Introduction
This Report
18. In support of the Task Force on the Review of Civil Service Pay Policy and System, PwC Consulting were appointed in February 2002 to conduct research into the latest developments in Civil Service pay administration in selected Governments and to identify practices that might be of relevance to Hong Kong, having regard to the history and development of the Civil Service pay system here. The study covers five countries – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom (UK).
19. This report sets out the interim findings from the research, organised around the five key areas of interest specified to us by the Task Force. These are:
· Commonly adopted pay policies, pay systems and pay structure
· Experience of replacing fixed pay scales with pay ranges, or other pay systems
· Systems and mechanisms for determining pay levels and pay adjustments
· Experience of introducing performance-based rewards (or other means to better motivate staff)
· Experience on simplification and decentralisation of pay administration.
20. While we have necessarily examined in some detail the Civil Service pay systems in each of the comparator countries, in this report we mainly concentrate on the key principles and broad arrangements adopted elsewhere. We believe this focus helps ensure that, at this stage in the Pay Review and as an aid to public consultation, the report most usefully facilitates a considered debate on strategic options for the future shape of pay administration for the Hong Kong Civil Service.
21. A wide range of terms is used in the context of pay administration. However these terms are not always used in a consistent way across countries. For example, in the Hong Kong Civil Service the term ‘grade’ is used to describe a particular job group. In other countries a ‘grade’ more often refers to the level of seniority, comparable with the term ‘rank’ in Hong Kong. To try and ensure consistency of understanding and use of common terms we have therefore included at the end of this report a glossary of common terms, based, where appropriate, on the current Hong Kong Civil Service usage.
22. In Appendices A - E, as the background to our analysis of general learning points and good practice, we provide individual summaries of the key features of the Civil Service pay administration arrangements and experience of each of the comparator countries.
