Can we ever be paid enough?

weekly roundup The water-cooler topic in much of Singapore this week revolved around the pay hikes of ministers, which will climb by more than 60 percent before the end of 2008. That makes the revised S$3.1 million (US$2.03 million) annual salary of the country's prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, five times heftier than his U.S. counterpart President George W. Bush, who reportedly earns US$400,000 a year.

Not surprisingly, the announcement caused quite a stir among Singaporeans, where the crux of the debate centered on whether money should be the primary reason why one becomes a government official. Indeed, if I'd known earlier, I might not have chosen a career in journalism.

Jokes aside, should remuneration matter the most in any career?

ZDNet Asia today launched its IT Employment Trends 2007 special report, featuring a salary survey that polled some 5,000 respondents in seven Asian countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, India and the Philippines.

The survey results indicate that IT professionals in Hong Kong are the highest paid, raking in an annual pay of HK$404,144 (US$51,964), while their peers in the Philippines are the lowest paid with an annual paycheck of 536,241 peso (US$10,730). That's a pretty wide income gap, though the differing cost of living in both countries is probably a key reason for the disparity.

It would have been interesting to include this question in the survey: Is the size of your paycheck the most important component in your career decision? It would then be even more fascinating to again compare the answers between respondents in Hong Kong and the Philippines.

In other news this week, find out why tech skills alone aren't enough if you want to make it to the top. Also, Formula 1 driver Nico Rosberg discusses the importance of technology on the racetrack, and AMD chips go under the knife.