When he became the youngest political assistant in then chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's administration in 2008, Paul Chan Chi-yuen asked himself a question: was he really worth his monthly pay of HK$134,150?
'I thought about that, but it was approved by the [Legislative Council's] finance committee,' Chan said when asked on Commercial Radio yesterday whether he had misgivings about his pay.
'I didn't know very well how the pay scale was determined ... looking back, I should have learned more about it,' the former political assistant for food and health said.
Chan was just 28 when he was one of nine political assistants hired as part of Tsang's effort to expand the political appointment system.
At the time, lawmakers and civil servants urged the government to review the pay levels of political assistants, who were earning HK$134,150 to HK$163,960 a month. They argued that the assistants' salaries far exceeded their level of their professional experience.
Prior to taking the government post, Chan was earning much less as a senior research assistant at City University.
'It is difficult for someone who did that job to say if his or her own pay was high or not,' he said.