Singapore's political leaders are getting a raise for the first time in 15 years, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said Tuesday, adding more than 60% to what are already the world's highest ministerial salaries.
Singapore has justified high-end salaries for its political leaders, arguing they attract talent and deter graft, but the issue is thorny in the city-state, where the median wage worker made 5,775 Singapore dollars ($4,558) a month in 2025.
Wong told Parliament that under a revised salary framework, the benchmark annual pay for a minister at the lowest grade will rise to 1.8 million Singapore dollars ($1.42 million), from 1.1 million Singapore dollars ($868,330).
The prime minister's benchmark salary will jump to 3.6 million Singapore dollars ($2.8 million) from 2.2 million Singapore dollars ($1.7 million), he said.
The government ministers who will receive raises are elected lawmakers who lead ministries and help make national policies, while allowances for other lawmakers will also increase.
But Wong said ministers and other political officeholders will not immediately move to the new salary benchmark. Instead, they will get a one-time adjustment up to 9% beginning Oct. 15, with the increase depending on performance and responsibilities.
Wong expects most ministers at the lowest grade to earn about 1.35 million Singapore dollars ($1.06 million) by the end of the current term. Salaries thereafter will vary by performance and responsibilities, rather than automatically reaching the benchmark of 1.8 million Singapore dollars, he said.
He didn't say how much his salary would be, although a 9% adjustment would raise it to 2.4 million Singapore dollars ($1.89 million).
Political pay is a sensitive issue in Singapore as ministers earn far more than most citizens and the prime minister's salary is among the highest for national leaders worldwide.
In comparison, the British prime minister makes $230,000 while U.S. President Donald Trump earns $400,000, according to data from non-profit PoliticalSalaries.com, which ranks the Singapore prime minister as the highest-paid world leader.
The data set shows the Hong Kong chief executive is the second-highest earner globally with $719,000 annually, followed by the Swiss president at $606,000.
"The sums involved are more than what most citizens earn, so I understand why Singaporeans scrutinize them closely and why many feel strongly about the matter," Wong said, adding that he would donate his increment to charity for the next five years.
The government has defended the system as necessary to attract capable people from the private sector and public service and to maintain a clean government.
Singapore chose to deal with political remuneration openly, with no hidden salary components or perks outside the published framework, Wong said.
"Good government did not come naturally to Singapore. It was built deliberately over many years. And there is nothing automatic about sustaining this,” he said.
Wong said the pay issue could not be avoided simply because it was uncomfortable. Ministerial salaries had increasingly fallen behind comparable earnings in the private sector and civil service, making a review necessary, he noted.
The salary framework uses the median income of Singapore's top 1,000 citizen earners as a reference point, with a 40% discount applied to reflect the nature of political service.
The new salary scheme would give Wong and future prime ministers "a better chance of persuading capable Singaporeans to step forward, and of building the strongest possible team for Singapore," he said.
The new framework will be reviewed every five years, the government said.
Lawmakers will debate the issue in Parliament on Thursday.
The current political salary framework was established following a 2011 review and debated in Parliament in 2012. Salaries were cut by about 36% under that review as the public expressed concern over political pay.
Wong said it was "easier politically" for him to leave things as they were but that "would not be the right thing to do" as salaries in the private sector, civil service, judicial service and public sector had moved higher since 2012.
A subsequent review in 2017 recommended adjustments, but the government decided not to implement them. A second review due in 2023 was deferred until now because of economic uncertainty.
Referring to the top earners' benchmark, Chong Ja Ian, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, said: "Given rising income disparity, this could mean that ministers associate more with the very rich rather than the experiences of ordinary Singaporeans."
