http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/12/salaries-official-government-lead-citizen-cx_sm_1212leaders.html
Excerpts from Forbes article: Loss Leaders?
...size of the country does not always directly equate to the
compensation paid to its leader. In a smaller country like Ireland,
for example, Prime Minister Bertie Ahern was recently awarded a
salary increase that would take his pay to 310,000 euros (217,000
pounds, or $434,000). But the rise, which would have put him at the
top of the European pay league for prime ministers, was later
deferred by a year.
...politicians of all stripes will say that a calling to public
service, the exercise of power and the opportunity to shape their
nation's destiny should transcend considerations of simple
financial reward.
A week after taking office in 2006, Bolivian President Evo Morales
made good on a campaign pledge and cut his salary in half, to just
over $1,800 a month. While a symbolic move, designed to make more
money available to pay teachers, it had the effect of imposing a
pay cut on other members of his government and officials, since no
one can earn more than the president.
Many leaders, of course, find a high-profile way of raising money
and giving back after their elected career, through foundations or
charity work--former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter,
or former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, for example, as well as
sitting Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, while Tony Blair and
France's Jacques Chirac, who both recently left office, are
understood to be looking at setting up their own
organizations.
...what do citizens pay for elected world leaders?
The U.S. taxpayer gives President George W. Bush $400,000 a year,
while his No. 2, Dick Cheney, pulls down $208,575 for being a
heartbeat away from leading the free world.
By contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin's official salary is
just over $81,000, and a recent formal "wealth declaration" showed
that his overall asset value had declined during his second term in
office.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was named Forbes' "most
powerful woman" for the second straight year, and who recently was
critical of excessive executive salaries in the private sector, is
paid around $318,000.
In Japan, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said last September that
he would take a 30% pay cut on his salary of $355,000, and that
other ministers would give up 10% cent of their pay.
But the top of the tree by some degree is Singapore Premier
Lee Hsien Loong, who, following a controversial round of pay
increases, is set to be receiving a salary of $2.05 million by the
end of next year. While the rationale for the increase was--as the
Hay Group found in its research--the need to keep government
salaries competitive, Lee said he would donate his raise to
charity.
