Job pays too little, says Merkel rival The opposition politician hoping to unseat Angela Merkel next year has taken the risky step of declaring the German chancellor's €250,000 salary too low. Peer Steinbrück, chosen by the Social Democrat party to challenge Ms Merkel in the general election next year, said money "does not provoke erotic feelings in me" but noted that the director of a regional savings bank was paid more than than the chancellor. "The chancellor earns too little in Germany given the performance that she or he must demonstrate compared to other positions with far less responsibility and much greater salaries," Mr Steinbrück, a former finance minister, said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. 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. Other politicians from the left-of-centre SPD and Ms Merkel's Christian Democrats were quick to distance themselves from Mr Steinbrück's comments. Gerhard Schröder, the former SPD chancellor, said he had always managed to live off the chancellor's salary. "Anyone who finds a politician's pay too low can of course look for another career," said Mr Schröder, who himself faced criticism for accepting a lucrative post as chairman of the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, controlled by Russia's Gazprom, shortly after stepping down in 2005. The average annual pay for a full-time employee in Germany is €40,620, according to official statistics. Ms Merkel's salary as chancellor consists of a monthly pay cheque of nearly €18,000 plus a reduced salary as member of the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. Mr Steinbrück said he believed some of the criticism from "guardians of virtue" about the pay of German MPs was "grotesque and harmful to political engagement." "Just about every savings bank director in North Rhine Westphalia earns more than the chancellor," he said. Members of the Bundestag work nearly seven days a week, on average 12 to 13 hours [a day]. Debating politicians" pay is not new in Germany. Helmut Kohl, the chancellor who oversaw German reunification in 1990, is said to have grumbled that every dentist earned more than the chancellor. Nonetheless, the German chancellor's salary compares favourably with those of other democratic leaders. British prime ministers earn £142,000 (€173,550)) including their MP's salary. Dutch prime ministers are paid about €145,000, while at the top of the pay peer group the basic pay of the US president is $400,000 (€303,000). A date has yet to be set for the German federal election but it is due in September or October. The SPD is trailing Ms Merkel's CDU by some 10 percentage points in the opinion polls but is hoping to exploit the weakness of the Free Democrat party that is ruling in coalition with the CDU to make inroads along with its likely partners, the Greens. Mr Steinbrück worked closely with the famously frugal Ms Merkel when he was finance minister in a previous coalition, but he said he had not held a private conversation with her since then. His plain-speaking style has won him some supporters. His main policy proposal thus far has been a separation of retail and investment banking that would hit Deutsche Bank, the country's biggest bank. But he is said to suffer from low approval ratings among women, a fact he appeared to acknowledge. "Angela Merkel is popular because she has a woman's bonus," Mr Steinbrück said. That is not my disadvantage, but her advantage.