Commentary: To discuss ministerial salary increases, we need to start by being clear about opportunity costs

That discomfort is not unreasonable, even when the underlying numbers hold up, and no part of the arguments here depends on anyone feeling sorry for a minister’s pay packet.

THE COUNTRY’S OPPORTUNITY COST

Both ministerial statements made the country’s case at length. Mr Wong argued that weak political leadership eventually erodes civil service beneath it, and that Singapore needs depth in the pipeline because not everyone brought in will grow into the top roles. 

What neither did was put a number on it. Opportunity cost appeared three times across the two speeches, and described what an individual forgoes – not what the country forgoes when it cannot persuade enough of them to come forward. 

That second calculation is harder to state because it will show up as an absence rather than a number: If capable people declined and could not be replaced by anyone of comparable profile. Or if a Cabinet is ageing out of its most demanding portfolios without a deep enough bench to hand them to. 

The prime minister’s own account of the looming succession challenges at the three key ministries is evidence for this side of the calculation too, even though he did not describe it in those terms. Fifteen years of foregone recruitment into political office accumulate into an unseen cost.