{"id":85488,"date":"2026-09-17T00:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T16:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85488"},"modified":"2026-09-17T00:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T16:32:16","slug":"singapore-ministers-earn-millions-what-do-other-asian-leaders-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85488","title":{"rendered":"Singapore ministers earn millions. What do other Asian leaders make?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\"><a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/singapore?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Singapore<\/span><\/a>\u2019s ministers are among the world\u2019s highest paid, a system its leaders have defended as necessary to attract capable people into public service and reduce the temptation of corruption.<\/div>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Its latest <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/politics\/article\/3366723\/singapore-ministers-set-pay-rise-us14-million-entry-benchmark?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">salary review<\/span><\/a> has once again put the spotlight on that approach, while highlighting a wider regional divide over how Asian governments value political leadership and public service.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Under the city state\u2019s formula, the prime minister\u2019s salary is pegged at twice the benchmark for an entry-level minister, which is based on the median annual income of the country\u2019s top 1,000 Singaporean earners after applying a 40 per cent public-service discount.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">When Prime Minister <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/lawrence-wong?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Lawrence Wong<\/span><\/a>\u2019s annual pay benchmark rises to S$3.6 million (US$2.83 million) on October 15, it will be almost four times the basic annual salary of Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/politics\/article\/3367637\/singapore-ministers-earn-millions-what-do-other-asian-leaders-make\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Singapore\u2019s ministers are among the world\u2019s highest paid, a system its leaders have defended as necessary to attract capable people into public service and reduce&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}