The Hong Kong business community has reacted with anger over the news that the city’s Public Servants could receive a pay rise of up to 7.26 per cent.
Critics called for a revamp of the method used to determine pay rises for Hong Kong’s 180,000 Government employees.
The latest pay trend survey suggested salary rises starting at 2.04 per cent for junior-ranking staff to 7.26 per cent for high-earners in the Public Service.
If approved, the suggested 7.26 increase would be the most generous since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
It came as Hong Kong’s jobless rate surged to 5.4 per cent for the three months ended April, with the city’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shrinking by four per cent year-on-year in the first quarter.
Managing Director of ACTS Consulting, Alexa Chow Yee-ping said it was a faulty comparison to factor in private sector pay trends when determining Government workers’ salaries.
“Lay-offs or pay cuts are rarely heard of for the Civil Service,” Ms Chow said.
“When the private market is hard hit by COVID-19 and staff are thrown out of work or asked to take no-pay leave, our Civil Servants can work from home,” she said.
Legislator, Edmund Wong Chun-sek suggested the Government take its reference from the pay trends of Public Servants from mainland China or other cities such as Singapore, rather than from Hong Kong’s larger companies.
However, Chair of the Hong Kong Senior Government Officers Association, Lee Fong-chung said Public Servants had had their salaries frozen for the past two years and it was not unfair to have a more generous pay rise this time.
“The percentage may have raised eyebrows, but we should not forget the low-base factor,” Mr Lee said.
The Government arrives at its award for the Public Service by tracking the pay adjustments of more than 100 private companies in different trades or sectors.
About three quarters of these are large companies with more than 100 employees, and the rest are smaller-sized firms with 50 to 99 workers.
Hong Kong, 22 May 2022
