Hong Kong tops Greater Bay Area in fresh graduate salaries with 9.3% rise from last year

Hong Kong companies offered the highest starting salaries for fresh graduates across cities in the Greater Bay Area, boasting a 9.3 per cent increase compared with last year, a study led by universities has found.

The average starting salary this year for fresh graduates in Hong Kong was HK$19,806 (US$2,550), outperforming 14,996 patacas (US$1,870) in Macau and 5,843 yuan (US$820) in Guangdong province.

Macau recorded the fastest-growing rate of 16.4 per cent while Guangdong lagged behind with an increase rate of 4.2 per cent.

The pay rise rates for new graduates in all three places were higher than the average for all employees, with 3.5 per cent in Hong Kong, 2.7 per cent in Macau, and 2.3 per cent in Guangdong.

Huang Xu, Baptist University’s director of the Centre for Human Resource Strategy and Development, said that the numbers reflected a ‘real demand’ for fresh graduates and efforts by the government to correct the stagnant salary growth of young people.

“Over the last few decades, Hong Kong fresh graduate salaries were more or less suppressed,” Huang said.