* Half-month less year-end bonus for 2008
* Ministers' pay and MPs' allowance to be slashed
* Top civil servants' pay to be cut by 11 - 19%
The year-end Annual Variable Component (AVC) will be 0.5 month
less, from one month last year. There will be no special Growth
Bonus this year, unlike in 2007 when civil servants got a
half-month payment.
This is one month less than the three months plus $220,
including Growth Bonus, paid out in 2007.
The Government has also deferred the third phase of the salary
adjustments for Administrative Officers, Political, Judicial and
Statutory Appointment Holders which was due in January, said the
PSD.
'In view of the clouded economic outlook and the likelihood that
salaries will be lower next year, the Government has decided to
defer the January 2009 salary adjustment,' said the PSD
statement.
The January salary adjustment would have been the third of three
salary adjustments, following two earlier rounds in April 2007 and
January this year.
This group will have their pay cut by 11 to 19 per cent next
year because of salary components which are linked to Singapore's
economic growth.
This will bring their salaries below the April 2007 levels, said
the PSD.
Bonus paid for the exceptional economic performance will also be
cut in 2009 because a significant percentage of the pay for this
group of civil servants - close to 25 per cent of their annual pay
- comprises variable payments linked to the GDP growth of
Singapore.
Specifically, there will be a 19 per cent fall in the annual
salary of the President (to $3.14m) and the Prime Minister (to
$3.04m) in 2009.
The Ministerial Grade (MR4) salary will fall by 18 per cent to
$1.57m, and salaries at the entry Superscale grade (SR9) will fall
by 12 per cent to $353,000.
The allowance for Members of Parliament will be trimmed by 16
per cent to $190,000.
Commenting on the salary drop, Mr Teo Chee Hean, Minister for
Defence and Minister in charge of the Civil Service said: 'Public
sector salaries follow the market up and down.
'The mechanism we introduced last year to link a significant
proportion of the salary of senior civil servants to the
performance of the economy is working as intended. This mechanism
allows salaries to respond more rapidly to market conditions.'
