How much is your President/Prime Minister worth?

[xudeen]

In case you're wondering, here's some information. Tiny Singapore sure has a deep pocket!


The 10 highest paid politicians in the world

There is nothing like a scandal involving porn films claimed on Commons expenses to focus attention on the pay and perks enjoyed, sorry earned, by our public servants.

Even before Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, was forced to apologise for her husband's blue movies there had been calls for the whole system to be overturned. The committee on standards in public life which has promised to report on MP pay and expenses by the end of the year is under pressure to do something radical.

Whenever MPs come under attack over pay they are quick to argue that compared to executives in the private and public sector they are not particularly well paid.

With the G20 leaders in the country we thought it was worth getting a snapshot of how much the highest paid presidents and prime ministers around the world earn. For comparison's sake all earnings have been converted into dollars. It also shows basic annual salary only, not the expenses claimed on top.

So, where does our own Gordon Brown stand?

1. Lee Hsien Loong - Singapore

Salary in dollars - $2.47 million

Salary in local currency - S$3.76 million

2. Donald Tsang Yum-Kuen - Hong Kong

Salary in dollars - $516,000

Salary in local currency - HK$4 million

3. Barack Obama - United States

Salary in dollars - $400,000

4. Brian Cowen - Ireland

Salary in dollars - $341,000

Salary in local currency - €257,000

5. Nicolas Sarkozy - France

Salary in dollars - $318,000

Salary in local currency - €240,000

6. Angela Merkel - Germany

Salary in dollars - $303,000

Salary in local currency - €228,000

7. Gordon Brown - UK

Salary in dollars - $279,000

Salary in local currency - £194,250

8. Stephen Harper - Canada

Salary in dollars - $246,000

Salary in local currency - C$311,000

9. Taro Aso - Japan

Salary in dollars - $243,000

Salary in local currency - Y24 million

10. Kevin Rudd - Australia

Salary in dollars - $229,000

Salary in local currency - A$330,000


Source: http://timesbusiness.typepad.com/mon...the-world.html

[Merlin]

Yes, Singapore's PM is very highly paid. I'll come in later on to comment on this, and/or to get some relevant links and excerpts.

[crooks]

Brian Clowen, number 4.

The man telling us how austere we have to with our money for the next decade be is getting payed almost as much as Obama, who leads a nation 50 times bigger than ours.

Bring back the guillotine!

[tankie]

Dont ya just feel sad for them all huh , not only do they get staggering pay but the expenses fiddle (uk ) for 2nd homes that their parents live in and which they claim for (not all ) makes the voters very apathetic and mistrusting . J Smith is still being investigated for her expenses , and then dickhead hubby watches porn on the public ,,still the old adage ,, your not doing anything wrong until you get caught comes in to play ,,,,,,, bet she rrrrrrreeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaalllllllllyyyyyy loves him now ;)

[Merlin]

Yes, Singapore's PM is very highly paid. I'll come in later on to comment on this, and/or to get some relevant links and excerpts.

I didn't come back as this thread has sort of vanished. Anyway the issue is complex and I can't find a good link that explains it.

Very briefly, Singapore have a tradition since indendence in 1965 of being very strict on corruption and fraud even at high places. At the same time, it pays its public sector personnel only slightly lower than the private sector to stop this corruption temptation.

Through the decades, Singapore's economy continues to grow well (discounting the recent global financial crisis). Competition becomes globalised and intense. Getting and retaining talents become very important even in the public sector. So in line with the private sector pay, the pay of senior civil servants and ministers gets higher and higher.

There are complex formulas to peg their pay at different levels to a certain percent of that of comparable levels of professionals and exectives in the private sector.