Average pay rise in Hong Kong ranges from 4.1 to 4.2 pct in 2012

The overall average salary increase of 91 companies for the period of July, 2011 to June, 2012 ranged from 4.1 percent to 4.2 percent, according to the "2012 HKSAR Pay Level Survey" released here on Thursday. The survey, jointly conducted by the Hong Kong People Management Association and Hong Kong Baptist University, showed that the overall rankings of salary review criteria were similar to last year, with "Company Overall Performance" and "Individual Performance" ranking at the top. Carried out between July and September, 2012, the survey overed a total of 77,661 employees from 91 companies in 12 business sectors: Construction, Electronics and Electrical, Engineering, Food and Beverage, Logistics, Manufacturing, Non- Government Organization, Property Management and Related Services, Retail, Textiles and Garment, Trading and Others. According to the data, the overall average turnover rate ranged from 9.8 percent to 41.2 percent for the survey period, with operative staff recorded the highest turnover rate. The three highest turnover positions identified from the survey were clerk, technician and engineer. "Career Promotion Prospect" and "Pay" were ranked as the top two reasons for employee turnover. In terms of "increase of manpower", there were 4,412 new employees added to the workforce of the surveyed companies. The largest growth among all sectors, 1,616 new employees, was in the Property Management and Related Services Sector, of which, 1,210 were operative staff. In addition, the starting monthly salaries for fresh graduates varied according to their qualifications and job nature, with the lowest average starting salary for Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education school leavers recorded in "Engineering" functions at 7, 926 HK dollars (about 1,057 U.S. dollars) per month. The highest figure reported was an average of 16,250 HK dollars in the functional area of "Construction" for master degree or above graduates. In general, the starting salary for fresh graduates across various qualifications was slightly higher than that of last year. For the 2013 projected general salary adjustment, 59 companies supplied usable data for analysis, with the overall average projected salary adjustment for next year ranging from 4.1 percent to 4.5 percent. A follow-up survey will be conducted in this December to provide the latest projected salary adjustment figures for 2013.