It pays to be a Minister in Singapore!

The biggest talk of the town this week is probably the wage hike for Ministers of Parliament (MP) in Singapore. Their salary will be increased by between 14 percent and 33 percent, with the average pay rise of 25 percent. *Yep, a fat increment you'll say!* And the adjustments will take effect from this month, with a second revision at year's end. *Talk about getting a pay rise twice in a year!*

A glimpse who are the top earners:

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong: $2.5 million last year; $3.1 million after the revision

President SR Nathan: $2.5 million last year; $3.2 million after the revision

Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew: $2.7 million each last year; $3.04 million each after the revision.

Apparently in Singapore, the salaries of MPs are all benchmarked against the private sector - according to The White Paper on 'Competitive Salaries for Competent and Honest Government' in 1994. The salaries of most senior permanent secretaries are based on the top eight earners from six professions (namely accounting, banking, entrepeneur, engineering and medical). Their incomes are then sorted accordingly. The median income earner is picked out, and that income is multiplied by two-thirds.

The basis for the hike was that competitive wages have helped attract and retain able people in government and the competitive advantage must be maintained, so that they can better contribute to their agencies and ultimately to serve the people of Singapore. It was stressed that the last major salary revision for the Civil Service was seven years ago, renumeration has since fallen behind their benchmarks.

Unhappiness was in the air as people questioned:
1) The quantum of the percentage hike (25% doesn't seem like a normal wage adjustment to many people).

2) The timing of the hike. If you can remember, the Government proposed strongly for the 2% GST hike just a month ago, trying hard to convince us that the extra tax revenue is essential to construct the social safety net.

3) We all know that civil service is different from the private sector due to its nature of work (*anyone witnessed all the pah bang employees at IRAS or CPF Board?), and the job stability (you will never be jobless in an economic downturn*). Thus, many argued that Ministers pay should not be pegged to the top earners in the private sector.

4) Civil servants will continue to receive their annual increment and the mid year annual variable payment, and like other Singaporeans, they will enjoy the 1.5% increase in the employer CPF contribution from July this year.

If Yahoo! News' headlines screamed "Singapore MP paid 5 times more than Bush", you'll know it's BIG news.