Runaway pay for Hong Kong NGO managers criticised after HK$7.8 million of public money dished out as subsidies
Study finds basic salaries for top executives at publicly funded social service groups were often higher than civil servants of the same rank
Thirty-two Hong Kong social service groups supported by the government paid out more than HK$7.8 million in cash subsidies in the 2016-17 financial year to their top executives, whose basic salaries were often higher than civil servants of the same rank, a survey by a social workers’ union has revealed.
At the Hong Kong Lutheran Social Service, the study found a typical inverted triangle salary structure, with its chief social work officer seeing her basic annual salary rise from HK$1.05 million to HK$1.3 million between 2014-15 and 2016-17.
Meanwhile social work assistants were paid between HK$247,800 and HK$421,020 – just 18 to 30 per cent of the amount the chief officer received.
The group behind the study – the Social Welfare Organisations Employees Union, a member of the Confederation of Trade Unions – called on the government’s Social Welfare Department to revise NGO salary guidelines to align and cap remuneration in line with civil service pay scales.
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Salaries for managers and frontline staff at NGOs should be decided according to the same set of principles and rules to guarantee fair pay, the union argued.
