Hong Kong civil servants to get generous pay rises to boost 'morale' after vote by lawmakers
The Legislative Council’s Finance Committee last night approved a generous, above-market rate pay rise scheme for Hong Kong’s civil servants.
The committee voted 41-0 to endorse the government’s funding request for the annual pay rise, which will cost taxpayers HK$8.22 billion per year.
The government’s offer will lift the annual increase 0.5 percentage points above the level suggested by a survey on private-sector pay trends which the government usually follows.
Under the offer, higher earners will receive a pay rise of 3.96 per cent and those in the middle and lower ranks will pocket increases of 4.62 per cent.
During the committee meeting, lawmakers had asked officials how the additional 0.5 percentage points were justified.
Secretary for Civil Service Paul Tang Kwok-wai said “morale”, one of six established factors in the consideration of civil servants’ pay, justified the additional increase.
“They had a tough year last year,” Tang said. “Work was difficult. [The pay rise] is to boost morale.”
The other five factors were the annual private-sector pay trend survey, economic conditions, cost of living, the government’s fiscal situation, and employees’ pay claims.
Lam Tai-fai, lawmaker for the industrial sector, asked Tang for the ratings of the six factors in the calculations, but the civil service chief would only say it was “a decision of the Executive Council”.
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.
