Ontario politicians have some business to complete at Queen's Park before they head home for the holidays — approving a 25 per cent pay raise for themselves.

Members of the legislature extended their sitting into this week to pass the legislation to get their $22,004 raise before the winter break.

The move to raise salaries to $110,775 from $88,771 was greeted with fierce opposition from voters and some members of the legislature, most notably those in the NDP, but some experts say the pay hike still doesn't give MPPs a competitive salary.

"If we use public sector standards, MPPs are dramatically underpaid," Nelson Wiseman, a professor of politics at the University of Toronto, told the Canadian Press. "An increase of even 50 per cent would not be outrageous when you take into account that the budget of the province is $90 billion a year."

He points out that if MPPs get the raise, they would still be making less than some bureaucrats, municipal politicians and those in the private sector.

The Liberal government introduced legislation last week to boost salaries of Ontario politicians to 75 per cent of what their federal counterparts make.

Ontario's Integrity Commissioner Coulter Osborne recommended Ontario politicians raise their own salaries to "some reasonable percentage" of federal levels to prevent the provincial legislature from becoming a "farm team" for the House of Commons.