Ho Ching, CEO of Temasek Holdings, shared a blog post on her Facebook page with an interesting title.

From finance website Seedly, it read "Why Is The Salary Of Singapore’s Prime Minister So High?"

Ho, the wife of Singapore's Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, added a caption which read:

"One big difference is the clean wage system in SG - ie no other perks in kind, while most if not all other countries would have many other perks, like butlers and hairdressers, free flights on national airlines, even family holidays, etc; and quite a number like the USA would include perks after end of term of office."

Top talent, top dollar

This was in addition to the arguments advanced in the blog post for why Singapore's PM deserves a high salary.

It may be familiar to those who have paid attention to this particular debate, but in summary:

• A top-performing leader should be paid top-dollar.
• Singapore's GDP is relatively high, compared to countries like U.S., UK and China.
• It labels Singaporeans as "beasts" that its leaders have to "tame and manage", and that Singapore has a fast-growing population.
• Lee Kuan Yew once said that MPs are real people who have real aspirations, which meant that talented people would be attracted by higher pay.

The article noted that in comparison with other top CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, local banks, and STI companies, PM Lee only earns a fraction of their annual packages.

It stated that DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta earned S$11.9M in 2018, and CityDev CEO Kwek Leng Beng and UOB CEO Wee Ee Cheong are both tied at S$8.9 million each.

It posited the idea that Singapore is an "abnormal" country which should be more accurately thought of as Singapore Incorporated, and concluded:

"Singapore Inc, should continually hire the best talent and leaders, and reward them accordingly. Especially if the country is to continually outperform it’s (sic) peers in the global landscape."

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Top image by Rachel Ng.