The Civil Service Bureau today received the tentative results of the 2023 Pay Trend Survey from the Pay Trend Survey Committee's secretariat.

At a press briefing this morning, Pay Trend Survey Committee Chairperson Laurence Li noted that the survey results reflect the pay trend in 108 companies covering 136,971 employees from April 2, 2022 to April 1, 2023.

The report shows gross pay trend indicators of 3.91%, 5.68% and 5.66% for the upper, middle and lower salary bands.

Permanent Secretary for the Civil Service Clement Leung said after deducting the civil service payroll cost of increments from the respective gross pay trend indicators, the net pay trend indicators for the upper, middle and lower salary bands for this year are 2.87%, 4.65% and 4.5% respectively.

Mr Leung pointed out that under the established annual civil service pay adjustment mechanism, the Chief Executive-in-Council will consider factors including the state of Hong Kong's economy, changes in the cost of living, the Government's fiscal position, the net pay trend indicators, the pay claims of the staff side and civil service morale before making a decision on the pay adjustment.

“The purpose of this press briefing is to highlight the pay adjustment mechanism. This is merely a location to announce the survey results that the committee has conducted to try to gauge the extent of the pay adjustment in the private sector for the past year.

“And this is one of six factors for the Chief Executive-in-Council to determine the proposal and the decision for a pay increase for civil servants this year.”

The committee will verify and validate the survey findings at its meeting on May 24. The results will then be submitted to the Government.