DPM Heng: All political office holders to take three-month pay cut

Towards the end of his speech announcing the Supplementary Budget 2020, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat added that all political office holders will take an additional pay cut of two months.

This comes up to a three-month pay cut altogether.

In his speech earlier today (Mar 26), DPM Heng said that many people have had to make sacrifices in their lives, and some workers have suffered a loss of income or jobs.

He said that along with all political office holders’ three-month pay cut, the President, Speaker and both Deputy Speakers will take a similar pay cut.

Singapore’s ministers are supposedly the best paid in the world. Prior to a salary review in 2011, an article reports that the Prime Minister’s annual salary was S$3.07 million, while the pay of ministerial-grade officers ranged between S$1.58 million and S$2.37 million.

In 2018, Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong warned that Cabinet ministers are not paid enough and that down the road, Singapore will be confronted with the problem of getting competent people to join the Government.

He dismissed the idea of cutting ministers’ pay, calling it populist. If ministers are not paid well, “very, very mediocre” people will be ministers in the long run, he said. “Think about that. Is it good for you, or is it worse for us in the end?”

Giving an example of the impact of inadequate ministerial salaries, he related the difficulty he faced in drawing talented people to politics. /TISG