Top advisers to Hong Kong’s leader express shock over proposal senior civil servants receive record 7.26 per cent pay rise
- Executive councillor Regina Ip says residents will find proposal hard to accept as more than 200,000 people had lost their jobs or were underemployed
- Decision could be left up to next government, as another top adviser says matter unlikely to be discussed by current Executive Council before term ends on June 30
Several top advisers to Hong Kong’s leader have expressed shock over a suggestion senior civil servants receive a pay increase as high as 7.26 per cent, which would be a record.
One Executive Council member on Saturday said the decision over the size of the salary bump could be left to the next government under incoming leader John Lee Ka-chiu, as the matter might not be discussed by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s team before her term ended on June 30.
The latest pay trend survey, based on remuneration levels at private companies and made public on Wednesday, suggested government employees in the lower, middle and upper salary bands could get increases of 2.04 per cent, 4.55 per cent and 7.26 per cent, respectively.
If approved, the increase would represent the biggest pay rise for senior civil servants since Hong Kong was transfered from British to Chinese rule in 1997.
A permanent secretary in a policy bureau currently receives HK$295,150 (US$37,608) per month, and under the proposed bump, the amount would rise to HK$316,577.
