Lower ranked government workers in Hong Kong's 160,000-strong civil service are to get a bigger pay rise than they initially thought.
Instead of receiving a pay rise of 5.16 per cent as expected, junior government staff will get 6.16 per cent more, the same as middle-ranking civil servants, the Civil Service Bureau said yesterday after the Executive Council endorsed the pay rise.
The 5.16 per cent figure had been suggested by the annual pay trends survey, on which civil service pay rises are based. But the chief executive and Executive Council decided to invoke a 'bring-up' arrangement, under which staff on lower pay grades see their wage rises match those of better-paid staff.
'Under the 'bring-up' arrangement, the pay adjustment rate for civil servants in the lower salary band may, subject to the decision of the Chief Executive in Council, be brought up to the net pay trend indicators for the middle salary band,' a bureau spokesman said.
The bureau said the pay offers were based on the pay trend survey, the local economy, cost of living, the government's fiscal position, pay claims and morale of civil servants.
The pay trend survey involves 116 private organisations, each with at least 50 staff.
A 7.24 per cent wage rise will be offered to civil servants in the upper salary band, in line with the survey.