Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is paid handsomely by the taxpayer to essentially work part-time. The left used to mock John Key for his holidays, but they never seem to mock Ardern for all her time off.
Not only is our ‘part-time’ PM paid handsomely; she is the seventh highest-paid leader in the world! In first place earning NZ$2,407,255 is Lee Hsien Loong, the Prime Minister of Singapore. Hard working and high achieving Donald Trump is in fourth place earning NZ$598,000 a year. He is followed by the Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison, and Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany.
Jacinda Ardern earns NZ$471,049 per year, which makes her the fifth highest-paid leader in all the OECD countries. Talk about a gender pay gap! She does less and achieves less but gets paid more. quote.
[…] In 2017, Statistics New Zealand reported New Zealanders were earning an average of $50,000 in salaries and wages, meaning the Prime Minister earns nearly 10 times as much as the average Kiwi.
Imagine a job where you get to waste time doing magazine shoots and visiting schools and resthomes for photo opportunities rather than concentrating on running the country and going to important political meetings.
Imagine a job where you hand over all the policy-making to working groups at a cost of millions of dollars because you and your party didn’t manage to come up with any policies while you spent 9 years in opposition.
Imagine leaving your deputy leader to all the real work in your absence while you swan around getting all the glory and having play dates with your favourite singers.
Now imagine pulling in $471,049 a year. Nice work if you can get it huh.