Seriously; HOW MUCH is ENOUGH? And how MUCH HIGHER COST of living
can Singaporeans take, how much tighter can people tighten their
belts while the government keeps beefing up their pay & living
it up out of our sight??
I think the FAP is pushing the envelop too far, and can result in a
similar Myanmar Unrest....
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Singapore boosts pay for officials... again
Asian Sentinel
18 Dec 07
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=942&Itemid=31
The world's highest-paid public servants get a second round of pay
increases with the New Year
Singaporean ministers and civil servants, already by far the
highest-paid public servants in the world, are scheduled to receive
a second round of pay raises starting Jan. 1 ranging from 4 percent
to 21 percent. The increase will drive Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong's salary to S$3.7 million, or US$2.53 million, more than six
times that of US President George W. Bush.
The government kicked off furious public discussion in April, when
the Singapore Public Service Division announced pay rises that gave
Lee a 25.5 percent increase, to S$3.1 million. In response to the
furor, Lee at the time announced he would donate his pay raise to
charity and hold his current level of pay for five years.
The Singapore government has long taken the stance that public
officials should receive pay commensurate with the top of the
country's business elite, both to attract top talent and to
forestall any temptation towards corruption. On a conventional
level, the latter has worked. There have been almost no scandals
attached to Singaporean ministers for decades.
At the very top of the salary pyramid is Singapore President S R
Nathan, whose salary will rise to S$3.8 million (US$2.6 million).
The Public Service Division's revised salary package gives
starting-grade ministers a salary of S$1.94 million (US$1.32
million). Rank-and-file ministers and the republic's top civil
servants will receive salary increases of 4 percent. Allowances for
Members of Parliament are also set to increase, to S$225,000 a
year, a 4 percent jump.
One angry Singapore blogger posted salaries for other international
politicians. In addition to Bush, US Vice President Richard Cheney
receives US$202,900 annually, cabinet secretaries range from
US$157,000 to 186,600. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown receives the
equivalent of US$170,556 and his cabinet ministers receive the
equivalent of US$146,299. Newly elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
in Australia receives US$137,060, the Deputy Prime Minister get
US$111,439 and the treasurer is paid US$102,682.
The Singaporean Minister in charge of the Civil Service, Teo Chee
Hean told reporters last week that the increases are in keeping
with April's announcement.
"Public sector salaries move up and down with the market. In this
tight labor market, private sector salaries have moved up
significantly, as the benchmark figures show. The service needs to
follow promptly in order to attract and retain good people," said
Teo.
He added that actual pay is tied to individual performance and the
performance of the economy. Some 50 percent of public servants'
annual salaries at senior levels are performance based.
At that, the public services department said, the current round of
salary increases only bring wages for level-four ministers to 77
percent of private sector benchmarks to which they are pegged. The
benchmark, the department said, is set at two-thirds of the median
pay for the top eight earners in the fields of banking, law,
engineering and accounting and top executives with multinationals
and local manufacturers.
At age 55, serving Singaporean ministers may collect both their
salaries and their full pensions if they have held office for a
minimum of eight years under a complex formula for determining the
amount, capped at two thirds of the highest annual salary of any
public office held by the individual. Lee Hsien Loong, in answer to
questions in Parliament in 2004, said eight cabinet ministers
currently receive both salaries.
