Hong Kong civil servants to get 3% pay rise, below rates recommended in pay trend survey

Executive Council approves 3 per cent pay rise across all levels of civil service, below rates of up to 5.47 per cent depending on seniority called for in pay trend survey

Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung says ‘balanced decision’ made amid budgetary restraints and need for ‘financial prudence’

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Salary adjustment for the civil service take into account factors such as trends in the private labour market and cost of living. Photo: Jelly Tse

Published: 2:25pm, 4 Jun 2024Updated: 8:15pm, 4 Jun 2024

Hong Kong’s key decision-making Executive Council has approved an across-the-board 3 per cent pay rise for civil servants this year, less than the rates recommended in a pay trend survey.

Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan said on Tuesday Exco had made a “balanced decision” which took into account the city’s budgetary constraints.

“The government is still facing a fiscal deficit this financial year and a dip in our reserves,” Yeung said. “We have to adhere to the principle of financial prudence. The Exco has sufficiently considered these factors when deciding on the pay rise.

“We note that the pay offer is in some way behind the net pay trend survey indicators, but, as a whole, we believe this is an appropriate decision for this year.”

The pay survey findings, announced last month, based on trends at 113 private companies covering 134,376 employees over the past year, suggested increments of 4.01 per cent for high-ranking civil servants, 4.32 per cent for middle-level ones and 5.47 per cent for junior workers.

But human resources experts have said the findings failed to reflect commercial reality as salaries have gone up by between 3.3 per cent and 3.5 per cent this year.