July 13, 2022
HONG KONG – The Executive Council has decided to approve an across-the-board pay increase of 2.5 percent for Hong Kong’s civil servants, effective retroactively from April 1, the Civil Service Bureau said Tuesday.
The Chief Executive-in-Council approved the pay hike after considering the staff side’s response to the pay offers, the state of the city’s economy, the government’s fiscal position, changes in the cost of living, the net pay trend indicators, and civil service morale, according to a statement from the CSB.
The Chief Executive-in-Council approved the pay hike after considering the staff side’s response to the pay offers, the state of Hong Kong’s economy, the government’s fiscal position, changes in the cost of living, the net pay trend indicators, and civil service morale
“In view of the uncertainties in the economic outlook of Hong Kong and that the government is expected to run a fiscal deficit this financial year, as a responsible government, we need to be prudent in handling civil service pay adjustment,” a CSB spokesman was quoted as saying in the statement.
On the other hand, the government affirms the efforts of civil service members over the past year, the spokesman said, noting that 140,000 government employees joined high-risk efforts to fight the pandemic while striving to maintain public services.
“Hence, after balancing all relevant factors, the CE-in-Council decided to increase the pay at the same rate of 2.5 percent across the board,” he added.
After briefing the Panel on Public Service of the Legislative Council at its meeting on July 13, the government will strive to submit the pay adjustment proposal to the LegCo Finance Committee “with a view to effecting the adjusted pay together with the back pay to civil servants in August.”
The CSB said it has informed the staff side representatives of the four central consultative councils and representatives of the four major service-wide staff unions about the pay adjustment decision.
It will also invite the Pay Trend Survey Committee to review the survey methodology in accordance with the established mechanism before the commissioning of the next survey, and to consult the staff side in the process.