cabinet salary increase?

Cabinet pay May soon rise During May election, hikes in 5-7% GST and cabinet ministers’ pay were widely speculated. Now the 2nd part may also come true. By Seah Chiang Nee. Nov 26, 2006 By far the highest in the world, Singapore cabinet ministers’ salaries are likely to head for another increase soon.... Currently, ministers are paid basic annual salaries (plus performance bonuses) and, at age 55, they are entitled to collect both a salary and full pension. The President's basic salary US$1,500,000 (S$2,507,200) while the Prime Minister gets US$1,100,000 (S$1,958,000). Minister's Basic salary ranged from US$655,530 to US$819,124 (S$1,166,844 to S$1,458,040) a year. In comparison, the president of the United States, the most powerful nation in the world, earns US$400,000 and US$50,000 expenses, less than what a junior minister earns in Singapore. In UK, Prime Minister Tony Blair earns US$170,556 annually.... Littlespeck.com The rise in salary for the politicians is a good thing. We should not begruge them for their high salaries. They deserve it. Further, with the high cost of living in Singapore, we cannot afford to tempt them to become improper when their salaries cannot keep up with their Swiss standard of living. And when their salaries are comfortable enough, they too would not begrudge other Singaporeans from earning more and would not do any silly things to break other people's ricebowls. It is good for everyone. The only thing to be concerned about is to raise the salaries of those civil servants at the lower levels, ie. those earning less than $5000 pm. By keeping on a percentage increase to the million dollar earners, the income gap will surely widen. It may be tough to maintain a Swiss standard of living. But it is tougher to maintain a hardlander's standard of living.