Stable salary hikes for Hong Kong employees

Employees in Hong Kong can expect salary hikes ranging from 4% to 4.5% in 2015, a relatively stable outlook compared to the actual salary increases doled out in 2014 ranging between 4.2% to 4.5%.

Among these, the projected salary increase is pegged the highest for supervisory and technical staff at 4.5%, while the operative staff is expected to be handed out the lowest pay hike at 4%.

These findings come from the 2014 HKSAR Pay Level Survey, covering 80,347 employees and 89 jobs across the four levels of manager and above, supervisory or technical staff, general staff, and operative staff, in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Companies identified overall company performance and individual performance as the top determinants in meting out salary increases.

Over the past year, 88% of the participating companies indicated the adoption measures to retain staff - salary adjustment being the most frequently used, followed by training & development.

However, employee turnover ranged between 10.7% to a high of 45.3% among the operative staff. Career prospects and pay were ranked as the top two reasons why staff quit.

In addition, 3,243 new employees were added to 53 of the 90 participating companies, the largest chunk of which was in the construction sector (1,192). The hiring spree comprised a majority of general staff.

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Company performance was an important theme among the 79% of participants who offered incentive schemes to their employees. Year-end bonuses are expected to range between 1.1 months to 1.9 months of the average monthly salary.

Meanwhile, employees were recorded to work for an average of 43.4 per week. This figure was the highest among employees in the engineering sector at 53.2 hours.

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Starting salaries for fresh graduates, on the other hand, are expected to vary per the nature of the job and the qualifications. The lowest average starting salary was recorded for Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education school leavers, at HK$7,760 in the sales function.

The highest average monthly salary for graduates is anticipated to be HK$18,850 for graduates with a bachelor degree and above, in the construction function.

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