Premier gets monthly allowance of $15k on top of salary
(CNS): Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly could be officially receiving more cash per month than any other leader in the world despite being elected to office by just 266 voters in the country’s smallest constituency of Cayman Brac East. According to parliament, the premier is receiving CI$15,000 in allowances on top of her salary, which, given the length of time she has served as an MP, could be well over $20,000 per month in salary and allowances before benefits.
Overall, the premier is receiving at least CI$35,000 in monetary earnings and allowances in addition to regular benefits such as healthcare and pension. This means that she is taking home more money than both the British prime minister and the American president, who was believed to be the highest-paid leader in the world, earning around US$400,000 per year.
While PM Kier Starmer and President Joe Biden enjoy a massive range of benefits in their jobs, when it comes to cash, O’Connor-Connolly is among the highest-paid heads of government in the world.
While the actual earnings of each individual MP in Cayman remain under wraps, according to the schedule of the Parliament Management Act, the premier’s salary is graded as A5 based on the civil service scale, which is the very highest earning bracket. That is a monthly salary of CI$19,575.
However, O’Connor-Connolly was elected to parliament in 1996. This means that she would have received various increments over the last 28 years, which are likely to have pushed her premiership salary beyond the highest of the public sector pay grades.
She is also receiving the most allowances. As well as receiving her $5,000 per month constituency allowance to cover the costs of an office and staff for her constituency work, she receives another $5,000 per month to cover the cost of accommodation and travel between her seat on the Brac and Grand Cayman. In addition, she receives an additional $5,000 per month executive allowance for her position as premier, which has no restrictions on how it can be spent.
It has not gone unnoticed that since O’Connor-Connolly took over last year as premier, she has appeared in public in a wide variety of apparently new and increasingly extravagant outfits. Several readers contacted CNS about whether or not the premier had a clothing allowance and what that allowance is. However, the parliament has confirmed that neither the premier nor any other member of the House receives a clothing allowance.
Most MPs receive only a $5,000 monthly constituency allowance. Moses Kirkconnell, the other MP for the Sister Islands, also receives the travel and accommodation allowance. O’Connor-Connolly, as premier, is the only member to receive the additional $5,000 executive allowance.
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Category: Politics
How much of that $15k line item goes toward a stylist to remake her dressing and image of the worst dressed leader in the Western Hemisphere.
and doesn’t spend a single penny on mirrors, apparently….
Me and my family of three could live quite well and even save quite a bit if we were earning even $5,000/month. Of course, if addition to that, we didn’t have to pay for health care and travel, why that amount would make us positively rich.
She is the female version of Mac. God she is even starting to look like him. Vile
Disgusting
We have homeless Caymanian individuals and families, kids that dont have food to eat, single mothers who work hard and have to leave their kids late at night with family and friends. Ms. O’Connor-Connolly where is your conscious? How could you live in such extravagance? Even if you don’t care about your fellow Caymanians, you recite bible quotes I ask you would/did Jesus do this? Please have a heart. Its time to give back to community. CNS – Thank you for this article, its eye opening and I sincerely hope you publish more of these articles where elected officials are held accountable.
The woman has no conscience.
all that money and still;
no beach
no dump solution
no public transport system
no modern green energy policy
No respect of the conservation law
No progress
should be called JulianNO NOconNOr ConNOlly
And she is leader of a territory not a country ( country being a sovereign political entity)
Our “territory” is infinitely more successful than your “country”. <3
But like Wales and Scotland we are indeed a Nation, albeit a nation territory. Duh
She used to do a lot of Shopping sorry, I mean Official trips to exotic places where she pretended she was doing essential Government business, has she stopped that?
She needs someone else to do her shopping by the looks of her clothes….
One of those curtains could feed 10 families for 2 weeks.
There are several words that adequately expresses my reaction … revolting, disgusting, and a few others. This gives “highway robbery” new meaning. We need a clean sweep at next year’s Election!
Alden and Wayne and Mac all got the same benefits (minus the Brac expenses). Where was the concern then ? I gues sthey are men and men run tings….na tru?
Not true
Recall that the first thing that the PACT government that JuJu was part of did when they first got power – they gave themselves a massive pay increase – and they have been sucking more and more of our money from the trough every month since then.
incorrect! That raise was implemented by Alden right before the election.
Rubbish – The first PACT government’s finance committee motion to vastly increase MP’s pay was passed 21 July 2021 in the first few months of the PACT administration. Other politicians may have gone along with the PACT scheme out of self-interest but it was PACT that voted in the completely undeserved vastly increased remuneration for MPs
The PACT finance committee motion was to fund the DDITIONAL money that the Alden led Government had committed the country to in the legislation from Oct 2020!
You can have your own opinion but not your own facts!
Voluminous clothes doth not a worthy woman make!
My understanding is Wayne did not take the extra “perks”? This woman needs to go NOW! $35k a month to bankrupt the country with vanity projects?
proof?
I was wondering what happened to my yellow velvet curtain…
Yea, lost curtains, and I missing a chenille bedspread too.
Four short months from now and it’ll be curtains for JuJu.
She’s already wearing them (the curtains).
What da governor say she fighting against corruption. Right 15K 4 what obviously not from the look of that blue drape she wearing and her helmet .
it’s always the ones shouting Jesus at the top of the lungs that are the most vile.
Yep, if you need a guy in the sky to make you feel like you are a good human then you are probably not a good human.
caymanians elect these people so you have no-one else to blame but yourselves.
and to make things worse, you also prevent the most qualified and successful people on island from being elected…
welcome to wonderland.
Tell me your view of the choices the Brac has had.
I would have gone for Elvis
9.56am Why dont you spell it out? You feel expats should be elected to run these Islands.
Caymanians who travel outside the islands other than on government business and first generation Caymanians with clean criminal records might be a good starting point. Hell, Caymanians without criminal records would be an advance. A threshold IQ test may be an idea as well.
Correct!
Its not whether the person is an expat, a permanent resident, a first generation Caymanian (like Chris Johnson for example)or a multi generational Caymanian that’s the issue. Its the honesty and competence. ‘End of the day the voters still get to choose. But by confining the pool of candidates to the last category we seem to have very little to choose from. Or to use your logic, we should keep letting crooks and idiots ru the country just because they are multi generational?
If you we recalled not one single voter voted for her to be premier. Sad Wayne sold his soul to make an independent government and this is the outcome. There’s no Robin Hood here just thieves!!
don’t hate the player ..hate the game.
any comment ppm?
any comment Mrs governor?
any comment chamber of commerce?
these are the real questions
For groceries, clearly.
Take out, more likely.
Time to look at preschool education, Honorable Premier. Hang your hats on going out with a fantastic legacy: start funding child care options with staff on a living wage.
She should use her allowance for a good personal trainer.
Jon Jon got the connections for dat
“Very few of us are what we seem.”~Agatha Christie
The capital of Cayman Brac will soon be Watering Place. That is the only area that she helps. She just moved the New Year’s family event that has always been at Scott’s Dock to Watering Place. A lot of money has been spent decorating it. And like someone else said her family is in control of government contracts.
In control of more than that
so our premier gets paid more than the president of a country who’s income tax paying population is greater by approx 410,000%
Good quality curtains are expensive these days
Especially black out ones.
Money well spent on the blackout option, we can only thank God for that small mercy.
Oooh how does that statement go again. It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Line your pockets politicians then disappear after doing nothing. Sounds about right
That blue outfit is absolutely awful, and I’ve worn my fair share of terrible clothes.
Also, yeah, she needs to go. Waste of money in so many ways.