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There have been so many figures thrown about, you'd be forgiven for being confused. And Parliament yesterday was no different.
Non-constituency MP Lina Chiam had proposed that the benchmark for a minister's pay be $50,000. The ministerial salary review committee, appointed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last May, had proposed that the starting pay for an entry-level minister be $46,750.
The Workers' Party (WP) disagreed and proposed in Parliament on Monday that an entry-level minister be paid $55,000 a month.
WP arrived at the figure by multiplying by five times what it proposed an MP's allowance should be.
It proposed that MPs receive a monthly allowance of $11,000, which is the estimated salary of a senior executive in the civil service.
They're all not so far from each other, argued People's Action Party MP for Sembawang GRC, Mr Vikram Nair.
He made this point in Parliament yesterday, the second day of parliamentary debates on the recommendations by the eight-man committee on Jan 4 on changes to political salaries.
Said Mr Nair: "We may disagree on how we want to crack the egg, but at the end of the day, I think the number we arrived at is not too far apart."
He then explained that WP's proposal of pegging the minister's pay at five times the MP's allowance means the MP's allowance is about 20 per cent of the minister's pay.
Mr Nair said the committee recommended 17.5 per cent, a 2.5 percentage point difference.
"And the Workers' Party doesn't explain why it came up with a multiple of five times, rather than four or six times.
"And it could have been any number in the air, but they decided on five, which miraculously brings them very close to what the committee came up with."
Benchmark
Mr Nair also pointed out that WP's benchmark for any entry level minister is $55,000. But the committee had actually recommended the entry level minister's pay at $46,750.
He added: "So, in fact, the Workers' Party is proposing a higher starting salary for ministers. And this is interesting because the difference in salary for one month is about $8,250.
"If you multiply that over the course of a year, the Workers' Party's starting salary for ministers amounts to about $99,000 more than what the committee recommended."
He said $99,000 is about a two-month bonus based on a base salary of $46,750.
He continued: "While the Workers' Party has raised a big ruckus about the quantum of the bonus, the starting salary they have proposed incorporates a two-month bonus based on the current starting salary.
"So they have in fact proposed an even higher starting salary for ministers than the committee recommended."
The confusion over the committee's proposed benchmark and minimum pay continued.
In Parliament, WP's MP for Hougang, Mr Yaw Shin Leong, used the committee's $55,000 benchmark and calculated that in 2020, the minister's pay would go up by an estimated 51 per cent, which would be about $83,000.
He said that based on WP's formula, the rate of increase over the same period will be more modest, at 41 per cent.
So in 2020, the entry-level benchmark pay WP is proposing would go from $55,000 to about $77,500.
But Mr Nair pointed out that based on the committee's minimum pay of $46,750, a 51 per cent increase would actually be about $70,000.
That's even less than WP's proposal.
Mr Yaw did not explain how he arrived at the 51 per cent and 41 per cent increases.
Mr Chen Show Mao (Aljunied GRC) had also posted a table on WP's salary proposals on his Facebook page.
The debate continues today.
This article was first published in The New Paper.
Non-constituency MP Lina Chiam had proposed that the benchmark for a minister's pay be $50,000. The ministerial salary review committee, appointed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last May, had proposed that the starting pay for an entry-level minister be $46,750.
The Workers' Party (WP) disagreed and proposed in Parliament on Monday that an entry-level minister be paid $55,000 a month.
WP arrived at the figure by multiplying by five times what it proposed an MP's allowance should be.
It proposed that MPs receive a monthly allowance of $11,000, which is the estimated salary of a senior executive in the civil service.
They're all not so far from each other, argued People's Action Party MP for Sembawang GRC, Mr Vikram Nair.
He made this point in Parliament yesterday, the second day of parliamentary debates on the recommendations by the eight-man committee on Jan 4 on changes to political salaries.
Said Mr Nair: "We may disagree on how we want to crack the egg, but at the end of the day, I think the number we arrived at is not too far apart."
He then explained that WP's proposal of pegging the minister's pay at five times the MP's allowance means the MP's allowance is about 20 per cent of the minister's pay.
Mr Nair said the committee recommended 17.5 per cent, a 2.5 percentage point difference.
"And the Workers' Party doesn't explain why it came up with a multiple of five times, rather than four or six times.
"And it could have been any number in the air, but they decided on five, which miraculously brings them very close to what the committee came up with."
Benchmark
Mr Nair also pointed out that WP's benchmark for any entry level minister is $55,000. But the committee had actually recommended the entry level minister's pay at $46,750.
He added: "So, in fact, the Workers' Party is proposing a higher starting salary for ministers. And this is interesting because the difference in salary for one month is about $8,250.
"If you multiply that over the course of a year, the Workers' Party's starting salary for ministers amounts to about $99,000 more than what the committee recommended."
He said $99,000 is about a two-month bonus based on a base salary of $46,750.
He continued: "While the Workers' Party has raised a big ruckus about the quantum of the bonus, the starting salary they have proposed incorporates a two-month bonus based on the current starting salary.
"So they have in fact proposed an even higher starting salary for ministers than the committee recommended."
The confusion over the committee's proposed benchmark and minimum pay continued.
In Parliament, WP's MP for Hougang, Mr Yaw Shin Leong, used the committee's $55,000 benchmark and calculated that in 2020, the minister's pay would go up by an estimated 51 per cent, which would be about $83,000.
He said that based on WP's formula, the rate of increase over the same period will be more modest, at 41 per cent.
So in 2020, the entry-level benchmark pay WP is proposing would go from $55,000 to about $77,500.
But Mr Nair pointed out that based on the committee's minimum pay of $46,750, a 51 per cent increase would actually be about $70,000.
That's even less than WP's proposal.
Mr Yaw did not explain how he arrived at the 51 per cent and 41 per cent increases.
Mr Chen Show Mao (Aljunied GRC) had also posted a table on WP's salary proposals on his Facebook page.
The debate continues today.
This article was first published in The New Paper.
