Peer Steinbrück, Angela Merkel’s rival, says German chancellor job doesn’t pay enough

Peer Steinbrück, the Social Democrat who’ll be running against Angela Merkel for the job of Germany’s chancellor in elections next September, has complained that the position does not pay enough, Reuters reported.

“A German chancellor does not earn enough based on the performance that is required of her or him compared with the jobs of others who have far less responsibility and far more pay," he said in an interview published today in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper, according to Reuters. "Nearly every savings bank director in North Rhine-Westphalia earns more than the chancellor does.”

Angela Merkel currently earns €250,000 a year, the Financial Times reported.

According to the Financial Times:

His intervention on such a politically fraught subject as politicians’ pay in the middle of a period of austerity is all the more extraordinary as Mr Steinbrück has spent the last few months fighting bad publicity linked to revelations that he has earned €1.25m from corporate speaking engagements since stepping down as finance minister in 2009.

Steinbrück quickly came under fire from several German politicians, including former chancellor Gerhard Schröder, for his comments, Reuters reported.

"In my view politicians in Germany are adequately compensated," Schröder, who has endorsed Steinbrück as the SPD candidate, told Bild am Sonntag newspaper, Reuters reported. "I was certainly always able to live off the pay. And anyone who doesn't feel it's enough pay can always look for another job."

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