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Prime Minister to be paid more than US president

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will get a 3.5 per cent pay rise, boosting his salary to $607,520.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will get a 3.5 per cent pay rise, boosting his salary to $607,520. Photo: Getty

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will become the third-highest-paid world leader, thanks to a pay rise that pushes his salary above that of US President Joe Biden.

It will be the first time in history an Australian PM earns more than their US counterpart.

All federal politicians will get a 3.5 per cent pay rise after a decision from the independent Remuneration Tribunal on June 17. That means an uplift of $20,570 a year for Albanese, from July 1.

The base salary for MPs will increase by about $8000, bringing the minimum pay of a backbencher to $233,660 per year.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s pay will rise by $14,640, bringing his annual salary to $432,280.

Albanese’s salary will rise to $607,520, the equivalent of about $US403,000.

The US president is paid $US400,000 a year, a figure that has remained unchanged since 2001 when George W Bush was in the White House.

Only two world leaders will earn more than Albanese.

The world’s second-highest-paid head of government is Switzerland’s Viola Amherd. She earns $823,000 as president of Switzerland, a role that rotates annually between members of the country’s seven-member Federal Council.

Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong is by far the highest-paid politician in the world. He earns about $2.5 million a year to govern the island nation of six million people.

The Canberra pay rise also means Australian MPs will become the second-highest-paid legislators in the world.

The 3.5 per cent salary bump nudges them ahead of Israeli MPs, who earn about $232,000 a year, but is still short of the $263,000 paid to US congress members.

The Remuneration Tribunal said in its review statement that its primary focus was to provide competitive remuneration for public offices to “attract and retain people of calibre”.

The tribunal said the pay rise was lower than the overall 4.1 per cent wage inflation across the Australian workforce.

– AAP

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