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MPs are in for a boost in pay today, with Prime Minister Helen Clark set to get a 4 per cent rise that takes her basic salary to $317,200.
The Remuneration Authority today gazettes the payrises, which will lift the basic salary of a backbench MP to $113,300 -- an increase
of 3 per cent.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen now earns $226,700, an increase of $8700.
Opposition leader Don Brash has gone up $7800 to $202,800, a rise also accorded to Cabinet ministers and Speaker Jonathan Hunt.
Party leaders are on a basic of $124,200, which increases on a sliding scale, depending on how many MPs they have.
An MP's basic salary is boosted by travel allowances, and superannuation contributions.
Those benefits lift a backbencher's total package to about $150,000.
Whips and select committee chairs are paid more than backbench MPs, with the vast majority of 51 Labour MPs earning more than a backbench package.
- NZPA
