Hong Kong civil servants set for higher than expected pay rise this fiscal year
Executive Council approves addition of 0.5 percentage point on top of what government staff would have received based on private sector rises
Public employees can expect to receive an above-market pay rise this year under a generous deal that will cost taxpayers an estimated HK$8.22 billion a year.
The government's offer seeks to lift the annual rise 0.5 percentage points above the findings of a survey on private-sector pay trends.
It will be the seventh time since 1989, when the current system was put in place, that the government has broken from the usual practice of following market trends in setting civil service pay rises.
Under the latest offer, endorsed by the Executive Council yesterday, higher earners will receive a pay rise of 3.96 per cent and those in the middle and lower ranks will pocket an increase of 4.62 per cent.
If the government had adopted the figures from its annual pay trend survey, civil servants would have received rises of 3.46 per cent, 4.12 per cent and 3.02 per cent for upper, middle, and lower earners. A total of 105 private companies were surveyed for the study.
The Civil Service Bureau declined to say how the additional 0.5 percentage points had been determined, but said the pay trend survey was only one of the factors the government had taken into account in adjusting civil servants' pay.
Other factors included economic conditions, cost of living, the government's fiscal situation, employees' pay claims and morale, said a spokesman for the bureau.
"The additional 0.5 percentage point was not worked out by a scientific formula, but the government believes it is an appropriate level," the spokesman said.
The last time the government failed to follow the pay trend figures was in the 2009-10 fiscal year, when it decided to freeze salaries for middle and lower-level officers when the study showed pay falling amid poor economic conditions. Similarly in 1999-2000, the government announced a pay freeze when the figures showed that civil servants should have had their pay cut.
Civil service groups have until tomorrow to respond to the offer. Exco will consider those views before it makes a final decision on pay.
If the offer is endorsed by the Legislative Council's Finance Committee, the pay rise will be backdated to April 1.
According to the bureau, the annual financial implications will be about HK$8.22 billion.
The bureau believes the pay rise will have only a "negligible" impact on inflation and the overall labour market.
"The civil service accounts for about 4 per cent of the total workforce and civil service emoluments account for about 7 per cent of the overall employment remuneration in the economy," the bureau said in a paper distributed to legislators yesterday.
There are currently about 165,000 civil servants.
Hong Kong Chinese Civil Servants' Association vice-president Li Kwai-yin said yesterday: "It is still not the 6 per cent we have asked for." But she said it was a good start.
Leung Chau-ting, chief executive of the Federation of Civil Service Unions, said he was pleased with the offer. "In the wake of rising living costs, the offer cannot be said to be too high, especially for lower-ranking frontline officers."
