Just had the new pay rates for next year.
An Assembly Members salary from 01/04/07 will be £46,496
AMs who are also MPs or MEPs £61,995
First minister £123,392
Presiding Officer £86,435
Leader of largest party not represented in Cabinet £86,435
Deputy Presiding Officer £71,617
Chairs of subject and audit committees £52,315
If you think your politicians are paid too much (or too little) let me know.
8 comments:
AM's and MP's should be paid at the national average with Ministers being paid twice that level as they have the additional responsibility of their Departments. The advantage of this is that we can put off those politicians that are only there for the money as well as providing an incentive to increase the general prosperity of Wales - the higher the average salary the more they earn.
With the current public mood of cynicysm towards politicians, I suspect that this would be quite a popular policy.
The average salary in Wales is about 22k.
Glad to see Rhodri Morgan putting clear red water between himself and the working classes:)
The pay that AM's get is crap in comparison to what they would earn if they hadn't given up their "professional lives" in order to serve the people of Wales.
Dafydd El, Nick Bourne and Rhodri Morgan are senior academics; their earnings (and their pensions) would be much bigger if they had stuck with academia.
Dai Lloyd and Brian Gibbons are both GP's. GP's get about three times as much pay as AMs.
Alun Cairns gave up a lucrative career in banking to become a backbench AM.
Glyn and Brynle are still farmers who probably get more income from subsidies than they get from Assembly Membership, but they probably have to fork out more than their AM salary to pay the employees who run their farms whilst they absent themselves in "The Bay" looking after us.
The only person I can think of in the Assembly who earns a lot more now than s/he did or could have earned in a former life is Ann Jones, a former fire station clerk. But if Ann loses her seat in May she will become unemployable. Who wants a mere secretary who has had the power, experience and connections of being an AM?
We have our politicians on the cheap in Wales, and on the whole (party politics aside) we have been fortunate. I can't think of more than five "bum" politicians who have represented us in the last 100 years. We should be grateful for our champions of democracy and show them a lot more appreciation than we do!
Alwyn, I run my farm business at 'break even' because I try to run it is he interests of wildlife.
Bit unfair on Ann Jones, who is well qualified to take over as Rhyl FCs manager in she loses out to Matt Wright in Vale of Clwyd.
Rod has an interesting adea in introducing performance bonus linked to economic success - or maybe carbon emission reduction success. Have to think about this.
This is going slightly off-topic - I hope Glyn doesn't mind.
Alwyn, I am not sure if you comments about Ann Jones are intended as a criticism. I hope they are not.
Ann Jones, Brynle Williams and Carl Sargeant (interestingly, all from North Wales) do so much to enhance the Assembly.
Along with Glyn they bring a much needed dose of common sense to the Assembly. And I believe they are far more "in tune" with the concerns of the electorate than some of their colleagues.
How awful would it be if every AM was an academic/tutor, a lawyer, or a doctor? The "crachach" establishment would have an even tighter grip on place.
I very much agree with the general point paul makes. The political establishment is far too impressed with politicians who can answer questions without saying anything - which is not tolerated in life outside politics. There is nothing more insulting than when someone tells me that I have just given a good 'political' answer. Same thing as accusing me of lying.
The big problem with politics is that its far too much about politicians talking to politicians and not about connecting with the public. And I think that MPs are worse than AMS for this.
And I think the salary levels are about right - reflecting workload and responsibility.
paul said...
Alwyn, I am not sure if you comments about Ann Jones are intended as a criticism. I hope they are not.
Quite the opposite, the point that I was trying to make is that Ann, like most of our AMs and MPs has made a career sacrifice to become a public servant.
How many "senior academics", particularly those aged over 65, earn £123,000 a year?
Perhaps AMs should get more to reflect their new powers after May - especially if they have to work Mondays or sit three days a week.
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