Holness defends massive pay hike for politicians

Seeking to fend off the avalanche of criticisms over the massive pay increase he and other politicians have received, Prime Minister Andrew Holness says there will be greater interest in the political field as a result of the salary adjustments announced for the political directorate under the new public-sector-compensation regime.

"Everyone who is occupying a political office ought to be thinking very carefully that I need to increase my political performance, because there are many young people out there now who have started to look at entering the political field with higher educational qualifications, higher skill level, and higher competencies," Holness said.

Under the new regime, prime ministers are set to pocket more than $126 million in salary for each five-year term they serve. Ordinary members of parliament will get $62.5 million over a five-year term.

"You are going to see, as a result of this increase, an improvement in the level of entrants coming into the political field. You're also going to see an improvement in the existing occupants of the posts, because they have to now step up their game," Holness said.

The prime minister said that Cabinet agonised over whether they should get a pay raise.

"We sat in the Cabinet, and we agonised whether or not we should even take any increase. We agonised over it; it's not something that we took lightly, because we know that there are persons who will try to make political fodder over it," Holness said.

Cabinet ministers have received a 231 per cent increase in salary up to April 1, 2024 with their pay moving from $6.9 million in 2021 to $22.9 million next year.