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Comment by dmurray | Hacker News Reader

The Dutch Prime Minister gets paid €186k annually [0]. He has 13 years of tenure in this role and 22 years total in the politics industry [1].

I'd hope a high performing, vastly experienced engineer in NL could aspire to that, though they might not get the same benefits or future opportunities.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_the_Netherla...

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rutte

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A prime minister usually has quite good offers after the political career. Rutte has been trying to get the leader role for NATO, for example, which is probably a step up in salary (?)

Is that a universal rule that experienced engineers salaries should be similar to heads of state? I'm not grasping the connection...

It's fairly universal that politicians are underpaid relative to the level of responsibility they hold.

I'd quite like my country (UK) to be run by folk who are competent, rather than by only those who can afford to run for office without being paid for it. Yes, MPs get a lot more than the median income. But many people who are well-qualified to be MPs are also well-qualified to hold roles that pay at least as well if not more, and without needing to run for election to get the job.

Taking the CoL in NL, particularly the Randstad area, that salary is not outrageous. Especially, if you're a new expat on a single income, without any social net, and with any hopes of owning property, within a reasonable commute distance from your work.

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