How much do our politicians give?

Terry Xu 2013-06-17 Commentaries

 

By Singapore Rat Race

I refer to the Channel News Asia article on 8 June exhorting higher income earners to donate more:

It is reported that those earning less than $1,000 committed the highest proportion of their pay to charities, at 1.8%.
Two salient observations:
  1. Those earning less than $1000 belongs to the bottom 10% income group (link).
  2. The highest income participants in the Individual Giving Survey cited in the article gave less than 1.8% of their pay.
Linking the donation drive to ministerial pay, how much do our politicians give?

The 2011 white paper benchmarked ministerial pay to the median income of the top 1,000 citizen earners, but with a 40% discount to “signify the sacrifice that comes with the ethos of political service”. The annual salary of the MR4 entry grade for Ministers is $1,100,000. As the paper estimates the annual salary package to be 20 months, the monthly pay of a MR4 Minister is $55,000 ($1,100,000 / 20 months). This places the MR4 salary grade at twice* the average monthly household income of the top 10% income group, which earned $26,622 in 2011.

*$55,000 / $26,622 = 2.07

 

incomepercentile

Using 1.8% as a benchmark, do our ministers donate more than $19,800 ($1,100,000 * 1.8%) every year?

 

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