Hong Kong’s nominal wage up 8% in June

As 73% of companies reported increases in average wage rates in June compared with a year ago.

The Census & Statistics Department said today the average wage rate for all the selected industry sections surveyed, as measured by the wage index, rose about 8% in nominal terms in June over a year earlier.

About 73% of companies reported increases in average wage rates in June compared with a year ago. About 24% of the companies recorded a decrease while the remaining 3% reported virtually no change.

After discounting the changes in consumer prices, the overall average wage rate for all the selected industry sections surveyed rose about 2% in real terms.

The index of payroll per person engaged for all the industry sections surveyed rose 6.9% in nominal terms in the second quarter over a year earlier. After discounting the changes in consumer prices, the average payroll per person engaged increased by 1.8% in real terms in the second quarter over a year earlier.

For the nominal wage indices, year-on-year increases were recorded in all selected industry sections in June, ranging from 3.7% to 14.1%.

As for the nominal indices of payroll per person engaged, year-on-year increases ranging from 0.2% to 16.4% were observed in all selected industry sections in the second quarter, except the social and personal services section, in which a year-on-year decrease of 0.2% was recorded.