Pay raises

Hot topic in Singapore now, i can hear a podcast about it, i can hear the aunties gossip about it in the market, the uncles chatting about it in the coffeeshop, as they sat, slurping their beer and sipping their coffee, and even youngsters, teenagers discussing about it on the net....

Its all about pay raise. Yes, pay raise for the civil servents in Singapore.

PM, ministers to get pay rise of between 14% and 33% Tuesday April 10, 6:17 PM, CNA.

Starting salaries in civil service to increase by 16% Tuesday April 10, 10:17 PM, CNA.

Woah!!! That's hell a lot of increase!!! First, the goverment increase the GST by 2% and gave themselve a raise of 14% - 33%!!!

That means to say, Prime Minister will draw $3.1 million this year.

President of the Republic of Singapore will get $3.2 million dollars, this is up from the current $2.5 million while both Senior Minister and Minister Mentor who earned $2.7 million each last year, will now get paid $3.04 million each.

No wonder Mrs Senior Minister mentioned the S$1.8 million that TT Durai got was peanuts. What is 1.8 million bucks over 3 years compared to 3.04 million annually that her husband got?

Reason given is that the pay must be attractive to retain top talent in the civil service, and to form a stable goverment. The goverment says that they are losing top talent of the civil service personnal to the private sector, but to the others like me, can we go into the civil service instead? The pay is more, the work is more relaxed, the benefits are better.

I remember my parents telling me to study hard when i was very young, and grow up to become a lawyer, or a doctor or an engineer and earn big bucks and live comfortably in a big house, a big car and a big swimming pool outside the house.

At the rate i am going, i think i will be living in a big house, surrounded by cars and with some swimming pools outside the house. You will find me living at a void deck of a HDB flat, which has a public swimming complex just across the road.

Times had changed. I think i shall tell my future sons and daughters to study hard to become a Minister when they grow up. They can earn more bucks than lawyer, doctor and engineer easily.

But one thing is that, minister future is uncertain also!

They face general election every five years!!! They worried losing their job once every five years! That's lots of stress for them!

But as i recall, General Elections are meant to elect the Members of Parliament, not the Ministers. Ministers are appointed by the Prime Minister. So, what worries does the Ministers have?