{"id":232021,"date":"2018-03-18T18:00:24","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T16:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=232021"},"modified":"2018-03-19T11:07:19","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T09:07:19","slug":"ramaphosas-presidential-salary-vs-other-world-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/232021\/ramaphosas-presidential-salary-vs-other-world-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramaphosa’s presidential salary vs other world leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s new president Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to earn a salary of R3.6 million in 2018<\/a><\/strong> – easily making him one of the best paid leaders in the world.<\/p>\n

Former president Jacob Zuma last earned a salary of just under R2.9 million, which put him comfortably within the top 20 highest paid world leaders, despite the state of South Africa’s economyduring his term in office.<\/p>\n

While the local economy has picked up on the back of positive sentiment and political moves since Ramaphosa took over, many have questioned and criticised National Treasury’s allocation of such a high salary for the president.<\/p>\n

Of the many criticisms, analysts have said a large salary hike (25% higher than Zuma’s salary) at a time when South Africa is experiencing a massive budget shortfall, and needs to cut spending – especially with an already bloated government wage bill – sends the wrong message.<\/p>\n

Others have said that, as one of the richest men in South Africa, with a net worth estimated at $450 million, the president doesn’t really need to earn so much.<\/p>\n

World leader top earners<\/strong><\/p>\n

Converted to dollars (at current rates) Ramaphosa’s proposed salary translates to just over $305,000.<\/p>\n

Despite ‘suffering’ from a salary freeze for a third year in a row, Singapore’s prime minister Lee Hsien Loong<\/strong> remains the highest paid leader in the world.<\/p>\n

Singaporean officials said the salary freeze would remain in place in 2018, however the country’s leader earns the dollar equivalent of $2.2 million a year<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The second highest politically appointed earner is the chief executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam<\/strong>, who receives a salary of KH$5 million a year – roughly $638,000 at current rates.<\/p>\n

This is followed by the current president of the Swiss Confederation, Alain Berset<\/strong>, who will earn around $480,000<\/a><\/strong>. The Swiss Confederation president has a term of one year, and gets a salary that is only adjusted for inflation. In 2017 this is just over 453,000 francs.<\/p>\n

Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull<\/strong> earns a salary of $415,000, just ahead of US president Donald Trump<\/strong>, who earns the standard presidential salary of $400,000, which he has promised to donate to charitable causes.<\/p>\n

Possibly earning higher than Ramaphosa is Austria’s new chancellor\u00a0Sebastian Kurz, who is expected to earn more than his predecessor’s $310,000; however no salary data has been published since he won the Austrian election in 2017.<\/p>\n

Many European heads of state make up the salary range between $200,000 and $300,000, with German chancellor, Angela Merkel’s<\/strong> \u20ac220,000 salary equal to $272,000 at current rates.<\/p>\n

This is just ahead of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s<\/strong> $266,000 take (C$345,400). Ireland’s top official will take home\u00a0\u20ac192,233 ($237,000),\u00a0France\u2019s Emmanuel Macron<\/strong> takes\u00a0\u20ac178,920 ($221,000)<\/p>\n

It’s worth noting that many countries have a president or monarch that serves as the head of state in a ceremonial or figure-head role, who sometimes earn more than the heads of government. However, only the latter group have been considered here.<\/p>\n

BRICS earners<\/strong><\/p>\n

While not among the world’s top earners, leaders of the BRICS nations should also be taken into account when comparing salaries.<\/p>\n

Despite being the smallest (in terms of size, GDP etc), South Africa’s president still takes the biggest salary – officially, anyway.<\/p>\n

Russian president Vladimir Putin draws a salary of $112,000<\/a><\/strong>, just higher than Indian president\u00a0Ram Nath Kovind’s $92,400 take, and\u00a0the People’s Republic of China president, Xi Jinping’s supposed salary of $22,000.<\/p>\n

Controversial Brazilian leader Michael Temer receives\u00a0371,696 real, annually, which is just over $113,000.<\/p>\n

BRICS leader salaries appear far more modest compared to other nations, but the true extent and sources of their wealth \u2013 as with our local politicians \u2013 is widely questioned.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Leader<\/th>\nCountry<\/th>\nSalary (US$)<\/th>\nSalary (ZAR)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Lee Hsien Loong<\/td>\nSingapore<\/td>\n$2 200 000<\/td>\nR26.0 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Carrie Lam<\/td>\nHong Kong<\/td>\n$638 000<\/td>\nR7.6 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Alain Berset<\/td>\nSwiss Confederacy<\/td>\n$480 000<\/td>\nR5.7 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Malcolm Turnbull<\/td>\nAustralia<\/td>\n$415 000<\/td>\nR4.9 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Donald Trump<\/td>\nUnited States<\/td>\n$400 000<\/td>\nR4.7 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cyril Ramaphosa<\/strong><\/td>\nSouth Africa<\/strong><\/td>\n$305 000<\/strong><\/td>\nR3.6 million<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Angela Merkel<\/td>\nGermany<\/td>\n$272 000<\/td>\nR3.2 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Justin Trudeau<\/td>\nCanada<\/td>\n$266 000<\/td>\nR3.1 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Leo Varadkar<\/td>\nIreland<\/td>\n$237 000<\/td>\nR2.8 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Emmanuel Macron<\/td>\nFrance<\/td>\n$221 000<\/td>\nR2.6 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Theresa May<\/td>\nUK<\/td>\n$212 620<\/td>\nR2.5 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Michel Temer<\/td>\nBrazil<\/td>\n$113 000<\/td>\nR1.3 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vladamir Putin<\/td>\nRussia<\/td>\n$112 000<\/td>\nR1.3 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ram Nath Kovind<\/td>\nIndia<\/td>\n$92 400<\/td>\nR1.1 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Xi Jinping<\/td>\nChina<\/td>\n$22 000<\/td>\nR260 400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

(All salaries have been converted to US dollars and ZAR at respective rates on 15 March 2018)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Read:\u00a0This is what South Africa could look like in 2022 under Ramaphosa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s new president Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to earn a salary of R3.6 million in 2018 – easily making him one of the highest paid leaders in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":103707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9880],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-232021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wealth","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232021"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232703,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232021\/revisions\/232703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}