Highest paid world leader to get salary increase of $1 million

ByTessa Wong BBC News, Asia Digital Reporter, Reporting fromSingapore.

Key points

• While British PM Andy Burnham takes in $230, 000, US president Donald Trump earns $400, 000 a year.
• Lawrence Wong will see an growth of 1.4 million Singapore dollars ($1.1m; £818, 000) in his annual pay package.
• Wong's predecessor, Lee Hsien Loong, had additionally pledged to donate his salary rise to charity for a number of years back in 2007.
• He at present receives an annual salary of S$2.2m and will now see his pay go up by more than 60% to S$3.6m.
• The topic of high salaries for Singapore's ministers has long been a lightning rod of criticism for the ruling People's Action Party (PAP).

Singapore's administration states it will raise the annual salaries of its ministers and other office holders, including its prime minister who is the highest paid political leader in the world.

Lawrence Wong will see an growth of 1.4 million Singapore dollars ($1.1m; £818, 000) in his annual pay package. He has remarked he will donate this pay rise to charity over the next five years.

According to Wong, raising the pay of ministers was necessary to attract better talent. The administration has previously argued that paying ministers high salaries deters corruption.

But the move has attracted criticism in Singapore where there is deep concern regarding job security and the rising cost of living.

Even before his pay raise kicks in, Wong is still by far the highest paid political leader in the world.

Meanwhile, the next is Hong Kong chief executive John Lee. This person earns regarding $719, 000, followed by Switzerland's president Guy Parmelin with $606, 000.

On Tuesday, Wong acknowledged that ministers' salaries have attracted scrutiny given that they were much more than what most citizens earn. The median monthly income in the country is 5, 775 Singapore dollars.

But he argued that he has faced difficulty convincing business leaders and top civil servants to run for political office.

While the administration cannot match what some of these residents earn, "we do not make the financial hurdle unnecessarily high" for them to offer up their careers and join politics, he remarked.

"Overall, I believe this will give me and future prime ministers a better chance of persuading capable Singaporeans to step forward, and of building the strongest possible team for Singapore, " he remarked.

At present, the base pay package of ministers is concerning S$1.1m. With the new pay scheme, that will growth to around S$1.2m.

As pay will growth based on performance, but Wong remarked he expects most of these ministers to receive even more than that – around S$1.35m – by the end of the current term of administration.

Part of their pay package is determined by whether the country reaches certain targets for unemployment rate, income expansion, and GDP expansion.

For context, the topic of high salaries for Singapore's ministers has long been a lightning rod of criticism for the ruling People's Action Party (PAP). It has led the country since independence.

In a landmark general election in 2011 the PAP saw its lowest vote share in decades, fuelled partly by voters' unhappiness over ministers' pay as well as immigration policies. The after year, the administration slashed ministers' salaries.

Meanwhile, the administration has for years pointed to its lack of corruption – Singapore consistently ranks near the top of Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index – as proof that the ministerial pay system works, arguing that it reduces the temptation for ministers to accept bribes.

But in a country where the annual median income is far below such sums, the matter continues to rankle and the latest announcement was no exception.

On Tuesday plenty of online posted comments critical of the pay raise, saying it was "tone deaf" given current worries regarding retrenchments, jobs for fresh graduates and inflation.

Retrenchments in Singapore hit their highest level in more than five years in the last quarter, according to administration figures.

But there were a few who agreed with the move, saying it was necessary to have "the best of the best" running the country.

In short, highest paid world leader to get salary increase of $1 million is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.