Hong Kong and Macau employees both received an average salary increase of 2.8% this year, reflecting that the regional economy is gradually showing resilience amid caution, according to the "2026 Salary Trend Survey" conducted by the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management and CIIC Management Consulting Co., Ltd. during the first three quarters of this year.

The survey also found that overall salary adjustments across the Greater Bay Area showed a relatively steady growth trend. The institute completed interviews with 173 organizations from 12 different industries in Hong Kong between January and September this year, covering approximately 180,000 full-time employees.

Data showed that 86.2% of surveyed employees received a pay raise this year, up 4.5% year-on-year. Hong Kong employees received an average salary increase of 2.8% this year, slightly up 0.1 percentage point from 2.7% last year. In the Macau market, the survey found that Macau employees also received an average salary increase of 2.8% this year, up 0.5 percentage point from 2.3% last year, "reflecting that the Macau market is relatively more active, and also reflecting that the salary pace of the employment markets in Hong Kong and Macau is gradually converging."

Hong Kong's "01" website reported on the 25th that the average salary increase in Greater Bay Area cities reached 4.2%. Survey results showed that, by company, 92.6% of surveyed organizations gave pay raises this year. By industry, the top three industries with the highest salary increases this year were "purchasing" and "banking and financial services (including asset management and insurance)," both at 3.8%, followed by "logistics and transportation" at 3.4%. The industry with the lowest salary adjustment was "accounting and professional services" at 2.0%; "construction, engineering and building" and "hospitality and catering" received increases of 2.2% and 2.4% respectively.

Chen Junjian, consulting director of the Data Services and Benchmarking Division at CIIC Management Consulting Co., Ltd., believes that enterprises must dynamically adjust salary incentive and workforce management mechanisms, build a new human resources system adapted to the new situation, and achieve a positive balance among organizational efficiency, talent value and policy compliance.

Kong Yuren, former president and council member of the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management, said that Hong Kong employees received an average salary increase of 2.8% this year, reflecting that companies are taking a conservative and cautious approach when adjusting salaries. He believes that companies currently tend to allocate more resources to non-fixed bonuses, rewarding employees based on performance, company results and the profit environment. He believes that, given limited salary budget growth, retaining talent should not focus only on pay raises. Companies should make good use of existing resources, take the overall compensation and benefits package as the core, and combine skills training, welfare optimization and family-friendly measures to build a long-term talent retention strategy.

The Hong Kong Commercial Daily said that the Hong Kong Labour and Welfare Bureau recently released an interim update report on manpower projection, showing that the widespread application of artificial intelligence (AI) has slowed the growth of manpower demand. However, when asked whether the spread of AI in the workplace affects employees' salary increases, Kong Yuren said that at this stage the popularization of AI in Hong Kong has not caused large-scale layoffs, and employees generally use AI to assist with data analysis and other tasks. "Employees will not get a pay raise just because they know AI, nor will they get a pay cut because they do not know AI."