Hong Kong ranks fourth in Asia-Pacific for employee equity pay

The city tied with the Philippines, behind Australia, Singapore and India in 2025. 

Hong Kong employers are increasingly offering workers a stake in the company as part of their pay packages, with the city ranking fourth amongst Asia-Pacific’s (APAC) top markets for equity pay, a Deel report showed.

The city tied with the Philippines in the region in 2025 for the number of Employer-of-Record (EOR) employees receiving equity, behind Australia, Singapore, and India.

“The shift suggests equity compensation is no longer something only Silicon Valley or a handful of established tech hubs can offer,” said Lauren Thomas, economist at Deel.

“It's certainly not just a perk for the leadership team anymore,” Thomas added.

She said companies are using equity to attract talent, with a similar shift taking place amongst artificial intelligence firms.

Across APAC, the proportion of new starters receiving an equity grant rose to 16.7% in the first half of the year (H1) from 6.5% in 2023.

The region’s share of global new-hire equity grants also more than doubled to 10% in H1 from 4% in 2022. 

By comparison, North America and Europe, and the Middle East and Africa saw their shares peak in 2024 before declining, the report said.

Sales roles accounted for 27% of  EOR equity grants, up from 18% in 2023.

US-headquartered firms remained the biggest equity issuers, granting shares to an average of 45% of their workforce, ahead of companies in Germany, the UK, France, and the Netherlands.

The findings are based on anonymised and aggregated Deel platform data covering over 8,000 employees across nearly 100 countries who received equity over the past four years.