Article 3: Top govt officials to get 14-33% pay rise (Politics)

Pub Date: 10/04/2007 Pub: BT Page: 1Headline: Top govt officials to get 14-33% pay riseBy: Chuang Peck MingSubject: Parliament, Singapore Civil Service, Singapore WagesNotes:Tables
First salary revision in seven years will benefit 95% of Singapore's64,000-strong civil servants, with two-thirds getting 3-5% raise [SINGAPORE] The pay of top government officials will rise 14 to 33 per cent as part of a major salary revision for the Civil Service, with the Prime Minister and ministers getting a rise of 25 per cent on average. Announcing the details in Parliament yesterday, the Minister in Charge of the Civil Service, Teo Chee Hean, said the adjustment will take effect this month. The salaries of top civil servants and ministers have fallen far behind those in the private sector, and the revision is a first step to make up the shortfall, he said. The immediate adjustment will lift the salaries of senior permanent secretaries and the starting pay of ministers - the MR4 grade - from $1.2 million to $1.6 million a year, or 73 per cent of a benchmark pegged to the private sector. This is an improvement from the current 55 per cent. The benchmark - now $2.2 million - is set at two-thirds of the median pay of the top eight earners in banking, law, engineering and accountancy, as well as employees of multinational corporations and local manufacturers. A second adjustment at the end of this year will lift the pay of the MR4 grade to 77 per cent of the benchmark. And by end-2008 the government aims to close half of the remaining gap and raise salaries up to 88 per cent of the benchmark. The pay of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who drew $2.5 million in 2006, will go up to $3.1 million this year, said Mr Teo, who is also Defence Minister. This will raise the Prime Minister's ranking among top earners in the private sector from position 164 to 102. President SR Nathan will get $3.2 million, up from the current $2.5 million, while Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who each made $2.7 million last year, will now be paid $3.04 million each. At the Superscale entry grade - SR9 - the annual pay for young very promising officers in the core Administrative Service will increase 3 per cent to $384,000. The pay at this level is currently near its benchmark, which is pegged to the annual salary of the 15th top earner aged 32 in six professions - banking, law, accountancy, engineering employees of MNCs and local manufacturers. Mr Teo said that because of the booming economy, salaries in the private sector have probably moved ahead of the benchmark, which is based on income-tax data that is two years behind. The pay increases for MR4 grade and above which taper off progressively in percentage terms for higher grades - will be made through adjustments to monthly salaries and annual components. Monthly pay will rise by an average of 15 per cent. The monthly salary of those on MR4 grade will climb 22.5 per cent - from $42,800 to $52,400. Much of the pay increase will be performance-based - especially for ministers and senior permanent secretaries. Close to half - 47 per cent – of their new annual package will be in variable form, up from 34 per cent before the revision. Three changes will be made to boost performance-linked components. The car allowance for senior officers - now 2.5 times the officer's monthly salary – is no longer relevant, Mr Teo said. It will be scrapped and built into the GDP bonus, which is tied to the economy's performance. The President, Prime Minister and Speaker do not receive the car allowance because they are provided with an official car. They will continue to use an official car, but the car benefit will be subject to tax. The GDP bonus itself will be beefed up. It will increase from the current two months' pay to three months' pay if the economy expands 5 per cent. And if the economy grows 10 per cent or more, the bonus will be eight months. The third change is to increase the performance bonus by two months for those at MR4 grade and above to a norm of seven months. The President, Prime Minister, Judiciary and Statutory Appointment Holders, who now get a fixed service bonus of five months instead of a performance bonus, will see their service bonus increase to seven months. Mr Teo said the government has carefully examined the benchmarks and found that they remain sound, after some modification to the benchmark for MR4 seven years ago. 'They follow economic and employment market conditions up and down,' he said. 'After calculating the benchmark figure, we also do a check against the private sector income earners. The ranking of the benchmark against the private sector earners is stable and does not fluctuate widely. The latest salary revision - the first in seven years - will benefit some 95 per cent of Singapore's 64,000 strong civil servants. Two-thirds of them will get a pay rise of 3 to 5 per cent. The revision will cost the government $214 million more in wages. The total wage bill for the Civil Service after the pay revision will be $4.7 billion. All the salary adjustments are non-pensionable, so there will be no increase in pension cost.


My reflections:
An increase in wages for the government officials has caused much talk in Singapore. Some question why they should get a pay rise, some question if that money was from the increment of taxes. According to the article, it can be seen that the increment is in view of closing the gap between the wages of the private sectors and those working in the government. Moreover, the booming economy allowed the government to have funds to increase the pay of the government workers.
This adjustment in wages is quite significant to me as this is the first time I realized that the government is actually very open and transparent. In order to explain to people why they do certain things, they are actually willing to tell us their wages before and after the increment. Yes, although it is quite a lot of money, but I feel that it is all right for the government to do this.
The first reason being the government having done so much for us. The government as been coming up with policies to suit the needs of people as best as they can and this is no simple feat. They would have to consider different race groups, income groups and even ages or gender.
The second reason is that since our economy is doing relatively well, it is all right to increase the wages of the people who helped to achieve this. Hopefully, this increment would also encourage people to work harder and serve for the country.
From the government point of view, it is something good as it would most likely spur government workers to continue and keep up with the hard work. For many ministers, it is also a reward for working so hard. I know this as during a school trip to the parliament, we learnt that the ministers actually debate for up to 8 hours or more non-stop, in order to come up with new plans for the country.
To the people, some might feel unfair or unhappy. They might feel that the government has no reason to take money and increase their own wages. Maybe it might be okay to feel that way but I hope that they would try to understand and view things in a more positive way. Instead of looking at the increment as a money problem, how about looking at it as a form of encouragement and fuel for the government to continue.
Although I am just a teenager and might not know how the adults really feel or what other consequences there might be due this change in wages, from the information I have, I can see that our government is very open and I think they would not mind to answer any questions that people throw at them regarding the issue. All in all, I view this issue as something rather good and not something bad, as my stand is that it something to keep the government running, which would benefit the citizens.

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