SA Senator Nick Xenophon says it is embarrassing that federal MPs have awarded themselves a $5500 salary boost, months after winning a $44,000 pay rise.

The 3 per cent pay rise, quietly handed down this week, is almost double the inflation rate and is being derided by one senior figure as the "pollies' own carbon tax compo".

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott would not be drawn on whether MP salary increases should face public hearings, as suggested by Senator Xenophon, saying he was comfortable with what he was paid.

"I never forget that the taxpayers of Australia pay my salary," Mr Abbott said.

"I think that the average Australian, those people who work hard and struggle to meet their bills at the end of the week or month, they want politicians to make their burdens easier, not heavier.

"That's my job, to reduce the burdens faced by the Australian people, and that's why I'm so determined to get rid of this carbon tax.

"Thats how I justify my salary, by working for the benefit of the Australian people every day."

Senator Xenophon today said he did not know about the pay rise and would have liked the chance to appear before the Remuneration Tribunal - which sets it - to argue against it.

He said he would move to scrap the pay rise when Parliament next sat in August.

"Coming less than a week after the parliamentary paralysis in relation to asylum seekers and only a few days after the introduction of the carbon tax, this will only fuel public anger against politicians generally," Senator Xenophon said.

"It's just embarrassing."

He said there was no good time for a politician's pay rise, but this came at an especially bad time.

Senator Xenophon said he wanted the Tribunal to be forced to hold public hearings.

"That would give key interest and community groups, as well as the public, a chance to be heard. It would also give pollies a chance to justify any change in pay," he said.

A backbencher will get an extra $106 a week, taking their salary to $190,550. Along with the March pay rise our 226 MPs are getting an average $49,640 - almost $1000 a week - more than at this time last year.

The politicians' pay bonanza comes at the same time the nation's lowest-paid workers receive an extra $17.10 a week or $890 a year.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard's salary increases by $14,430 to $495,430. The PM is earning $129,064 - or $2482 a week - more than she did a year ago.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott gets $10,267 extra to take his salary to $352,517. He is $91,834, or $1766 a week, better off than a year ago.

Treasurer Wayne Swan's wage rises by $11,377 to $390,627, and is up $101,762 over 12 months.

Some MPs are embarrassed about the timing of the pay rise, believing it is too soon after the massive March pay deal. It also comes just days after they failed to break the asylum-seeker policy deadlock and in the same week the carbon tax started.

The increase has been set by the independent Remuneration Tribunal.

Kevin Rudd blocked a pay rise in 2008 but MPs voted earlier this year to give away the power to veto a pay rise. "The increase will help to ensure that parliamentary pay does not lag behind in comparison to other public sector incomes," the tribunal said.

Greens Leader Christine Milne criticised the decision.

"When the Government is saying it can't afford to give people struggling on Newstart an extra $50 a week to just get up to liveable levels, and the minimum wage has only gone up $17.10 a week, a $100 a week pay rise for politicians is hardly appropriate," Senator Milne said.

"If the nation can afford this, it can afford to help our poorest people."

The combined boost from the two pay rises gives a Cabinet minister $85,629 more while one of Mr Abbott's shadow ministers gets a bigger boost, of $97,277, due to a historic change to pay extra to Opposition frontbenchers.

Speaker Peter Slipper and Senate President John Hogg are earning $86,870 more than last year.

The pay rise in March was given as part of a reform package where the Gold Pass travel scheme was axed for new MPs and those already receiving the perk would have their benefits cut by more than half.

First-class around-the-world travel for existing MPs was also scrapped.

When that pay rise was first announced in December last year, the tribunal blamed the rise of Facebook, Twitter and other social and online media for increasing the workload of the nation's politicians.