A HKGCC survey shows the gap between civil service and private sector pay is too wide

A HKGCC survey on the level of civil service and private sector pay levels, the first comprehensive pay level survey of its kind since 1986, has yielded some alarming results.

The survey found that comparing civil service averages with the upper quartile (75th percentile) in the private sector, total cash compensation (excluding housing benefits) for civil servants is 17 per cent higher.

When the cost of benefits (but excluding housing and education) are added in, the average total remuneration in the civil service is 40 per cent higher than the upper quartile in the private sector.

The Chamber commissioned Watson Wyatt Worldwide (WWW) to concentrate on a total of 76 job families covering approximately 69,000 civil servants whose work is comparable to employees in the private sector to carefully match these jobs with their equivalents in their database of private sector pay.

"No matter how we analyse the results, we found civil service pay is substantially higher than in the private sector, at all levels, regardless of job family," HKGCC Chairman Christopher Cheng said.

The government has repeatedly stated that the whole of Hong Kong must share the pain, so civil servants also need to share the hardship. HKGCC proposes that the government expedite its own full pay level survey, and reduce civil service pay this year by the proposed 6 per cent as soon as possible.