World's highest-paid leader gets raise from $1.7M to $2.85M

Singapore's government has announced it will raise the annual salaries of its ministers and other office holders, including Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who was already the highest-paid political leader in the world before this increase. According to a press release from Singapore’s Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Wong’s annual pay package will rise nearly 64 percent, from S$2.2 million (about $1.7 million) to S$3.6 million (roughly $2.85 million). That works out to an increase of around S$1.4 million, or about $1.1 million, in his annual pay. Wong has said he will donate the entire pay increase to charity over the next five years.Why now, and why so muchThis marks the first increase in ministerial salaries in Singapore in 15 years, with the last adjustment happening back in 2012, when ministers actually took a 36 percent pay cut in response to public discontent over their earnings at the time.