Government Proposes 12.4% Pay Rise

Senior Hong Kong government officials will be eyeing a double-digit pay rise

Hong Kong's top officials can expect a 12.4 percent pay rise next year, the first increase in 15 years.

The government added that it was getting harder to attract talent because of the city's political atmosphere.

This I find strange since I know a few people who have managed to get government positions, making it still a very sought-after job. Granted they are not senior positions, but if they do well they can get promoted and in turn get better pay.

Many are turning to civil servant positions because of the high salaries and this year it looks like employers are only going to give out 4 percent pay rises, if that.

Carrie Lam is the highest paid government official

Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Raymond Tam Chi-yuen said the proposed double-digit pay rise was "very moderate and reasonable", and "only fair", given that salaries for top officials had remained frozen since 2002.

The pay rise factors in cumulative inflation since 2012, and there will be a new mechanism to adjust the top officials' pay annually in line with the consumer price index used for households in the relatively high expenditure range, similar to the renumeration for Legislative Council members.

How nice to have a salary that increases along with inflation...

So a political assistant will get around HK$104,000 a month, while a minister currently gets HK$298,000. The chief secretary is the highest paid minister at HK$330,000.

While the proposal will be debated in Legco next Monday, some lawmakers aren't convinced senior ministers deserve it.

Does the government know many of us won't get pay rises?

"Few ministers have been truly accountable to Hong Kong citizens," said Wu Chi-wai, the new chief of the Democratic Party said of the 12.4 percent pay rise. "The popularity of several ministers remains unacceptably low. We cannot make a decision just on the grounds that the growth in their pay lags behind inflation."

The independent commission that was tasked to come up with the pay recommendations noted there was no mechanism currently for annual pay adjustments and that ministers' salaries had fallen below the level of public sector pay, while remaining significantly lower than that of the private sector.

Seriously?

Do these people putting these recommendations not know how the average citizen in Hong Kong makes per month? It's hardly in the six digits.

If economic times are good, then maybe we can talk about pay rises. But the economy has been stagnant this past year, and will be in the next two years, and the government is not doing enough to clamp down on rising rents, getting developers to build more low-income housing, encouraging small businesses or helping the poor.

There needs to be some evidence to show the government has served the people well before getting a well-deserved pay rise.

Many would agree that the government seems even more out of touch as ever, as evidenced by this proposal for a double digit pay rise when many of us will be lucky to have one, if at all.

Generational Divide

Many fresh graduates have high hopes, then see the reality of the job market

Government figures show that fresh graduates in Hong Kong are only earning HK$1,800 more than those who finished tertiary education 20 years ago. That means today's university graduates aged 20-24 are earning a median income of HK$10,800 ($1,393) in 2014 compared to HK$9,000 in 1994.

Data from the Census and Statistics Department show a 20 percent rise in median income, which compares to a 45 percent increase in the Composite Consumer Price Index, 75 percent in tuition fees, and nearly triple of property prices.

Simon Lee Siu-po, assistant dean of undergraduate studies at Chinese University's Business School says employers could be less willing to make attractive job offers because he believes there are so many more university graduates each year.

All families want their children to do better than the previous generation, and many believe education is the way out. However the sheer numbers of graduates each year means a flood in the labour market, thus lowering the value of a university degree.

Some employers prefer to hire graduates from the mainland

Lee then took a dig at young people today, saying, "Youngsters nowadays, compared to the last generation, are less skillful and are reluctant to learn. Many employers are disappointed by the young generation."

He even went so far as to say employers would rather hire mainland graduates because their English and Putonghua skills were much better than locals.

Ouch.

This touched of a maelstrom of comments, at first illustrating how wages have not kept up with inflation at all, but also how it was practically impossible for young people to save with salaries that are so low.

Then the issue of young people not as hardworking as the previous generation is a perennial comment older people like to say. While many of us may have come across students or young people we don't think are as diligent as they should be, there are many others who maybe putting in more hours than we know of.

Nevertheless, many employers are frustrated that a lot of young people believe they are not being paid what they are worth and so they decide their own work output. It's an interesting perspective that employers haven't encountered before, but it is kind of a chicken-and-egg conundrum -- bosses don't think they can give pay raises unless the employee can demonstrate their worthiness, while employees think, pay me better and then I'll do more work.

But perhaps the last problem of employers looking to expand overseas are choosing to hire more mainland graduates than local ones hits a sensitive spot, particularly with the Occupy movement last year, as well as nativism that is ongoing.

Part of the problem is that students have been screwed around by the Education Department, using them as guinea pigs to see which language is the best medium of instruction. Before 1997 it was English, and then it was Cantonese and now it's becoming more Putonghua in the classroom.

If you keep changing the regulations, students get very confused and don't really learn much of anything effectively. Is it surprising that this has impacted graduates' skill sets to help them land a job?

I would hazard to guess that the majority of fresh graduates are keen to make a good start on their careers, and like us before, will find it's not that easy to find a job, or discover there's no such thing as a dream job.

They just want to be given a chance to prove themselves and from there it's how determined they are to make something of their lives and to contribute to society.

Granted the economy is slow these days, we should at least give young people the opportunity to demonstrate their Lion Rock spirit. They may not have the exact skills needed, but if they have the right attitude, then why not give them a chance? They are our future, the city's future.