Press Conference on Ministerial Salary Review

Singapore government leaders are among the best paid politicians in the world, a fact that has stirred public disquiet in recent years in face of rising income inequality and inflation. It is also recognised as one of the contributing factors towards the ruling party’s narrowest election victory in 2011. As such, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong assembled a Ministerial Salary Review Committee headed by Gerard Ee in June 2011.

The Committee recommended removing the Ministerial Pension Scheme and adopting only the Central Provident Fund system which is the basic retirement scheme for Singaporeans. The Committee also recommended a 28% cut to the Prime Minister’s salary, reducing it to S$2.2M while reducing junior minister’s salaries to S$1.1M by 31%.

Parliament will be debating on the Committee’s recommendations on 16 January 2012. The Prime Minister has indicated that the government intends to accept the Committee’s recommendations. The salary revision is expected to be backdated to May 2011. You can download the Committee’s report at http://reviewcommittee2011.sg/report/.