MPs currently receive a basic salary of £98,599 set annually by the independent IPSA body, plus a defined benefit pension scheme, severance pay and separate expenses for office and staffing costs. Median full-time UK earnings stand at around £39,000. Proposals to link politicians' remuneration to median wages or GDP per capita have been debated for years as a way to align incentives with public prosperity.
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6 Opinions
Their wages should be cut to same as a working mans. So they know how a working man lives
This would achieve nothing. In most cases, the system's problem isn't a lack of empathy; it is structural. Climbing the greasy pole requires new ideas. That costs money. And inevitably means fixing things which aren't broken. It also involves not fixing broken things which resist being fixed. Judge policy success by numbers and promote accordingly. I want MPs focused. Pay them and their staff well to attract the best people. 1st Class, limos, jets... whatever works.
Yes, although with reservations. We should attract the country’s best minds into government, not drive them towards better-paid private careers. Ideally, I’d prefer a transparent, independently benchmarked system linked to GDP or national prosperity, rewarding MPs when the country prospers. However, given governments’ ability to massage statistics, pegging pay to median incomes may be the simpler and more accountable option.
No if it means paying them a median wage. Yes if it means increasing by the same percentage that median wage increases.
Their pay should be linked to the country’s GDP and growth. If the country prospers they do, if in recession they lose
Higher pay will not attract talent since there will always be higher paying occupations that outcompete for those just after high earnings.