Workers' Party's million-dollar salary for ministers

Our ministers' million-dollar-salary is the broad and blunt tool of many an opposition supporter who draws it out of their toolkit as a final resort to hammer and smash everything in the way when left with no other alternative response.

But hey! Hold your fire (or hammering) as the WP had also proposed million-dollar salary for ministers.

"If there were a Workers' Party government in power today, 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚 the Workers' Party minister would be paid essentially the same as what a minister today is paid. 𝐌𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐦 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐡 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐲 𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭," Mr Teo Chee Hean said in parliament in 2018.

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐊𝐄𝐘 𝐃𝐈𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐖𝐏'𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐔𝐋𝐀 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐏𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐀𝐋?

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐏 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚 𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭, 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐚 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐱𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝟖𝟏 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐯𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐨𝐟 𝟏𝟗 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭.

This means the WP would have paid out a higher portion of the salary - about $880,000 out of $1.1 million, 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐏 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐝.

In contrast, the White Paper proposed a lower fixed component of 65% and a higher variable component of 35%.

The variable component depends on the performance of the minister and the achievement of national outcomes and the state of the economy.

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Notes:
In 2012, the WP had proposed a salary that is pegged to 5x the monthly salary of a civil servant at the MX9 grade.

In 2012, the mid-point of the MX9 salary range was $13,560. The annual salary proposed by WP would comprised 13-months fixed component and a norm bonus of 3 months.