Hong Kong’s leader, top officials and senior advisers will not receive pay rise this year amid economy battered by Covid-19, recession
- Carrie Lam says the decision was taken to show that officials stand with the people amid the coronavirus pandemic and recession
- Non-official members of the Executive Council will also have their pay frozen
“We want to be united with the whole society as we get through the difficulties – that’s why we are also rolling out various measures to protect employment and create jobs,” she said.
Lam’s decision came a week after the Executive Council decided that Hong Kong’s 180,000 civil servants would have their pay frozen this financial year.
Lam said on Tuesday she hoped civil servants would accept the decision.
“I appeal to civil servants to be understanding, as society wants us to stand with them amid difficulties,” she said.
“I can also announce that all political appointees, including myself, the secretaries, undersecretaries and political assistants, will not have our pay increased this year.”
Lam explained that as per an established mechanism, their pay would have been adjusted automatically on July 1 according to the inflation rate.
“According to the mechanism, our pay should be increased by 2 per cent this year, but it will not happen,” she said.
Under mounting pressure from lawmakers and the public, Lam announced in April that her pay, and also those of her ministers, would be cut by 10 per cent.
In July last year, Lam’s monthly salary was increased to HK$434,000 (US$56,000) a month. The 10 per cent pay cut means she has been earning about HK$391,000 a month.
Non-official members of the Executive Council would also have their pay frozen, Lam said.
No pay rise for Hong Kong’s civil servants for first time in more than a decade
In April, the chief executive unveiled a HK$137.5 billion coronavirus relief package. A major measure under the package was the Employment Support Scheme, under which the government would, via employers, pay 50 per cent of employees’ salaries for six months, with the monthly subsidy for each worker capped at HK$9,000.
Each eligible self-employed person would be granted a one-off allowance of HK$7,500, and the scheme was expected to cost the government HK$81 billion.
Lam said by Monday, the government had received 148,519 applications from employers, and 194,369 applications from the self-employed.
Government officers have approved about 25,500 applications, and starting from Friday, a total of HK$4.8 billion in wage subsidies would be paid into the applicants’ bank accounts, the chief executive added.
As the scheme mainly focused on helping employees or the self-employed who have been making monthly contributions to their Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) pension scheme accounts, labour unions have complained that many workers who did not make such contributions were being left out.
On Tuesday, Lam said that to address the issue, her administration would be rolling out additional subsidy schemes to help people working as casual construction workers on a long-term basis, as well as employees of laundries, job referral centres, car repairers, and dish washing workshops.
To help young people to find employment, the government’s environmental, development, and the financial services bureaus would work with the private sector, and the Cyberport, in offering more than 10,000 jobs for university graduates, Lam added.
