In a bizarre turn of events, members of the Danish Parliament have agreed the newly proposed pay rise for ministers and MPs is too steep, reports TV2.

Earlier today, Politiken reported that a broad majority in Parliament intended to pass a proposal of the Remuneration Commission that suggested MPs and ministers get 15 percent higher wages this year.

Mayors were supposed to get 30 percent more.

Hefty salaries
However, Enhedslisten and SF have called the pay rise “totally disproportionate” and said politicians already “earn hefty salaries”, so “it’s unnecessary to raise” their wages even higher.

Konservative, Venstre and the Socialdemokraterne eventually followed suit and decided to reject the proposal in its current form.

Lower pensions
The current salary of Danish MPs is 660,000 kroner per year and ministers get between 1.17 and 1.46 million kroner.

The Remuneration Commission based its proposal on wage statistics from the past 10 years, claiming the salaries of senior managers in the public sector have increased even more.

To compensate for the generous pay rise, the commission proposed to lower MPs’ pensions, matching the rates with labour market standards, so that the politicians would receive about 17-18 percent of their basic salary.