Average salary in Hong Kong 2026: HKD 21,200 median a month

What the survey includes

The Annual Earnings and Hours Survey samples about 10,000 business undertakings across all industries except agriculture, forestry and fishing. It leaves out government employees, student interns, work experience students, live-in domestic workers and anyone with zero working hours. The HKD 21,200 is a median of gross monthly wages, and the release publishes no mean.

The percentiles show the spread better than any single average:

• 10th percentile: HKD 11,000
• 25th percentile: HKD 15,300
• Median: HKD 21,200
• 75th percentile: HKD 33,000
• 90th percentile: HKD 51,300

The 90th percentile earns 4.66 times the 10th. By sex, the median hourly wage was HKD 96.8 for men and HKD 75.8 for women. The industry table sits in a PDF attachment we could not read, so we print no sector figures. Twelve months at the median is HKD 254,400 a year, before any year-end double pay, which is contractual rather than statutory.

Employer cost: MPF and insurance

Hong Kong's payroll burden is light. The employer pays 5% of relevant income into the employee's MPF account, on income up to HKD 30,000 a month, so the most it can be is HKD 1,500. On HKD 21,200, the employer share is HKD 1,060 and the employee pays the same amount. Total employer payroll cost: HKD 22,260 a month, plus the premium for mandatory employees' compensation insurance, which is market priced.

Employers do not withhold salaries tax; employees file and pay it themselves, which keeps payroll simple. The bigger costs are contractual or event-driven: year-end bonuses and, on dismissal after enough service, severance or long service payments, which the Hong Kong employer of record page explains.

A company with no Hong Kong entity can hire through an employer of record (EOR). List prices checked October 16, 2026 run from $99 a month (Native Teams, whose help center says EUR 99) to $699 (Oyster); Deel publishes $599. With such a small statutory share, the EOR fee is most of the overhead, so compare what each EOR charges and see the cost index.

Median pay and the statutory minimum wage

The statutory minimum wage is HKD 43.1 an hour from May 1, 2026. The 2025 median hourly wage of HKD 85.7 is 1.99 times that, though the dates differ by a year. Hong Kong has no standard working hours in law, so there is no official monthly minimum; it is HKD 43.1 times hours worked. Employers must keep hours records for staff earning under HKD 17,600 a month. Read more on the Hong Kong minimum wage page.

Regional comparisons: the Singapore median income and average pay in Taiwan. Providers are ranked in our EOR comparison.