Being a head of state (or head of government, as the case may be) is a job that many aspire to and few actually get to do. Normally, it involves long hours, tremendous levels of pressure and responsibility, and relatively little salary, at least compared to what someone at the head of a large corporation might make. With that in mind, it may be interesting to take a look at who the highest-paid world leaders are right now, as well as how much they make per year (all figures are in US Dollars):
Édouard Philippe, Prime Minister of France: $220,505
Jimmy Morales, President of the Republic of Guatemala: $227,099
Leo Varadkar, Taoiseach of Ireland: $234,447
Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland: $242,619
Stefan Löfven, Prime Minister of Sweden: $244,615
Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark: $249,774
Adrian Hasler, Prime Minister of the Principality of Liechtenstein: $254,660
Charles Michel, Prime Minister of Belgium: $262,964
Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada: $267,041
Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa: $273,470
Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg: $278,035
Sebastian Kurz, Chancellor of Austria: $328,584
Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, President of Mauritania: $330,000
Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand: $339,862
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany: $369,727
Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia: $378,415
Donald Trump, President of the United States: $400,000
Ueli Maurer, President of the Swiss Confederation: $482,958
Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of Hong Kong: $568,400
Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore: $1,610,000
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
You might be forgiven for wondering, after taking a look at the above list, "why Singapore?" There is probably a host of reasons why Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (pictured with President Trump above) is the highest-paid world leader on Earth, but some have made the argument that his big salary is in one way a benefit to the citizens of Singapore, as according to the Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, Singapore ranks as possibly the least corrupt country in the world. It might also be pointed out that Singapore has the highest cost of living in the world, too.
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