Hong Kong employees get highest salary increases in Greater Bay Area this year, but trend unlikely to continue over long-term

Hong Kong pay increases ranged from 3.2 to 3.8 per cent, higher than Macau at between 1.9 and 2.7 per cent, but financial hub also had high staff turnover

Experts say figures are down to mainland China being harder hit by pandemic than Hong Kong, which was ‘pretty resilient in terms of economic activity’

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The Greater Bay Area city of Shenzhen near the Hong Kong border. Photo: Martin Chan

Published: 6:07pm, 18 Oct 2023Updated: 8:44pm, 18 Oct 2023

Hong Kong companies offered the biggest salary increases over the past year compared with other cities in the Greater Bay Area, but the financial hub also had a high staff turnover rate, a study by universities and other organisations has found.

While the local trend was expected to continue into 2024 with pay rises of between 3.5 and 3.8 per cent, the city may not retain the top spot, the researchers warned as they released their findings on Wednesday.

One academic involved in the study said that even though the pay increases should help the city attract talent, the government would still need to address other key concerns, such as the pricey property market.

Hong Kong employees were this year awarded the highest pay rises among their counterparts in Macau and eight of the Greater Bay Area cities in mainland China. Photo: May Tse

The study, carried out by several universities and human resources associations in the region between July and September this year, analysed salaries and benefits offered by 292 companies in the area, involving about 183,000 employees, between July 2022 and June this year.

Hong Kong employees were awarded annual pay increases of between 3.2 and 3.8 per cent, depending on their roles, close to pre-pandemic levels and higher than those in neighbouring Macau and eight cities in Guangdong province.

Salary rises recorded in Hong Kong in 2019, the year before the pandemic hit, ranged from 3.9 to 4.1 per cent.

“This simply reflects the short-term economic situation in Hong Kong and also in the Greater Bay Area,” Huang Xu, associate dean of the School of Business at Baptist University, said of the 2023 figures.

“Because of Covid, we see a significant drop in the economic activities and the manufacturing activities in the Greater Bay Area, but Hong Kong remained pretty resilient in terms of economic activity, even during the pandemic.”