Million-dollar question: Will Singapore’s ministerial pay hike attract talent from private sector?

The Usual Place Podcast

Will the increase in ministerial salaries cost the People’s Action Party (PAP) votes at the next General Election?

Natasha Ann Zachariah

Published Sep 11, 2026, 03:00 PM

Updated Sep 11, 2026, 03:00 PM

On Sept 8, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced that political office-holders will get a one-off pay increase of up to 9 per cent.

This will take effect from Oct 15 - an entry-level grade MR4 minister getting the full adjustment will see his annual pay rise from $1.1 million to $1.2 million.

The changes to salaries come after the Government accepted the recommendations of a committee convened to review political salaries. One of its recommendations is that the MR4 benchmark will also be updated from $1.1 million to $1.8 million.

Existing ministers’ salaries will continue to be adjusted based on performance, and PM Wong expects most MR4 ministers to earn about $1.35 million – the lower end of the new salary range – by the end of this term of government.

In this episode of The Usual Place, I speak with Straits Times’ senior columnist Bhavan Jaipragas who wrote an opinion piece about why the debate over ministerial salaries can never be settled, and Rebecca Grace Tan, a senior lecturer in Political Science at the National University of Singapore.

We discuss whether there is the “right” formula to calculating ministers’ salaries, and whether alternative performance reviews of ministers’ and MPs work are now necessary to account to the public for the pay raises.

Read Natasha’s articles: https://str.sg/iSXm

Follow The Usual Place podcast on IG: https://str.sg/8KNT

Follow Natasha on LinkedIn: https://str.sg/v6DN

Edited by: Eden Soh, Teo Tong Kai and Hadyu Rahim

Executive producer: Danson Cheong

Producers: Natasha Ann Zachariah, Elizabeth Law and Zachary Lim

Channel: https://str.sg/5nfm

Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/9ijX

Spotify: https://str.sg/cd2P

YouTube: https://str.sg/theusualplacepodcast

Follow more ST podcast channels:

All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7

Get more updates: http://str.sg/stpodcasts

Get The Straits Times app, which has a dedicated podcast player section:

The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB

Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX

ST Current Affairs Podcast

Singapore Parliament

老地方播客

部长薪资上涨是否会导致人民行动党在下次大选中失去选票？

娜塔莎·安·扎卡里亚

发布于2026年9月11日下午3:00

更新于2026年9月11日下午3:00

9月8日，总理黄循财宣布，政治官员将获得一次性加薪，涨幅最高可达9%。

这项调整将于 10 月 15 日生效——获得全额调整的入门级 MR4 级部长，其年薪将从 110 万美元增加到 120 万美元。

此次薪酬调整是在政府采纳了专门审查政治薪酬委员会的建议后进行的。该委员会的建议之一是将MR4基准薪酬从110万新元上调至180万新元。

现任部长的薪酬将继续根据绩效进行调整，黄英贤总理预计，到本届政府任期结束时，大多数第四轮改革部长将获得约 135 万美元的收入——这是新薪酬范围的下限。

在本期《寻常之地》节目中，我采访了《海峡时报》资深专栏作家 Bhavan Jaipragas，他曾撰写评论文章，探讨为什么部长薪酬的争论永远无法解决；我还采访了新加坡国立大学政治学高级讲师 Rebecca Grace Tan。

我们讨论了计算部长薪酬是否存在“正确”的公式，以及现在是否有必要对部长和议员的工作进行替代性绩效评估，以便向公众解释加薪的原因。

阅读娜塔莎的文章：https://str.sg/iSXm

关注 The Usual Place 播客的 Instagram 账号：https://str.sg/8KNT

在领英上关注娜塔莎：https://str.sg/v6DN

编辑：Eden Soh、Teo Tong Kai 和 Hadyu Rahim

执行制片人：张丹森

制片人：娜塔莎·安·扎卡里亚、伊丽莎白·劳和扎卡里·林

频道：https://str.sg/5nfm

苹果播客：https://str.sg/9ijX

Spotify：https://str.sg/cd2P

YouTube：https://str.sg/theusualplacepodcast

关注更多ST播客频道：

ST Podcasts综合频道：https://str.sg/wvz7

获取更多更新：http://str.sg/stpodcasts

下载《海峡时报》应用程序，该程序设有专门的播客播放器版块：

App Store：https://str.sg/icyB

Google Play：https://str.sg/icyX

ST时事播客

新加坡国会