SINGAPORE: The average performance bonus of Singapore’s political office-holders was 4.1 months in 2017 – a five-year low – according to figures shared in a written parliamentary reply from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday (Sep 10).
Mr Lee was responding to a question filed by the Workers’ Party’s Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Leon Perera.
The average performance bonus was 4.3 months in 2016, 4.4 in 2015, 4.2 in 2014 and 4.3 in 2013.
The range of three to six months’ average performance bonus received by political office-holders of all grades remained constant from 2013 to 2017.
The performance bonus is among several components of a political office-holder’s salary, apart from the monthly pay. The other components include a 13th month non-pensionable annual allowance, a National Bonus linked to Singapore’s socio-economic outcomes and an annual variable component as paid to civil servants.
Said Mr Lee: “I formed a committee in 2017 to review whether the salary framework established in 2012 remains appropriate and valid against its intended goals, and what adjustments may be useful; and whether there is a need to adjust the salaries should there be a change in overall salary levels based on the proposed framework.”
He pointed to Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean’s announcement in Parliament in March that ministerial salaries and their guiding framework would be unchanged, due to the committee’s affirmation that the current pay structure “remained sound”.
“Therefore, we should maintain this structure,” said Mr Lee. “While the MR4 (or entry-level minister) benchmark had increased by 9 per cent since 2011, the Government noted that the 2017 MR4 benchmark was lower than the 2016 MR4 benchmark, and hence had decided to maintain salaries at the current level and watch salary trends further. That remains the position.”
