If the ministers and civl servants deserve a pay raise, I believed there are others in other professions who deserve more than what they are getting now too.
Do take a look at the pay of television producers / directors in our national tv station especially those who are doing the non-English and non-Mandarin programmes. It's really way below market rate, and for some, with the amount of quality work and time that they put in, their pay is lower than that of an equally oustanding primary school teacher's salary, and the teacher had less working years as compared to the producer. It's true. I'm not kidding. Therefore, in this instance, it's not really true that civil servants pay are lower than some individuals in the private or statutory sectors. Well, maybe the other organisations are not paying them accordingly and so many have either left, or continue to suffer in silence.
I think that early childhood teachers pay also deserve to be given a scrutiny especially if the teachers come with bachelor or master degrees and years of experience. Based on some salary of preschool teachers, it really does not help to pay their bills so they may have to take on extra jobs like giving tuition...or if their hubby (if they are married) can afford it.
Passion cannot be the answer to the kind of pay these people are getting all the time. I'm sure our deserving ministers and civil servants are passionate about their jobs too.
