Committee formed to review salaries of political appointment holders: Chan Chun Sing

SINGAPORE – An eight-person committee has been formed to review the salaries of Singapore’s political appointment holders, which include all ministers and MPs.

Replying to a parliamentary question on Jan 12, Coordinating Minister for Public Services Chan Chun Sing said the committee has just been formed, and will submit its report to the Government when ready.

The committee is chaired by Mr Gan Seow Kee, who is chairman of the Singapore LNG Corporation and an alternate member of the Council of Presidential Advisers.

Mr Chan, who is also Defence Minister, said the committee has been asked to recommend the appropriate salary levels based on the current salary framework, and to propose refinements where necessary so that the framework continues to be relevant.

Political salaries – including that for the President, Prime Minister, Speaker, Deputy Speaker and political office-holders – have not been adjusted since 2012, when the Government accepted a review committee’s recommendations which put in place the current salary framework.

Under the framework, ministerial salaries are benchmarked to the median income of the top 1,000 earners who are Singaporean citizens, with a 40 per cent discount to reflect the ethos of political service.

Those among the top 1,000 earners include people in senior management positions such as chief executives, chief operating officers and chief financial officers; people working in the financial services such as bankers, traders and asset managers; and professionals such as lawyers, doctors and accountants.

The reference monthly salary for an entry-level minister is $55,000, and the salary levels of other political appointment holders are determined based on their salary ratios to the entry-level minister pay, reflecting their roles and responsibilities.

The framework covers the salaries of all political appointment holders, including Non-Constituency MPs and Nominated MPs, and took effect from May 2011.

The 2012 White Paper on Salaries for a Capable and Committed Government recommended that an independent committee be appointed every five years to review the salaries, and the last time such a committee was appointed was in 2017.

In 2018, a committee chaired by accountant Gerard Ee recommended that political salaries be adjusted annually in line with the movement of benchmark salaries, which it noted had gone up by 9 per cent since the salary framework had been put in place.

However, the Government decided not to make any changes to political salaries, as it said then that the salary structure remained valid and there were economic uncertainties in the previous few years.

In 2023, when it was time for another review,

the Government deferred it

, with Mr Chan – then Minister-in-charge of the Public Service – saying that it was dealing with other pressing issues.

These included a more uncertain geopolitical situation with conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine; heightened political contestation; and significant uncertainties in the global economy that impacted Singapore’s economy, wages and inflation outlook.

“The Government will review the political salaries framework and benchmark in due course to ensure that they remain relevant and up to date,” Mr Chan said then.

Apart from Mr Gan, the other members on the latest committee are:

On Jan 12, Mr Chan said in reply to a question filed by Mr Alex Yam (Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC) that on receiving the committee’s report, the Government will consider the findings and provide an update to Parliament.

In 2012, Parliament held a thorough debate on the White Paper over 2½ days, with speeches by 29 MPs from both sides of the aisle. The White Paper was endorsed by the House.

Correction note: In an earlier version of the story, we did not have the correct designation for Professor Lily Kong. This has been corrected. We are sorry for the error.