ON MONDAY July 5th Raila Odinga, Kenya's prime minister, rejected
the pay increase he was awarded by the country's parliament last
week. MPs had granted Mr Odinga a rise to nearly $430,000 a year,
while giving themselves a 25% increase to $161,000.
This boost would place Mr Odinga among the highest-paid political
leaders in the world.
More worryingly, his salary would be some 240 times greater than
the country's GDP per person (measured on a purchasing-power parity
basis).
Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister of Singapore,
tops our list of selected leaders'
salaries.
He is paid more than 40 times the city-state’s
GDP per person.
At the other end of the scale, Manmohan Singh, the prime minister
of India, reaffirms his reputation for saintliness by taking a
modest sum from Indian taxpayers.
Correction: We originally understated the salary of
the prime minister of Canada. This was revised on July 6th
2010.
http://www.economist.com/node/16525240?story_id=16525240
