Over 90 percent of employees are expecting a pay rise of more than what the employers are ready to pay, a survey found yesterday.

Human resources firm Hudson interviewed 2,500 employers of multinational firms in Hong Kong, the mainland, Japan and Singapore.

The respondents, 635 of them based in Hong Kong, were asked to give their views on employment situation for the fourth quarter this year.

For the results in Hong Kong, there is a significant gap between job-seekers' expectation and what the employers are ready to pay.

Ninety-two percent of the respondents said their prospective employees have asked for a pay raise by more than 5 percent.

Among them, 56 percent wanted a 10 percent pay rise.

The job-seekers' salary expectation is much higher than the 2.5 percent recommendation made by the Federation of Hong Kong Employers earlier this month.

The survey also found 54 percent of employers had plans to hire more in the fourth quarter, a six percent increase compared to the previous quarter.

To retain key staff, 72 percent of employers, the highest proportion of the markets surveyed, are prepared to make counter offers, with 77 percent citing salary increase as the most important aspect.

At the same time, turnover rate stayed on a high level as 35 percent of employers stated that their staff quit after two years or less.

Gina McLellan, Hudson's Hong Kong manager, said middle and top-management level executives always looked for a greater salary increase.

She said the average turnover in many countries and regions was 18 months and believed that in the next five years it's going to get more difficult retaining staffs.

She noted that while high turnover would affect client relations and continuity of work, it would also make it difficult for the job-hopping employees to get a promotion.

She said employers should make sure the expectations of their staff members were being addressed and continuously review their salary levels.

She reminded employees that career prospects were equally, if not more, important as salary.

Randy Chiu, Hong Kong Baptist University's professor of management department said: "Many middle and top-management level executives with solid experience in sales, retail, finance, accounting and IT sectors are leaving for the mainland."

"Mainland offers lots of opportunities as the market is thriving and Beijing Olympic Games is a year way.

"The increasing purchasing power and a booming market have created lots of business and job opportunities," he said.

He said the 5 percent pay rise was a reasonable expectation and he predicted a pay rise of 4 to 5 percent next year.

"If bosses want to raise salary of less than 5 percent then they should be prepared to retain staff by counter offers," he said.

(HK Edition 10/19/2007 page4)