The Usual Place Podcast

Million-dollar question: Will Singapore’s ministerial pay hike attract talent from private sector?

Will the increase in ministerial salaries cost the People’s Action Party (PAP) votes at the next General Election?

Natasha Ann Zachariah

Will the increase in ministerial salaries cost the People’s Action Party (PAP) votes at the next General Election?

On Sept 8, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced that political office-holders will get a one-off pay increase of up to 9 per cent.

This will take effect from Oct 15 - an entry-level grade MR4 minister getting the full adjustment will see his annual pay rise from $1.1 million to $1.2 million.

The changes to salaries come after the Government accepted the recommendations of a committee convened to review political salaries. One of its recommendations is that the MR4 benchmark will also be updated from $1.1 million to $1.8 million.

Existing ministers’ salaries will continue to be adjusted based on performance, and PM Wong expects most MR4 ministers to earn about $1.35 million – the lower end of the new salary range – by the end of this term of government.

In this episode of The Usual Place, I speak with Straits Times’ senior columnist Bhavan Jaipragas who wrote an opinion piece about why the debate over ministerial salaries can never be settled, and Rebecca Grace Tan, a senior lecturer in Political Science at the National University of Singapore.

We discuss whether there is the “right” formula to calculating ministers’ salaries, and whether alternative performance reviews of ministers’ and MPs work are now necessary to account to the public for the pay raises.

Highlights (click/tap above):

1:24 How did PM Wong fare in explaining the salary increases?

5:38 Was the debate “subdued” as compared to 2012?

8:44 Have S’poreans come to accept the million-dollar salaries?

13:45 Why didn’t the Workers’ Party oppose more strongly?

18:00 Growing divide between political elites and the rest of us?

21:09 Is the top 1,000 earners benchmark still fair?

26:20 Money, motive and minimising opportunity costs

32:15 How can we assess ministers’ performance?

41:44 Has public office become unattractive?

47:22 Is S’pore just another corporation?

Read Natasha’s articles: https://str.sg/iSXm