They are. The market rate for a maid might be $2k/month locally, and $500/month + food, board and health insurance for a pinay. Singapore is rather unique in that it accepts the existence of global labour market instead of closing its borders (and understands that freeing the local population from back breaking manual labour is generally a good thing, but that's a separate issue). Market rates are much higher in Switzerland because the country has almost no illegal labour (unlike the US, most EU countries, etc.) and issues few visas for manual labour. But I remember, for example, the Geneva police force being mostly French citizen, because they would do the job for 60k CHF/year vs the 90k CHF/year a Swiss would want (I think this is changing as the Swiss realize that foreigners don't really make motivated policemen). [A lot of the complaints about minimum wage/welfare also stem from "let them eat cake" syndrome, in my experience ("what do you mean, a family of 5 in a one bedroom apartment? every child should have his own bedroom when growing up!").]
That's incidentally the crux of the issue with US immigration policy. It used to be that anybody who made it there could stay, and an enormous number of dynasties were started by fresh immigrants (or second generation). As the welfare state was introduced, the borders had to close to avoid an influx of welfare seekers. As other countries got more competitive, there was further political pressure to impede foreign talent from competing with local talent; most recently, you see it in the H1B crisis as American developers suddenly have to contend with large numbers of well educated Chinese, Indian or even European developers willing to work for a lot less. Because the southern border was so hard to make hermetic, illegal immigration for manual labour became the norm and now about 3.5% of the US population (around 11 million) are illegals (and have limited individual rights as a result).
What is so unique about the Singaporean system is that they have managed to set up a system allowing foreigners to come work in the country and retain individual rights and the rule of law whilst being paid a market wage.
That's incidentally the crux of the issue with US immigration policy. It used to be that anybody who made it there could stay, and an enormous number of dynasties were started by fresh immigrants (or second generation). As the welfare state was introduced, the borders had to close to avoid an influx of welfare seekers. As other countries got more competitive, there was further political pressure to impede foreign talent from competing with local talent; most recently, you see it in the H1B crisis as American developers suddenly have to contend with large numbers of well educated Chinese, Indian or even European developers willing to work for a lot less. Because the southern border was so hard to make hermetic, illegal immigration for manual labour became the norm and now about 3.5% of the US population (around 11 million) are illegals (and have limited individual rights as a result).
What is so unique about the Singaporean system is that they have managed to set up a system allowing foreigners to come work in the country and retain individual rights and the rule of law whilst being paid a market wage.