SINGAPORE ministers and top civil servants will start the New Year with a second round of pay increase, ranging from 4 per cent to 21 per cent.
Under the revised salary package announced by the Public Service Division (PSD) on Thursday, ministers at the starting grade will take home $1.94 million next year - an increase of 21 per cent over this year's $1.6 million.
MPs and administrative officers - the elite of the civil service - will see their salaries going up by around 4 per cent.
With the revision, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's pay of $3.1 million this year will go up to about $3.7 million.
President SR Nathan will get about $3.8 million - up from the $3.2 million he's getting this year.
As for Members of Parliament, they will get an allowance of $225,000 a year - a 4 per cent jump.
The changes come after the first round of pay hikes in April, when the Government also announced that civil service salaries would be adjusted over time to keep pace with private sector benchmarks.
Minister-in-charge of the Civil Service Teo Chee Hean said on Thursday that the move was in keeping with April's announcement.
'Public sector salaries move up and down with the market. In this tight labour market, private sector salaries have moved up significantly, as the benchmark figures show. The service needs to follow promptly in order to attract and retain good people,' said Mr Teo, who is also the Defence Minister.
But he noted that actual pay would still be tied to performance. This includes individual performance and how the economy does.
'We are careful to link rewards closely to performance. We have increased the proportion of annual salary that is variable. At the senior levels as much as 50 per cent of the annual salary is now performance-based,' he said.
This change is good news for political, judicial and statutory appointment-holders, as well as the 230-strong elite Administrative service.
Their pay increases will come in the form of a higher monthly salary and a fatter performance bonus.
For instance, Ministers at the entry grade of MR4 will get an average of nine months performance bonus, on top of the GDP bonus, which can fall between three and eight months, depending on econommic growth.
In a statement, the PSD said that this round of changes would bring MR4 salaries to 77 per cent of the private sector benchmarks, to which it is pegged.
The April revisions had brought it to 73 per cent of th benchmark.
The benchmark is set at two-thirds of the median pay of the top eight earners in banking, law, engineering adn accountancy, as well as employees of multinational corporations and local manufacturers. It was $2.2 million this year.
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