What is fair pay for a politician?

Photo: CBS Communications
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After serving as the Danish Minister of Defence for 93 days, Carl Holst received nearly DKK 1.8 million in remuneration. And serving as minister for a single year results in a lifelong ministerial pension. These conditions create headlines in the media, which according to some debaters undermines the legitimacy of politicians.

Societally the issue revolves around what people are willing to pay politicians to defend their interests, and what advantages and potential earnings are associated with being a politician. In terms of research, the core issues involve political science, as they concern the social contract between elected representatives and politicians.

Professor Holm Pedersen from the Department of Business and Politics at CBS, jointly with a team of fellow scientists from, among others, KORA, the Danish Institute for Local and Regional Government Research, will address the above questions in the “Rewards at the top” project, supported by over DKK 6 million from the Danish Council for Independent Research.

“We hope to be able to contribute to the debate on the salaries of politicians, the decreasing trust in politicians and the crisis of democracy. It’s already a popular discussion, and we would like to create a field of research focusing on the negatives and the positives associated with top political positions,” explains Holm Pedersen.

The project will involve an analysis of the preferences of the population and politicians concerning different types of rewards, but also an examination of the visible and less visible rewards related to being a politician before and after employment as an elected representative. The project will be based on registry data, surveys with politicians and the public, and on qualitative interviews.

Using registry data will allow the researchers to study the visible and less visible benefits and drawbacks affiliated with being a politician, but also permit them to consider, for example, the costs – regarding health and family – involved in working as a politician.

“In international terms, it’s a unique set of data that is not readily available elsewhere, and it’s also of a high quality,” Holm Pedersen adds.

Holm Pedersen emphasises that the aim of the project is not to establish how much politicians should earn in monetary terms. It is a complex area that involves a delicate balance. According to Holm Pedersen, the balance rests on the idea that a salary that is too low can lead to corruption, but that, on the other hand, politicians should not earn too much because they should live like ordinary people. Moreover, the discussion also balances on the idea that too high a salary can lead to a feeling of disgust toward politicians, but recruiting politicians can be difficult if the salary is too low.

“Studying the salaries of politicians is an issue that involves closely examining a basic tenet of democracy: the relationship between politicians and the public,” she says, adding that this is why she expects a broad interest in the project’s findings as they are produced over the next four years.

Please direct any questions to Lene Holm Pedersen.