SALARIES OF POLITICAL OFFICE-HOLDERS

Mr Low Thia Khiang asked the Minister for Finance (a) what were the gross monthly and annual salaries of the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers, Senior Minister, Ministers, Senior Parliamentary Secretaries, Parliamentary Secretaries and Political Secretaries for the years ended 31st December 1994 and

31 December 1995; and (b) what will be the projected gross monthly salaries of these persons from 1st July 1996.

Dr Richard Hu Tsu Tau: The 1994 White Paper on Competitive Salaries for Competent and Honest Government established formal salary benchmarks upon which to peg salaries of Ministers and Administrative Service officers:

For Staff Grade I Minister:Two-thirds AVE24 i.e. two-thirds the average principal earned income of the top four individuals from each of six selected professions (bankers, accountants, engineers, lawyers, local manufacturing companies and MNCs); and

For Superscale G:15P32 i.e. the average of the principal earned income of the 15th person aged 32 belonging to the same six professions. The salaries for the other political office holders would be interpolated and extrapolated from these two benchmarks.

The White Paper stated that the Staff Grade I salary would be increased from 48% AVE24 to 60% AVE24, and the Superscale G salary from 75% 15P32 to 100% 15P32, through progressive revisions over a period of three years. The first revision consequential to the White Paper recommendations took effect from 1st July 1995, and the second revision will take place from 1st July 1996. Table 1 shows how the Staff Grade I and Superscale G salary will compare with their salary benchmarks with each revision.

Table 1: Movements of Staff Grade I and Superscale G

salaries against their respective private sector benchmarks Percentage of respective salary benchmark Grade 1st Jan 94 1st Jul 95 1st Jul 96 1st Jul 97 Staff Grade I 48% 52% 56% 60% Superscale G 75% 83% 91% 100%

As a cross check, PSD has verified the rank order of Ministers' current salaries against the private sector. The White Paper had estimated that when public sector salaries reached 60% of the private sector, a Staff Grade I Minister would rank 134 against private sector earners. But based on the latest IRAS figures of private sector earnings in 1994, at 60% of the private sector average, Ministers would only rank 195. In other words, the private sector has generally moved ahead faster than anticipated, and the target of 60% of the private sector is a conservative one. Please see Table 2 below.

Table 2: Ranking of Minister's annual salaries among top private sector earners Using 60% Using 60% Using 56% AVE24 AVE24 Prime Minister* 32 72 72 Senior Minister 11 17 18 Deputy Prime Minister 23 33 43 Minister (II+12%) 62 95 113 (I) 134 195 230 *no Car Allowance

The gross monthly and annual salaries as at 31st December 1994 and 31st December 1995, and the projected gross monthly salaries from 1 July 1996 (before 1996 NWC adjustments, which had not been decided yet) for the office holders you have mentioned are given in the Annex (Cols. 249 - 252). Annex - SALARIES FOR POLITICAL APPOINTMENT HOLDERS (Cols. 249 - 252)