Top 10 Highest Paid Government Leaders
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Top 10 Highest Paid Government Leaders
, On Wednesday 19 October 2011, 0:28 SGTYou may think that those wishing to suffer extreme public scrutiny while making decisions that affect millions of citizens would demand the big bucks, but when it comes to pay, many world leaders look like chumps compared to the CEOs of many corporations. While most salaries pale in comparison to the likes of Warren Buffett's, some are downright huge when compared to the people a leader may govern.
Top 10 Political Leader's Salary by Country (2010):
1. Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore): $2,183,516
2. Donald Tsang (Hong Kong): $513,245
3. Raila Odinga (Kenya): $427,886
4. Barack Obama (United States): $400,000
5. Nicolas Sarkozy (France): $302,435
6. Stephen Harper (Canada): $296,400
7. Mary McAleese (Ireland): $287,900
8. Julia Gillard (Australia): $286,752
9. Angela Merkel (Germany): $283,608
10. Yoshihiko Noda (Japan): $273,676Salary Compared to GDP
What makes a world leader's pay reasonable or outlandish? One way of making this call is by looking at pay compared to a country's GDP per person at purchasing power parity (PPP). Using PPP helps make a better estimate of just how far money goes in a country, since the cost of living will vary from country to country. Comparing each leader's salary (in international dollars) to the IMF's 2010 PPP figures shows how much more a world leader makes compared to an average joe at home.1. Raila Odinga (Kenya): 255.30
2. Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore): 38.51
3. Donald Tsang (Hong Kong): 11.17
4. Nicolas Sarkozy (France): 8.92
5. Barack Obama (United States): 8.54
6. Yoshihiko Noda (Japan): 8.08
7. Angela Merkel (Germany): 7.86
8. Stephen Harper (Canada): 7.57
9. Mary McAleese (Ireland): 7.29
10. Julia Gillard (Australia): 7.21What do these numbers mean? Looking at GDP per person doesn't show how a country stacks up in terms of income inequality, a statistic that can measured using the Gini coefficient. Ranking the leaders by their country's income inequality can really show how far out of touch a leader is with those governed. The Gini coefficient changes things up (zero means perfect equality and one perfect inequality).
1. Donald Tsang (Hong Kong): 0.434
2. Raila Odinga (Kenya): 0.425
3. Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore): 0.425
4. Barack Obama (United States): 0.408
5. Julia Gillard (Australia): 0.352
6. Mary McAleese (Ireland): 0.343
7. Nicolas Sarkozy (France): 0.327
8. Stephen Harper (Canada): 0.326
9. Angela Merkel (Germany): 0.283
10. Yoshihiko Noda (Japan): 0.249Base Salary Vs. Perks
When it comes to what a leader is really paid, a distinction must be made between base salary and additional stipends. Leaders may receive free residences or residential stipends, free healthcare, free travel and other perks. They may be permitted expenses that most people would have to pay for out of pocket. Those figures are more difficult to come by, especially in the murky world of political influence.Less scrupulous world leaders may pad their own bank accounts with their own country's money through corruption. "Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)," first released in 1995, tracks corruption trends in 178 countries. It assigns a rank of 10 to countries deemed clean, and zero to countries considered highly corrupt. Ranking the leaders by how corrupt their countries are, the ranking shifts to the following:
1. Raila Odinga (Kenya): 2.1
2. Nicolas Sarkozy (France): 6.8
3. Barack Obama (United States): 7.1
4. Yoshihiko Noda (Japan): 7.8
5. Angela Merkel (Germany): 7.9
6. Mary McAleese (Ireland): 8
7. Donald Tsang (Hong Kong): 8.4
8. Julia Gillard (Australia): 8.7
9. Stephen Harper (Canada): 8.9
10. Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore): 9.3Of these countries, only three would not be considered "full democracies" by the "Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index:" Kenya, Hong Kong and Singapore.
The Bottom Line
What do all of these numbers tell us? Leaders of advanced economies earn very similar salaries to each other, and those countries tend to be less corrupt and more democratic. While Lee Hsien Loong may earn 38 times the average resident of Singapore, his country is considered a good place to do business even if it is not fully democratic. On the other end of the spectrum, Raila Odinga earns an incredible amount more than the people he governs, and presides over a country that Transparency International would consider one of the most corrupt around (ranked 154 out of 178 countries). -
even our ministers are paid higher than the US president lol. splendid.
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all our ministers can fit the top 10 liao -
Each Minister afew millions salary.
I think when Obama speaks to our Minister, he would have to look up to them.
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An honour without grace.
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Originally posted by βÎτά:
Each Minister afew millions salary.
I think when Obama speaks to our Minister, he would have to look up to them.
Sadly for Obama, he can only compare the power behind his balls At least he's the chief commander of superpower -
we always want to compete with h ong kong on this and that.
then why dont they match hong kong's salary scale too?
5 times. plain ridiculous.
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how much is our Perm Sec being paid? higher than Obama ma? I bet it is
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Originally posted by Darkness_hacker99: all our ministers can fit the top 10 liao
Actually LSL is No.2
And Donald Tsang comes after all our ministers.
Actually nothing wrong, only you don't like it.
Hope Obama use this list to ask for a raise.
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Originally posted by mancha:
Actually LSL is No.2
And Donald Tsang comes after all our ministers.
Actually nothing wrong, only you don't like it.
Hope Obama use this list to ask for a raise.
Obama is going to be voted out of office liao lor. the unemployment is still 9.1%. remember george bush got voted out of office in 1992 cos of the economy then. Obama will suffer the same fate. its the economy, stupid.
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Originally posted by Rooney9:
Obama is going to be voted out of office liao lor. the unemployment is still 9.1%. remember george bush got voted out of office in 1992 cos of the economy then. Obama will suffer the same fate. its the economy, stupid.
The issue here is pay.
Why you toking economy? You very clever one.
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their pay is really ridiculous.
thats more than 5k a DAY.
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Our government pegs salaries of the ministers to the top corporate earners. The problem is when the top earners got booted out for whatever reason, they get nothing. Our ministers step down with pension for life.
We must also wonder why there is this "occupy Wall Street" campaign that is going around the world.
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since the people have made known that ministers pay are way overboard, then will PM Lee has the balls to revise and implement the pay structure of PM and his ministers?
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All the PAP leaders earn more than Donald Tsang. Come on! A more accurate report pls.
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If republician become president, me going to subscribe to US news liao~
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doesnt matter, they are all the same to me.
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doesnt it dawn on your they are the same, whether republicans or democrats? they will screw up policies and the economy. you know the depression, what caused it? the damn politicians? what started out as a small scale recession, thanks to the trade wars, protectionism, escalated into a great depression. history showed politicians know nothing about economy etc. bad bad policies from politicians.
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Originally posted by dragg:
their pay is really ridiculous.
thats more than 5k a DAY.
Its probably still peanuts to them
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Originally posted by dragg:
their pay is really ridiculous.
thats more than 5k a DAY.
they get media scrutininlike this one...
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Such a disgrace.
What happened to the commission appointed to investigate minister's pay?
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Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged. As the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill.
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Originally posted by Dalforce 25:
Such a disgrace.
What happened to the commission appointed to investigate minister's pay?
u dunno meh? their finding is that our minister are grossly under paid lor........ -
Top 10 Political Leader's Salary by Country (2010):
1. Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore): $2,183,516
2. Donald Tsang (Hong Kong): $513,245
3. Raila Odinga (Kenya): $427,886
4. Barack Obama (United States): $400,000
5. Nicolas Sarkozy (France): $302,435
6. Stephen Harper (Canada): $296,400
7. Mary McAleese (Ireland): $287,900
8. Julia Gillard (Australia): $286,752
9. Angela Merkel (Germany): $283,608
10. Yoshihiko Noda (Japan): $273,676Sickening disgrace.
