Should deputies still be self-employed, one asks
Monday 10th January 2011, 2:29PM GMT.
STATES members’ self-employed status should be reviewed, according to one deputy.
Deputy Mike Garrett (pictured) believes the current situation could deter people from standing for a seat in government.
‘I’m not necessarily asking for more money,’ he said.
‘But when you consider the fact that States members are self-employed and have to pay their own stamps it does not make it a particularly attractive package.’
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Non-interesting point via Dep Garrett – having had a look at the list of our local Reps, it seems to me that very few are dependant on Deputy salaries – self employed or otherwise, I believe Dep Garrett earned his crust as a messenger for Credit Suisse before getting his now day job,so he must be better off.
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Totally agree with him. Pay peanuts and get monkeys. Like it or not the wage for deputies is not at all realistic.
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And the answer is NO as its purely a way to lessen personal taxation whilst being a Govt Employee.
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Stilleto-I think ur research was limited, I believe he was in hotel trade for the majority of his working life. I dnt say this often but I agree with him, by being elected they’re effectively employed by the people and as such should be treated as employees not self employed, as far as soc sec contributions ate concerned any how. I think they should not be entitled to the same “gold plated” pension as civil servants as most have other sources of income thru business, or are indeed retired from their careers.
It is shocking that there is a vast sum of civil servants earning more then all the deputies, if we want top politicians, we need to pay the money!
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I just want to shed a bit of light on this from a Deputies point of view. the salary we are paid is decided by an independent pay review panel, the present rate of pay was set in 2007 and was frozen for four years, in other words the life time of this parliament. The salary is made up of separate amounts; There is the pay element, which is the wage for the job. All deputies get a basic salary of £22,000 per year; in addition we also get £2,000 a year to cover expenses. If you are a Minister you receive on top of that £15,000 a year “special responsibility” allowance bringing the total package for a Minister to £39,000.
The expense allowance at £40 quid a week is fair, although that does include all your phone charges which can be fairly substantial over the course of a month. The £2,000 allowance also has to cover things like computer ink, paper, envelopes, postage all the things you need to run an office at home. I pay about £8,000 per year in income tax and Social Security payments (we pay the full self employed rate) out of that salary, although the expense allowance is not taxed. I worked it out once on the average hours I work, it came to slightly less than £10 per hour. I know many of you don’t believe it but the majority of Deputies work extremely hard for what is a very modest salary for a member of a parliament. We do not set our own salary levels despite popular belief and I know from my friends and from what some of my parishioners tell me that they would not work the hours or take the flack we take for such a sum. I am not complaining, I am just pointing out the facts of the matter.
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