LCQ15: Earnings of youths in Hong Kong
5.5.2021

Following is a question by the Hon Luk Chung-hung and a written reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Christopher Hui, in the Legislative Council today (May 5): Question: Will the Government inform this Council of the average monthly employment earnings (at constant 2018 dollars) of full-time employees across different birth cohorts (as set out in the first column of the table below) when they reached the ages listed in the table below, broken down by selected educational attainment (i.e. (i) upper secondary educated, (ii) post-secondary non-degree educated, (iii) bachelor's degree educated, and (iv) postgraduate educated) (set out in tables of the same format as the table below)? Educational attainment: _________ Birth cohort Year in which the cohort aged 20-24 Earnings ($) of cohort members when their ages reached 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 1970 - 1974 1994 1975 - 1979 1999 1980 - 1984 2004 1985 - 1989 2009 - 1990 - 1994 2014 - - 1995 - 1999 2019 - - - Reply: President, Based on the data obtained from the General Household Survey conducted by the Census and Statistics Department, average monthly employment earnings of fullâtime employees (at constant 2018 dollars, excluding foreign domestic helpers) of different cohorts by selected educational attainment are provided below: (i) Full-time employees (Note 1) with upper secondary educational attainment Cohorts born in Year in which the cohort aged 20-24 Average monthly employment earnings (Note 2) of the cohort concerned when their ages reached (HK$) 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 1970 - 1974 1994 12,100 14,900 18,400 18,600 1975 - 1979 1999 11,700 14,600 16,500 17,900 1980 - 1984 2004 10,600 13,000 15,600 19,300 1985 - 1989 2009 10,700 13,700 18,200 - 1990 - 1994 2014 11,900 15,600 - - 1995 - 1999 2019 13,500 - - - (ii) Full-time employees (Note 1) with post-secondary non-degree educational attainment Cohorts born in Year in which the cohort aged 20-24 Average monthly employment earnings (Note 2) of the cohort concerned when their ages reached (HK$) 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 1970 - 1974 1994 14,800 20,000 24,800 26,300 1975 - 1979 1999 14,300 18,200 21,600 23,600 1980 - 1984 2004 11,600 15,700 19,100 24,400 1985 - 1989 2009 11,600 15,100 21,400 - 1990 - 1994 2014 12,200 17,100 - - 1995 - 1999 2019 14,400 - - - (iii) Full-time employees (Note 1) with undergraduate educational attainment Cohorts born in Year in which the cohort aged 20-24 Average monthly employment earnings (Note 2) of the cohort concerned when their ages reached (HK$) 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 1970 - 1974 1994 19,400 26,500 38,300 45,900 1975 - 1979 1999 17,100 24,600 37,300 40,000 1980 - 1984 2004 14,300 23,700 31,000 41,100 1985 - 1989 2009 16,900 21,700 33,700 - 1990 - 1994 2014 16,200 24,300 - - 1995 - 1999 2019 18,000 - - - (iv) Full-time employees (Note 1) with post-graduate educational attainment Cohorts born in Year in which the cohort aged 20-24 Average monthly employment earnings (Note 2) of the cohort concerned when their ages reached (HK$) 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 1970 - 1974 1994 26,100 34,700 47,100 65,300 1975 - 1979 1999 21,100 29,300 47,200 51,400 1980 - 1984 2004 19,600 31,700 43,000 59,400 1985 - 1989 2009 19,900 27,100 46,000 - 1990 - 1994 2014 18,300 29,800 - - 1995 - 1999 2019 19,400 - - - Note 1: Refer to employees who work at least 35 hours, or those who work less than 35 hours due to vacation during the seven days before enumeration. Note 2: The average monthly employment earnings are easily affected by extreme values in the survey sample, more so when reckoned for higher-end workers. They should therefore be interpreted with caution, in particular when they are compared over time.