Hong Kong civil servants' pay set to trail inflation

Hong Kong's 170,000 civil servants may gain pay rises of less than 4 per cent - short of their expectations - following the government's annual survey of private-sector pay trends, released yesterday.

Civil Service unions have expressed disappointment at the findings, noting such an increase would not catch up with inflation that is running at 4.2 per cent.

But a commercial-sector lawmaker said the results reflected the difficulties in the current business environment.

The survey found that junior, middle-rank and senior employees had received pay increases of 5.3 per cent, 4.79 per cent and 3.38 per cent, respectively, in the past financial year.

Deducting annual pay increments for civil servants, government employees from the lower and middle salary bands might get increases of 3.92 per cent, and those in upper salary bands could get 2.55 per cent.

The survey questioned 109 private companies, among which 82 had at least 100 staff.