Singapore government ministers, already among the best-paid in the world, will get a one-time salary bump of as much as 9%, reviving scrutiny of a pay system that has long been politically sensitive in the city-state.
"Political salaries are a difficult and emotive issue - the sums involved are more than what most citizens earn," Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said in parliament on Tuesday. "It is ultimately about whether Singapore will continue to have the quality of political leadership we need to take our country forward."
The one-off adjustment will depend on individual circumstances, including performance and will kick in from Oct. 15. An entry-level minister may get an increment of almost S$100,000, ($79,000) taking their annual income to around S$1.2 million.
Lawrence Wong Photographer: Lionel Ng/Bloomberg
Photo Credit: (Photo: Bloomberg)
Wong said he will donate the full increase in his salary adjustment for the next five years assuming he remains prime minister. He is currently paid S$2.2 million a year, placing the Singapore leader among the world's highest-paid political office holders. US President Donald Trump gets $400,000 a year while the Swiss president is paid about $600,000.
Singapore has long justified high political salaries as necessary to attract capable people into government and reduce the risk of corruption. But the system remains politically sensitive at a time of heightened economic anxiety, particularly as Wong seeks to bring more private-sector talent into politics.
The city-state has frozen political pay for the past 15 years. In 2012, the annual salaries for government leaders were slashed by more than 30% following public anger over ministerial pay and widening inequality in the 2011 election. Singapore's first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew had often defended civil-servant salaries, arguing in his autobiography From Third World to First that "underpaid ministers and public officials have ruined many governments in Asia."
The benchmark salary formula for an entry-level political office holder is set at a 40% discount of the median annual income of the top 1,000 Singaporean earners, said Coordinating Minister for Public Services Chan Chun Sing. Lawmakers will get a monthly allowance of S$18,500, up from S$13,750. The changes could cost the government as much as S$11.6 million a year, he added.
While salaries for political office holders have remained unchanged, wages elsewhere have risen, making it more difficult to attract talent from the private sector, Wong said.
"If we want our political system to remain effective, we cannot allow its basic terms of service to drift further and further away from reality," he said.
"The bigger question is whether salary alone will be able to move the needle on recruiting better candidates in future elections," said Nydia Ngiow, managing director for global trade and economics at strategic business advisory firm BowerGroupAsia. Wong's decision to donate his own increment "reflects an awareness that the optics require careful management."
Singapore typically reviews the salaries of political office holders every five years through an independent committee, with the government last deferring its recommendations in May, citing uncertainty over the economic impact of the Middle East conflict.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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