Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and ministers to turn down salary rise after freezing pay for civil servants

Lam, who earns HK$390,000 a month, is among the top officials, aides who may even take a pay cut this year

Civil service chief says pay freeze for the city’s 180,000 government workers is the best way forward based on state of economy, government finances, staff pay demands and workforce morale

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Hong Kong civil service pay is staying the same this year for the second year in a row. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 8:04pm, 15 Jun 2021Updated: 11:42pm, 15 Jun 2021

Hong Kong’s leader along with her ministers and cabinet colleagues will turn down a salary rise and may even take a cut following their decision to freeze the pay of 180,000 government workers for the second straight year.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and her aides’ salaries were supposed to be adjusted in line with changes over the past year to a measure of the consumer price index, which is an indicator of inflation.

The annual pay adjustment cycle comes in July for the chief executive and her ministers, and falls in October for non-official members of the Executive Council, Lam’s de facto cabinet.

In a statement on Tuesday, the government said their “remuneration will not be adjusted upwards in accordance with the established mechanism”.

“On the contrary, if the relevant change in the index is negative, their remuneration will be adjusted downwards in accordance with the established mechanism,” a government spokesman said.

The decision was announced hours after the Chief Executive in Council officially endorsed the public sector pay freeze, which takes effect retrospectively from April 1.