Members of Parliament admit the latest annual pay hike bringing their base salaries close to $150,000 a year, with generous perks and an enviable pension plan thrown in, could spark a public reaction.

"Canadians will probably look at it and many of them would say 'that is quite excessive'," admitted Calgary MP Deepak Obhrai.

Alberta MP Myron Thompson, one of the original 1993 Reform Party MPs who is now a Conservative, added "as far as I'm concerned, it's plenty."

The increase took effect April 1 and garnered little attention, following the previous Parliament's decision to tie MP salary hikes to a broad industrial average increase that this time around was only 2.4 per cent.

But after a 2001 change to the way MPs were paid, the incremental increases have brought their base salaries to $147,700 this year, a $3,400 hike from last year alone and more than double the base salary of $65,000 MPs were earning only five years ago.

The head of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says it is time for Parliament to review salaries again and lower them.

"We're starting from a base that's already too high, that's already beyond public expectations," said federation director John Williamson, noting MPPs at Queen's Park in Toronto, whose ridings are identical to the 106 federal ridings in the province, are paid between $85,000 and $90,000 annually.

Federal cabinet posts and Commons positions come with bonus pay. Even a lowly vice-chairman of a committee, who might fill in for the full chairman two or three times a year, gets an additional $5,400 a year.

From the prime minister down to committee vice-chairmen, nearly half of all MPs, 152, receive additional salaries.

Each committee has a chairman and two vice-chairmen. There are House leaders and deputy House leaders, whips and deputy whips -- even an assistant deputy chairman of the Commons committee of the whole -- all getting additional salaries on top of their base pay.

Although the 2001 overhaul included elimination of a $26,000 annual tax-free expense allowance for each MP, which was converted into a taxable equivalent and added to the base salary, a replacement expense allowance has now climbed to $20,000.

The expense allowance covers an apartment in Ottawa, with an additional miscellaneous expense allowance of roughly $8,000 available from their office budgets.

MPs say take-home pay after tax and pension deductions is now roughly $75,000 a year just from the base salary -- $6,250 a month in the bank.

On top of the $147,700 base salary, additional salaries are:

- $147,700 for the prime minister, Stephen Harper.

- $70,800 for the Speaker, Peter Milliken.

- $70,800 for the official Opposition leader, Bill Graham.

- $70,800 for cabinet ministers.

- $50,400 for the other two party leaders, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe.

- $36,800 for House leaders

- $14,900 for Parliamentary secretaries.

- $14,900 for the assistant deputy chair of the committee of the whole.

- $10,500 for committee chairs.

Parliament recesses for at least one week each month, with two weeks off in March for school break, at least a week for Easter, a three-month recess for summer and a six-week break for the Christmas holiday period. MPs say they use the time for work in their ridings.