Never a politically convenient time to raise salaries, but unreasonable to leave them unchanged for 15 years: PM Wong
"There is never going to be a politically convenient time to adjust political salaries," said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in Parliament on Thursday (Sept 10) as he wrapped up the debate on a revised political salary framework and the Government's response to it.It will not be right to defer for the third time an adjustment to the wages of political office holders and MPs, he said, citing a widening increment gap."The larger it becomes, the harder it will be to correct later on," he said."If every difficult circumstance becomes a reason not to act, then we will keep putting the issue off, and there will come a point where restraint ceases to be prudence and becomes neglect."On Tuesday, PM Wong announced that an independent committee has proposed raising the salary benchmark of ministers at the MR4 grade to $1.8 million. The figure had remained at $1.1 million since 2011.But ministerial wages will not immediately match the benchmark when the framework takes effect on Oct 15.