ACCOUNTANTS have attracted the highest annual salary increase this year with an average 14.5 per cent raise.
The increase, compared with an average 11.5 per cent increase in Hong Kong, stems largely from pay rises for juniors in their first years in the profession.
It is the second year running that accountants have topped the pay increase tables, although the survey does not take into account perks and bonuses.
According to the Hong Kong Institute of Personnel Management, which conducted the survey, bankers received the next best pay rise of 13 per cent in 1994, while at the opposite end, the retail industry awarded rises averaging 10.2 per cent.
The rate of increase far outstripped those in Europe and North America where economies are growing more slowly and unemployment is higher.
'Asian countries typically are fast-growing and pay increases tend to be better than their counterparts in the West,' said Patrick Maule, co-chairman of the survey.
Real wage increases after discounting inflation are running at about 2.8 per cent, but the IPM figures show that the increases are likely to fall in 1995 as more companies push for pay increases of less than 10 per cent.
