An inflation-busting 8.3% pay rise for Welsh assembly members has been defended by the chairman of the independent panel which recommended it.
Sir Michael Wheeler-Booth told BBC Wales it reflected increased workloads, responsibilities and complexities.
But the rise - of almost £4,000 to £50,692 a year - has been opposed by some Plaid Cymru AMs. Conservatives accused them of political "posturing".
The recommendation will see AMs' pay rise to 82% of an MPs' salary.
The cross-party Assembly Commission, which sets pay, insisted the rises were an inevitable result of the assembly's enhanced powers to draft and pass laws.
Sir Michael said the panel's principal reason for recommending the rise was that AMs were doing a new kind of job since the Government of Wales Act 2006.
"They are having to look at primary legislation for the first time," he said.
"That shows that Welsh assembly members are doing a bigger job with increased responsibility and complexity, more committees."
The Welsh assembly's expenses and allowances system was inherited from Parliament and it was time for a "fundamental review of the whole thing", he said.
But Plaid AM Leanne Wood said people would find it difficult to understand why AMs had been given such a large increase when public sector workers have had to accept a 1.9% deal.
'Effective democracy'
"If money is tight it should be tight for all of us and that is why Plaid Cymru members felt we were unable to support the increase," she said.
"Our representative on the commission Chris Franks voted against the increase.
"I accept that the work load has increased but what we cannot accept is that this is good timing when everybody else has been asked to tighten their belts.
"There are workers in the public sector whose responsibilities have had to increase mainly because their colleagues' jobs have been taken away."
She denied that Plaid Cymru AMs were trying to make political gain from the row.
The Welsh Conservatives challenged Plaid AMs to say whether or not they will accept the new pay deal.
Tory assembly leader Nick Bourne AM said they were displaying "the worst kind of political opportunism".
He said: "The people of Wales will see through this posturing.
"Plaid AMs need to make it crystal clear now whether or not they will accept the pay increase agreed because of the assembly's new responsibilities and powers."
Lord Elis-Thomas, who is the assembly's presiding officer and chair of the commission, said there was a "price to pay for effective democracy".
He said: "I think AMs are working hard and are overseeing, not only our own budget of £45m for the Assembly Commission for all democratic services but also the £16bn spend of Welsh Government.
"That's the price of an effective democracy."
A Welsh Labour spokesman said they would abide by the decision of the commission and Conservative AM William Graham welcomed the rise.
But a teaching union leader said with public sector workers being forced to accept very low increases, the move was not justified.
Tim Cox from the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) said it was pleased when MPs at Westminster voted themselves a 1.9% award.
"They took affordability into account," he said.
AMs are also set to receive this 1.9% below inflation rise, bringing a back-bench AM's salary up to just over £50,000 a year.
Article first appeared on the BBC Website|