Only 33% for the first year!

What you don't see in the headline, the planned second phase increment one year later, in 2008. You can read it in the article itself. After the second phase increment next year, ministerial salaries will have jumped an approximate 60% of current salaries.

Excerpt Mr Teo Chee Hean's speech:

Salaries at the MR4 Grade are currently at 55% of the benchmark. Given the large gap, it is not realistic to close the gap fully in one go. Instead, we will close half of the current gap, that is, from 55% of the benchmark, to 77% of the benchmark by the end of this year. This will be effected in two steps - one step now, and another step at the end of this year. Next year, we aim to close half of the remaining gap, bringing salaries to 88% of the benchmark by end-2008.

But for now, in the first step, we will increase the annual salaries for MR4 grades and above, by an average of 25%. The percentage increase will range from 33% at MR4 decreasing to 14% at the higher grades. The annual salary at MR4 will be increased from $1.2 million to $1.6 million. This will bring the MR4 salary to 73% of the benchmark, fairly close to the 77% of benchmark we want to be at the end of this year.

Sorry hor, my BMW Z3 toy car (the only BM I can afford) blocked the word "Competitive" in the headlines. I had to use it to hold the paper down, because it kept jumping up.

You can also read the CNA report here.

Reader "cool off" points to an Associated Press report with a slightly different headline:

Singapore's government ministers to get pay raise of more than 60 percent by 2008 By Derrick Ho, Associated Press Writer

SINGAPORE (AP) -- Singapore will raise its ministers' annual salaries by more than 60 percent by the end of 2008, the government said Monday, while the prime minister's pay packet will be boosted to a level that's five times that of the U.S. president.

The announcement came after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last month that government ministers should be earning much more than their $1.2 million Singapore dollars (US$790,000; €590,000) salaries to
bring them in line with a standard domestic benchmark. His remarks caused much public debate about ministerial pay, which many see as already being too high...