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SINGAPORE : Starting salaries for fresh graduates in the civil service will go up by 10 percent for those under the Management Executive Scheme.
For those already in policy development, corporate services and operations work, salaries will be adjusted up by 16 percent.
Wages for uniformed officers in the Home Affairs Ministry will go up by between 4 percent and 5 percent
SAF personnel will also see similar income adjustments, while those in the Foreign Service will get an 8 percent pay rise.
These salaries are all benchmarked against the private sector.
The salaries of most senior permanent secretaries are based on the top eight earners from six professions.
Their incomes are then sorted accordingly. The median income earner is picked out, and that income is multiplied by two-thirds.
Just after the September 11 attacks in the US, ministers and senior civil servants took a 10 percent pay cut.
After the SARS outbreak, they took another 10 percent cut. But these pay cuts were completely restored by 2005. Since then, there were no pay adjustments.
In the MR4 grade for a minister's salary, the benchmark of 55 percent in 2006 has now inched up to 73 percent at $1.59 million.
"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," said Teo Chee Hean, Minister-in-Charge of Civil Service and Defence Minister.
"Next year, we aim to close half of the remaining gap, bringing salaries to 88% of the benchmark by end 2008."
Another benchmark is for the lowest superscale grade - for those entering the senior ranks.
Six professions are first chosen. Their incomes are also sorted and the 15th income is picked.
For this SR9 grade or superscale, the 2006 salary of $371,900 benchmarked at 103 percent is now pegged at 106 percent.
"There is no perfect method for doing this benchmarking. The methodology of establishing these two market benchmarks at SR9 and MR4 was set out in the White Paper on 'Competitive Salaries for Competent and Honest Government' in 1994," said Mr Teo.
"We have looked carefully at the benchmarks again, and have found that they remain sound. They follow economic and employment market conditions. After calculating the benchmark figure, we also do a check against private sector income earners. The ranking of the benchmark against the private sector earners is stable and does not fluctuate widely."
The wage revisions will cost the government $214 million. - CNA /ls
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