At least 5% increment for some civil servants?
We refer to the article “Thousands of civil servants get at least 5% increment” (Channel NewsAsia, Aug 28).
PSD declined to answer?
It states that “When asked how many civil servants in total received the adjustments, the PSD declined to answer.”
In the interest of transparency and accountability, why is it that we often get the answer – “declined to answer”?
How many get increments?
How many will get increments? “Thousands” can be 2,000 or tens of thousands?
What percentage of civil servants will get increments?
Why not give a breakdown of the increments? “At least 5%” could be 5% or tens of percent?
Total costs?
What is the total cost to taxpayers?
Too little or too much?
Without more information, how can we have an idea as to whether the increment may be too little for different grades of civil servants?
Since the real basic pay for all workers (including the public sector) has hardly increased in the last 15 years or so, how do the various grades of civil servants fare, after this “at least 5% increment”?
Poor civil servants?
In this connection, when it was announced on 6 June last year that – “Singapore’s largest employer, the Government, is going beyond the National Wages Council’s (NWC) recommendations and leading the way in boosting the pay of lower-wage workers.
It is giving Division IV employees, like storekeepers, an additional pay increase of $70 next month ($10 more than the recommended at least $60 increase), on top of their annual increment”.
- For Division IV officers, the new (salary) range is between $1,205 and $1,470.” (“Extra $70 raise for lower-wage civil servants“, Straits Times, Jun 7, 2013)
Isn’t the maximum in the salary range rather low?
Increased 10 times only?
As we understand that a Division IV officer’s salary in 1973 was about $100 plus – does it mean that their salary only increased by about 10 times in the last 40 years?
In contrast, Ministers’ salaries increased by as much as about 45 times, whereas the lowest rung of civil servants may only have increased by about 10 times.
Is there any country in the world where a Minister’s (MR4) pay a day, at as much as $3,993 is more than 3 times that of junior civil servants’ monthly pay? For a MR1 Minister, it may be as much as more than 4 times more.
For those readers who may have an interest in the history of Ministerial pay in Singapore -
In 1973, a Minister’s annual salary was about $58,500 ( monthly salary of $4,500 x 13 months assuming 1 month’s bonus). (see the document below dated 20 March 1973)
Minister’s pay in 1973 – $2,500
Similarly, a Minister of State’s salary was $32,500 ($2,500 a month)
Now – up to $2,288,000?
Fast forward to now, an entry grade MR4 Minister’s pay (even after the recent reduction in Ministerial pay) is expected to range from $1,100,000 to $1,457,500 (average of 20 months to 26.5 months as per the White Paper).
Quote from the White Paper: “In 2010, while the benchmark figure for the MR4 grade was $2,598,000[4] , the MR4 annual salary was $1,583,900, or 39% below the benchmark” !
Since the above is for an entry grade MR4 Minister, how much will MR3, MR2 and MR1 Ministers get?
We did the calculations and a MR1 Minister will get between $1,760,000 to $2,288,000 (based on 20 to 26 months) depending on the performance factors.
Increased 45 times?
For a MR4 Minister like a Minister of State, from $32,500 in 1973 to say $1,457,500 in 2013, is about 45 times, or a compound annualised increase of about 9.5 %.
Dear readers – did you or do you know of any Singaporeans who were working in the 1970s – who had their pay increased by about 45 times?
Perhaps like in The Animal Farm – some animals are (much) more equal than others!
S Y Lee and Leong Sze Hian
P.S. Come with your family and friends to the4th Return Our CPF protest on 27 September 4 pm at Speakers’ Corner https://www.facebook.com/events/516436478486589