as the guest of the show shared his experience as a “waste attendant”.

In a mix of Malay and English, the guest shares that his responsibilities included collecting garbage from private properties and HDB housing estates. He had to go “car park to car park” to collect the garbage. Machines could be employed to speed up the process. However, for garbage located on private property, the garbage tended to be collected by hand.

The team responsible for garbage collection typically consisted of one driver and one to two attendants.

Sharing more about the pay received by such waste collectors, the guest indicates that waste attendants who work at a basic level stand to receive about S$2,600 to S$2,800 for their base pay. This base pay excludes allowances and overtime (OT) pay.

With allowances included, the total monthly compensation of a basic waste attendant could go up to between S$3,400 and S$3,500. Some of the allowances included a handphone allowance.

The pay is even more attractive for the other colleagues in his team, such as the garbage truck driver. The guest shares that drivers usually earn at least S$5,000. This number can go up to S$8,000 or even S$10,000.

Quite astounding, we must say. Some fresh graduates are not even making that much in white-collar jobs. The 2022 Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Survey conducted by four universities in Singapore indicated that $4,200 was the median gross monthly salary of graduates for that year.

In terms of a garbage collector’s working hours, the guest shared that they usually work from Mondays to Saturdays. On Saturdays, they could be deployed for a full-day or half-day shift, depending on the situation.

What may come as a shock to some of us is the guest’s revelation that his supervisor was a master’s degree holder. The field in which this degree was obtained was not shared on the podcast.

The flex does not stop at having good brains. The guest also shares during the podcast that some of his colleagues own BMW motorbikes.

You may want to watch the first part of the podcast here and the second part here.

Netizens Are Skeptical About the $10K Claim

You’re not alone if you think what was shared during the podcast is too good to be true. Some netizens have a similar train of thought.

In a TikTok video that captures a snippet of the actual podcast posted on the account @thecommonfolkssg, we saw some comments casting doubt on the veracity of the salary claims mentioned.

@thecommonfolkssg Kerja angkat sampah New episodes guys, bole layan on Spotify and Subscribe YouTube channel kita jadi tak miss once full video is out😃 #podcast #podcasting #podcastshow #podcasteroftiktok #fyp #fypsg #fypシ゚viral #fypmalaysia #thecommonfolks #comedy #comedypodcast #wastemanagement #rubbishcollection ♬ original sound – The Common Folks

A TikTok user going by the name Night Shift suggests that the quantum of the salary only makes sense if it is in Malaysian ringgit and not Singapore dollars.

Intuitively, this could be possible given that the exchange rate means 10,000 Malaysian ringgit works out to slightly less than S$3,000.

Another TikTok user with the name Cromul provided a more nuanced view, suggesting that the S$10,000 claim could be valid, but it also depends on the level of experience the person is hired.

Possibly true as well, given that local companies tend to peg compensation to the experience and skills of the expertise.

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Waste Collection Job Postings Suggest Otherwise

The next time your mother tells you to stop playing computer games and study so that you can land a high-paying white-collar job, can you really tell her to go away because you can make an equally good living by being a waste collector?

It seems like a risky move at the moment, given the current job postings for waste collection jobs.

One of the public job postings for “Rubbish Collector (Condo)” on jobsDB Singapore for a full-time refuse collector offers S$1,600 as the monthly salary. The job posting mentions a yearly bonus, though the quantum is not specified.

Another job position posted on MyCareersFuture for “Rubbish Collectors / Floaters” again seeks condo rubbish collectors but at a higher rate than the previous job posting we mentioned. The salary range for this position is listed as $1,700 to $1,900 a month.

Still a far cry from the S$10,000 mentioned in the podcast and not even close to the mid $2,000 figure that the guest quoted on the podcast. That is unless these garbage collectors enjoy huge bonuses after working in the position for a period of time to reach the numbers mentioned.

As for garbage truck drivers, the numbers are also tragically not near $10,000.

A job position posted on Indeed Singapore for a “Refuse Truck Driver” listed $3,200 to $3,500 as the salary range. Again, this falls short of the S$5,000 minimum salary discussed in the podcast.

So what do you think? Was the podcast inflating the actual situation, or was the experience shared an exception to the norm?