Sep 10, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min · 13 segments
Singapore's Prime Minister will see his benchmark annual salary rise from S$2.2 million (US$1.7 million) to S$3.6 million, a jump of more than 60%, announced by PM Lawrence Wong himself in parliament…
Lee Chwi LynnHost
Susan TamHost
Yanti IsmailHost
So that requires a lot of energy and resources and commitment, right, to the cause or whatever cause they choose to follow through, serving the public and their constituents.
So you need to have a figure that would commensurate the kind of expectations of their job.
Also wondering, in that benchmark that we're talking about public service, there are many, many other professions that call for this sort of reward or sorry, sort of this remuneration, if you like.
We know nurses, teachers, garbage collectors, people who are doing the dirty kind of like difficult jobs that we, you and I may not want to do.
So why? Falling in that category, I feel public servants, public service of any kind should deserve huge pay rises.
Yeah, I mean, I'm going to take this back to the starting question about the Singapore case study.
It made me think about our own politicians and, you know, members of parliament.
Do our politicians deserve a raise? And, you know, this is public data about how much they earn.
But it does go towards the staff and operations of the office and also the assistance to the constituencies.
When I was reflecting on this, like who deserves a raise? It's almost not necessarily whether the parliamentarian themselves, but is this person really delivering a service? You know, you've got to put value to how they're using the public funds and what they're using the money for.
So Singapore made an argument that providing this kind of higher salary helps create conditions for good governance.
And, you know, it really makes you think it's more than just a high salary that does that.
So it's not such a simple matter of you increase the salary, you'll get good service, I think.
The question of service is interesting because I think that's going to shape a lot of our conversation this evening.
Who provides a service that we think they deserve more money for? And I think some services are very direct, right? So earlier, Susan, you were talking about people who, for example, clean our streets.
Then you've got artists where they absolutely provide a service to society, absolutely.
So that requires a lot of energy and resources and commitment, right, to the cause or whatever cause they choose to follow through, serving the public and their constituents.
So you need to have a figure that would commensurate the kind of expectations of their job.
Also wondering, in that benchmark that we're talking about public service, there are many, many other professions that call for this sort of reward or sorry, sort of this remuneration, if you like.
We know nurses, teachers, garbage collectors, people who are doing the dirty kind of like difficult jobs that we, you and I may not want to do.
So why? Falling in that category, I feel public servants, public service of any kind should deserve huge pay rises.
Yeah, I mean, I'm going to take this back to the starting question about the Singapore case study.
It made me think about our own politicians and, you know, members of parliament.
Do our politicians deserve a raise? And, you know, this is public data about how much they earn.
But it does go towards the staff and operations of the office and also the assistance to the constituencies.
When I was reflecting on this, like who deserves a raise? It's almost not necessarily whether the parliamentarian themselves, but is this person really delivering a service? You know, you've got to put value to how they're using the public funds and what they're using the money for.
So Singapore made an argument that providing this kind of higher salary helps create conditions for good governance.
And, you know, it really makes you think it's more than just a high salary that does that.
So it's not such a simple matter of you increase the salary, you'll get good service, I think.
The question of service is interesting because I think that's going to shape a lot of our conversation this evening.
Who provides a service that we think they deserve more money for? And I think some services are very direct, right? So earlier, Susan, you were talking about people who, for example, clean our streets.
Then you've got artists where they absolutely provide a service to society, absolutely.
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