Hong Kong’s lowest-earning civil servants to get biggest pay rise
Union welcomes government decision to reward its employees with increases of up to 4.68 per cent
Civil servants in the lower salary band are expected to receive a pay rise of 4.68 per cent later this year, more than the 3.08 per cent government advisers suggested offering earlier.
The Civil Service Bureau made the announcement on Tuesday after receiving a report from the Pay Trend Survey Committee last month.
The committee earlier suggested offering lower-earning civil service personnel – those paid less than HK$20,305 a month – a rise of 3.08 per cent; increases of 4.68 per cent for those in the middle salary band (HK$20,305 to HK$62,235); and 4.19 per cent for higher earners (HK$62,236 to HK$127,250).
The bureau decided it would stick to the committee’s recommendations for those in the middle and higher salary bands but give those in the lower band a little more.
The decision was made by acting Chief Executive-in-Council John Tsang Chun-wah on Tuesday after considering factors including civil service morale, the government’s fiscal position and the change in the cost of living.
After the Chief Executive-in-Council receives further responses from representatives of the civil services, a proposal will be tabled to the Legislative Council’s Finance Committee.
Morale is not particulary bad this year, but the rise would help make an improvement
The rise will be effective retrospectively from April 1.
Tsang Sum, chairman of the Federation of Civil Service Unions, said: “Morale is not particulary bad this year, but the rise would help make an improvement. Civil servants are under a lot of pressure. Working in the government is unlike working in private companies.”
Tsang said a government study of pay rises private companies had offered their employees in the lower salary band showed they had received an increase of 4.91 per cent on average in the past year.
“Civil servants are getting a rise that is smaller than that,” he said.
That government survey, released last month, covered 151,934 employees from 109 companies.
Lancy Chui, senior vice-president of human resources firm ManpowerGroup, said the rise was close to the market range of 3 to 5 per cent.
“It is common for companies to offer better rises for those making less money and a smaller rise for people in the higher salary band. That’s because a small percentage raise for those making big money is actually not a small sum,” she said.
Last year civil servants received pay rises ranging from 3.96 per cent to 4.62 per cent.
There are about 170,000 civil servants in Hong Kong. In 2014-2015, taxpayers paid HK$96.4 billion on staff-related expenditure on the civil service, up from HK$89.4 billion in 2013-2014.
