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Opinion | Hong Kong civil service pay rise will be a tough sell to weary public
- The government finds itself facing calls for civil servants’ salary increases when it is trying to curb a ballooning budget deficit
- This may be hard to swallow for Hongkongers amid a sluggish economy with small local businesses struggling
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The tentative findings of a pay trend survey suggest that salary increases of up to 5.47 per cent could be on the cards for Hong Kong’s civil servants. This is going to be a tough sell to the public.
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The survey of data concerning more than 130,000 employees in 113 private-sector companies points to pay rises of 4.01 per cent for high-ranking civil servants, 4.32 per cent for mid-ranking ones and 5.47 per cent for junior civil servants. Should the government approve the latest round of pay increases, it would be the third in three years.
Given the exodus of civil servants in recent years, the government, like the private sector, faces the challenge of recruiting and retaining talent. Remaining competitive in terms of salary is an important factor.
This is why the pay trend survey results are part of the government’s calculations in deciding whether to raise, freeze or cut civil servant wages and by how much. But the government also factors in civil service morale, the state of the economy, the cost of living, and its own fiscal position.
The views of the civil service unions and groups are quite consistent; they think the government should hand out pay increments at the levels suggested by the pay trend survey, if not higher. Lawmakers from the labour sector can be counted on to suggest the same every year.
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But the government is caught between a rock and a hard place because of its fiscal position and the city’s economic challenges. Federation of Civil Service Unions CEO Leung Chau-ting has already called on the government to refrain from using the city’s budget deficit as an “excuse” to limit the pay rise.
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