{"id":233483,"date":"2018-03-25T18:45:36","date_gmt":"2018-03-25T16:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=233483"},"modified":"2018-03-25T18:51:17","modified_gmt":"2018-03-25T16:51:17","slug":"does-ramaphosa-deserve-a-massive-salary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/233483\/does-ramaphosa-deserve-a-massive-salary\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Ramaphosa deserve a R3.6 million salary?"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa\u2019s new president Cyril Ramaphosa is\u00a0expected to earn a salary of R3.6 million in 2018<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 easily making him one of the best paid leaders in the world.<\/p>\n

Of the many criticisms, analysts have said a large salary hike (25% higher than Zuma\u2019s salary) at a time when South Africa is experiencing a massive budget shortfall, and needs to cut spending \u2013 especially with an already bloated government wage bill \u2013 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\u2019t really need to earn so much.<\/p>\n

But many critics of the proposed salary levels have questioned whether or not the president – and whoever serves in that role – deserves such a high salary at all, given the size of and state of the economy over which he governs.<\/p>\n

Two ways to better compare the levels of presidential salaries is to view them in the context of a country’s GDP and average salaries paid to workers.<\/p>\n

Note: the salary for Ramaphosa is only proposed in the budget, and will still have to pass through and be approved by Parliament.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Salary vs GDP<\/strong><\/p>\n

While all the presidential salaries make up a small proportion of overall GDP, it’s clear that Singapore, Hong Kong and South Africa pay the biggest proportional salaries by this metric.<\/p>\n

According to data from the World Bank, South Africa and Singapore have similar GDPs, but the Singaporean prime minister gets paid more than seven times as much as the proposed salary for Ramaphosa, and accounts for 0.0007% of the country’s GDP.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s presidential salary is at 0.0001% of GDP, third under Hong Kong’s level of 0.0002%.<\/p>\n

However, a country could have a high GDP output, but also extremely large populations, which makes per capita analysis a better measure of overall wealth.<\/p>\n

In both the GDP analyses (GDP and GDP per capita), it is understandable for a rich country to also have a well paid president – but there are cases where a relatively poorer country (like South Africa) pays a lot more than would be expected, considering the size of its population and productive output.<\/p>\n

BusinessTech has looked at how a president’s salary compares to the GDP per capita of their country.<\/p>\n

While BRICS leader salaries appear far more modest compared to other nations on these measures, the true extent and sources of their wealth is widely questioned.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Country<\/th>\nPresident salary<\/th>\nGDP per capita ($PPP)<\/th>\nMultiple<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Singapore<\/td>\n$2 200 000<\/td>\n$87 832<\/td>\n25.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
South Africa<\/td>\n$305 000<\/td>\n$13 197<\/td>\n23.1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
India<\/td>\n$92 400<\/td>\n$6 570<\/td>\n14.1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hong Kong<\/td>\n$638 000<\/td>\n$58 618<\/td>\n10.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Australia<\/td>\n$415 000<\/td>\n$46 012<\/td>\n9.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Swiss Confederacy<\/td>\n$480 000<\/td>\n$63 889<\/td>\n7.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brazil<\/td>\n$113 000<\/td>\n$15 123<\/td>\n7.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
United States<\/td>\n$400 000<\/td>\n$57 638<\/td>\n6.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Canada<\/td>\n$266 000<\/td>\n$44 644<\/td>\n6.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Germany<\/td>\n$272 000<\/td>\n$48 860<\/td>\n5.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
France<\/td>\n$221 000<\/td>\n$41 343<\/td>\n5.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
United Kingdom<\/td>\n$212 620<\/td>\n$42 608<\/td>\n5.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Russia<\/td>\n$112 000<\/td>\n$24 789<\/td>\n4.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ireland<\/td>\n$237 000<\/td>\n$71 472<\/td>\n3.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
China<\/td>\n$22 000<\/td>\n$15 529<\/td>\n1.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source: World Bank, BusinessTech<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n

\n

Salary vs average salary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another metric to use when comparing presidential salary levels is how they stack up to the average salary in any given country. If a country’s workers are generally well paid, having a president that is well paid is not unreasonable.<\/p>\n

However if the gap between the president’s salary and the average worker’s salary is too large, it points to high levels of inequality between the those in power and those they serve.<\/p>\n

Again, South Africa’s president ranks near the top of the pile, with the proposed presidential salary over 30 times bigger than the average salary<\/strong> (Stats SA).<\/p>\n

South Africa is one of three extreme outliers here (the others being Singapore and India), and only one of five countries where there is a double-digit multiple.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Country<\/th>\nPresident salary<\/th>\nAverage salary<\/th>\nMultiple<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Singapore<\/td>\n$2 200 000<\/td>\n$58 148<\/td>\n37.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
India<\/td>\n$92 400<\/td>\n$2 460<\/td>\n37.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
South Africa<\/td>\n$305 000<\/td>\n$9 906<\/td>\n30.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brazil<\/td>\n$113 000<\/td>\n$7 850<\/td>\n14.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hong Kong<\/td>\n$638 000<\/td>\n$47 473<\/td>\n13.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Russia<\/td>\n$112 000<\/td>\n$11 724<\/td>\n9.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Swiss Confederacy<\/td>\n$480 000<\/td>\n$60 124<\/td>\n8.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Australia<\/td>\n$415 000<\/td>\n$52 063<\/td>\n8.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
United States<\/td>\n$400 000<\/td>\n$60 154<\/td>\n6.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Germany<\/td>\n$272 000<\/td>\n$46 389<\/td>\n5.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Canada<\/td>\n$266 000<\/td>\n$48 403<\/td>\n5.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
France<\/td>\n$221 000<\/td>\n$42 992<\/td>\n5.1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
United Kingdom<\/td>\n$212 620<\/td>\n$42 835<\/td>\n5.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ireland<\/td>\n$237 000<\/td>\n$51 681<\/td>\n4.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
China<\/td>\n$22 000<\/td>\n$10 685<\/td>\n2.1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source: OECD, Trading Economics, BusinessTech<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n

\n

Read:\u00a0Ramaphosa\u2019s presidential salary vs other world leaders<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Critics of the proposed R3.6 million salary for president Cyril Ramaphosa have questioned whether he deserves such a high salary, given the size of and state of the economy over which he governs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":217097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9880],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-233483","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\/233483","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=233483"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233669,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233483\/revisions\/233669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}