An 18.8 per cent rise in government salaries for senators and MPs will go into effect tomorrow.

The House of Assembly approved an increase in legislative salaries for the first time in 17 years last week.

David Burt, the Premier, said that the rise would make the position attractive to members of the public and could entice them to get involved in politics.

He added that the rise would keep up with the cost of living and reflect the work that many ministers put into their jobs.

Mr Burt said: “I understand that discussions around salary adjustments for elected officials are often met with scepticism.

“These adjustments aren’t about financial gain for members, but they are about fairness and recognition of the evolving roles and the increased demands for those who serve the public of Bermuda.”

The pay rise was recommended by the independent Salaries Review Board when it convened last November.

The board further recommended an additional $7,000 per year for MPs and to reverse a 10 per cent voluntary pay cut made for Cabinet ministers in 2011.

Senators will now receive an annual salary of $36,076, while members of the House of Assembly will receive $73,555.

Officers of the legislature will receive additional salaries ranging from $3,625 to $184,152, depending on their position.

In the event that the Premier or Deputy Premier also serves as the Minister of Finance, the larger salary would be taken.

Mr Burt pointed out that the last ministerial pay rise was in 2009 after a recommendation was made two years earlier.

He told the House that the demands on ministers had increased “significantly”, and that ministers worked in “an era of heightened public scrutiny”.

He added that governance was best carried out by those with specialised knowledge in the ministers’ fields and that their payment should reflect that.

Mr Burt said: “The proposed adjustments recognise these realities and ensure that remuneration fairly reflects the workload and expectations that have been placed on those who serve as officers of the legislature.”

Jarion Richardson, the Opposition leader, said that the timing of the pay raise was poor and should be held off.

He said: “The cost of leadership is that we eat last and that we put others before ourselves.

“That is sacrifice. That is solidarity.”

Mr Richardson said that members of the public were still struggling to make ends meet with rising living costs.

He added that with fewer than half of Bermuda’s voters participating in the General Election in February, faith in the Government was already low and could suffer more.

Douglas De Couto, the Shadow Minister of Finance, backed Mr Richardson’s comments.

He recognised that many of his colleagues went out of their way to help around their communities.

However, Dr De Couto said that many were “picking up the slack” for things that government offices should be doing, such as infrastructural maintenance.

He added: “If we want to talk about real reform, Mr Speaker, perhaps we can provide an allowance to MPs, specifically to fund those kinds of activities, if we thought that was indeed the proper role of the Member of Parliament.”

Progressive Labour Party backbencher Lawrence Scott said that salaries were not only motivators for people running for politics but necessary in case MPs lost their jobs.

He cited losing a job over what he claimed were his political affiliations ‒ although last year the Human Rights Tribunal rejected unfair dismissal in the matter.

Mr Scott told MPs that he would have been “destitute” without his parliamentary salary.

Mr Scott said that many jobs also had starting salaries comparable to ministerial salaries.

He pointed out that a job listing for an assistant cook for the Government had a starting salary of $62,000, while a senior administrative police officer started at $74,000.

Mr Scott’s comments reflected Mr Burt’s earlier remarks that permanent secretaries and financial secretaries made more than their ministers and would continue to do so after the pay rise.