Add Category
Easy money: Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is the runaway winner for highest-paid world leader. Picture: AFP
NO WONDER he’s smiling — Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has walloped his fellow world leaders in the annual salary stakes, earning three times more than his nearest rival.
PM Lee’s $2.32 million tops the list of 10 highest-paid world leaders, according to an annual salary list compiled by financial news and opinion site 24/7WallSt.
Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull is fifth on the list, with an annual PM salary of $522,0000, only just behind American President Barack Obama, on $527,000.
Fifth-richest: Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: Jono SearleSource:News Corp Australia
It might seem small change compared to PM Lee, but Mr Turnbull’s pay eclipses the Australian average annual wage of $72,800 a year. And Turnbull’s personal wealth is an estimated $200 million.
THE TOP 10 LIST IS:
1 — Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore, $2.32 million
2 — Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong, $760,000
3 — Johann N. Schneider-Ammann, Switzerland, $606,000
4 — Barack Obama, US, $527,000
5 — Malcolm Turnbull, Australia, $522,000
6 — Werner Faymann, Austria, $452,000
7 — Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg, $336,000
8 — Justin Trudeau, Canada, $333,000
9 — Angela Merkel, Germany, $322,000
10 — Charles Michel, Belgium, $315,000
The leader rich list excludes “leaders of absolute monarchies and of a number of constitutional monarchiesâ€, conceding while these are “generally among the wealthiest people on the planetâ€.
“However, they were excluded from this list because incomes of sultans, emirs, and kings are frequently unavailable.â€
It also notes that the annual salary rarely encapsulates the full financial story of being a country’s most high-ranking official, since it fails to take into account benefits including a residence funded and maintained by tax payer dollars, lifetime pension benefits, and commercial opportunities post political life.