Pay and benefits trends across Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

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The 2024 overall projected salary adjustment for all levels of staff ranged from 3.5% to 3.8% in Hong Kong, 2.8% to 3.3% in Macao, and 2.8% to 2.9% across Guangdong cities.

The 2023 overall actual salary adjustment in the entire Greater Bay Area ranged from 0% to 3.8% for the period from July 2022 to June 2023, while the 2024 overall projected salary adjustment for all levels of staff ranged from 1.3% to 4.2%, according to a latest survey.

Meanwhile, the 2023 average overall turnover rate of Greater Bay Area ranged from 3.8% to 53.7%.

The 2023 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Pay and Benefits Survey was conducted by the Centre for Human Resources Strategy and Development of School of Business of Hong Kong Baptist University, Research Center for Human Resources Management of School of Business Administration of South China University of Technology, Hong Kong People Management Association, Talent Development and Management Association of Guangdong, and the University of Macau and the Macau Greater Bay Area Human Resources Association. 

Between July and September 2023, a total of 292 completed online questionnaires were received, covering around 183,000 employees. A total of 87 questionnaires were collected from Hong Kong SAR, 184 from Guangdong cities, and 21 questionnaires from Macao SAR, mainly collecting information on areas namely, profile of companies surveyed, actual and projected salary adjustments, starting salary for fresh graduates, incentive schemes, employee benefits, employee movement, and annual cash compensation packages. Data was analysed by four staff levels: senior/managerial staff, middle level/supervisory/technical staff, general staff, and frontline/operative staff.

Here are the detailed results.

Hong Kong

Salary

The overall actual salary increases ranged from 3.2% to 3.8% for the period from July 2022 to June 2023. Of the 87 organisations that provided data for analysis, seven reported salary freezes, the overall actual salary increases for the remaining 80 organisations ranged from 3.6% to 4.3%.

The salary adjustment forecast for 2024 ranged from 3.5% to 3.8%. After excluding seven organisations which indicated that their salaries were frozen, the overall salary increase forecast for the remaining 80 organisations ranged from 3.8% to 4.1%.

As for the starting monthly salary for Bachelor Degree fresh graduates, the engineering function recorded the highest figure at HK$20,950.

Seventy-two (82.8%) participating organisations indicated that they offered incentive schemes to employees. “Variable bonus” was the most popular scheme, followed by “training”. The guaranteed bonus offered to different staff levels was one month whereas variable bonus offered ranged from 0.9 to 1.6 months.

Benefits

Different benefits were offered to different levels of staff, including leaves, education, housing, retirement protection. This year, around 40% of participating organisations provided employees with one day full-pay "birthday leave". The number of days of “examination leave” offered to different staff levels ranged from 2.2 to 4.3 days.

Employee movement

The overall average turnover percentage ranged from 8.9% to 26.4% for the survey period. The higher the employee level, the lower the turnover percentage was reported. “Career/promotion prospect” and “pay” were ranked as the top two reasons for employee turnover.

Among 87 participating organisations, 47 organisations (54.7%) had reported involuntary turnover. The real estate & property management sector had the highest percentage of retrenchments (6.4%), followed by the construction sector (3%).

Fifty-nine responding organisations said they created job vacancies during the survey period, 2.3% of the total headcounts reported.

Sixty-four (73.6%) participating organisations had a policy in place for retirement age, while around 20% said they will consider extending the retirement age from 60 to 65.

During the survey period, around 40% of the participating organisations provided flex-time to employees and around 35% offered work-from-home practice to employees.

Macao

Salary

The overall actual salary increases ranged from 1.9% to 2.7% for the period from July 2022 to June 2023. Of the 21 organisations that provided data for analysis, six organisations reported salary freezes, one reported salary decrease, while the overall actual salary increases for the remaining 14 organisations ranged from 3.2% to 4%.

The salary adjustment forecast for 2024 ranged from 2.8% to 3.3%. After excluding two organisations which indicated that their salaries were frozen, the overall salary increase forecast for the remaining 19 organisations ranged from 3.2% to 3.7%.

As for the starting monthly salary for Bachelor Degree fresh graduates, the IT function recorded the highest figure at MOP$14,000.

The guaranteed bonus offered to different staff levels was one month whereas variable bonus offered ranged from 1.1 to 1.2 months.

Benefits

Different benefits offered to different levels of staff, including leaves, education, housing. This year, over 20% of participating organisations provided employees days off for “examination leave”, which ranged from 3.4 to 4.1 days.

Employee movement

The overall average turnover percentage ranged from 8.9% to 22.9% for the survey period. By staff level, general staff recorded the highest turnover percentage. “Career/promotion prospect” and “pay” were ranked as the top two reasons for employee turnover.

Among 21 participating organisations, seven organisations (2.4%) had reported involuntary turnover.

Twelve responding organisations said job vacancies were created during the survey period, 14% of the total headcounts reported.

During the survey period, 65% participating organisations provided flex-time to employees, while 40% offered work-from-home practice to employees.

Guangdong cities

Salary

The overall actual salary increases ranged from 2% to 2.2% for the period from July 2022 to June 2023. Of the 184 organisations that provided data for analysis, 69 organisations reported salary freezes, six reported salary decreases, the overall actual salary increases for the remaining 115 organisations ranged from 4.4% to 5%.

The salary adjustment forecast for 2024 ranged from 2.8% to 2.9%. After excluding 41 of the 177 organisations which indicated that their salaries were frozen, the overall salary increase forecast for the remaining 136 organisations ranged from 4.3% to 4.5%.

As for the starting monthly salary for Bachelor Degree fresh graduates, “R&D” function was recorded the highest figure at RMB6,842, similar to those of in last year.

One hundred seventy (92.4%) participating organisations indicated that they offered incentive schemes to employees. The guaranteed bonus offered to different staff levels ranged from one to 1.4 months. Some commonly adopted incentive schemes were “training”, “performance bonus” and “full attendance bonus”.

Benefits

Different benefits were offered to different levels of staff, including housing, education, and full paid sick leave, etc. Around 25% of the participating organisations provided an average of 7.1 days of full pay sick leave and 3.9 days of additional leave beyond the statutory requirements.

Employee movement

The average turnover percentage ranged from 11.8% to 20.4% for the survey period. There were significant differences by region and by staff level. The highest turnover percentage was recorded in senior/managerial staff. “Pay” was ranked as the top reason for employee turnover.

Among 184 participating organisations, 97 organisations had reported involuntary turnover. The real estate & property management sector recorded the highest percentage (3.6%).

One hundred and seventeen responding organisations said they created job vacancies during the survey period, 2.8% of the total headcounts reported.

During the survey period, over 25% of the participating organisations provided flex-time to employees, while around 20% offered work-from-home practice to employees.

Fifty-eight (31.5%) participating organisations adopted the flexible employment mode. Five (2.7%) participating organisations have considered adopting this employment model in the next year to help alleviate recruitment difficulties and save costs with non-long-term job positions. Flexible employment may increase effectiveness and efficiency, but at the same time, respondents said organisations would face the problems of "unstable staff quality " and "difficulty in management". Positions up for recruitment are mostly frontline/operative staff.

Lead image / 2023 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Pay and Benefits Survey