Temasek announces salary freeze for all employees, says senior management may take voluntary pay cut

State investor Temasek announced a salary freeze for all its employees, including promotion increases, for its April compensation exercise.

In a statement on Tuesday (Feb 25), the investment company headquartered in Singapore with a multinational staff of 800 people, said that along with freezing all salaries and promotion increases and partially cutting annual bonuses for the senior management team this year, it has also asked senior management to voluntarily reduce their base salaries by up to five per cent.

Ho Ching, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s wife, currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Holdings.

This change comes in light of the Covid-19 outbreak, it added.

Its senior management will also take a partial cut in their annual bonuses this year.

The budget originally set aside for the salary increases, plus the voluntary base salary reduction from senior management will be matched dollar-for-dollar by Temasek and will be donated to T-Touch, the state investor’s staff volunteer initiative. This amount will then be set aside to support the community as needed during this time.

Mdm Ho’s salary as CEO of Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek still remains a secret. The secrecy surrounding her pay package provides much fodder for speculation, with many attempting to guess over the years. /TISG