The 2020 Hong Kong Public Relations & Communications Industry Salary & Benefits Survey, just published by the Hong Kong Public Relations and Communications Professional Union (Union), indicates that COVID-19 severely impacted 43% of professionals in the industry.
Among the respondents, over half work for local (24%) and multinational (29%) agencies, and the rest 47%, work as in-house public relations or communications personnel across different sectors, including government or public sector (7%), NGO, educational institutions or social enterprises (9%) and private organisations (31%).
The Survey revealed that 25% of professionals in the industry faced pay freezes, while nearly 20% received pay cuts or unpaid leave. So, 1 in every 5 PR professionals had varying degrees of decrease in income, including 8% suffering direct pay cuts from 4% – 30%, and another 11% forced to take monthly unpaid leave of 1 – 14 days. The results also showed that the industry’s average weekly working hours were 47 hours, three hours over the median working hours in Hong Kong. 6% of the industry professionals reported working hours of up to 60 per week, with the most extreme case averaging 84 hours a week. 96% said that they received no compensation to work overtime.
The Survey also found that junior professionals who work in government or public organisations have the highest salaries. Meanwhile, regardless of seniority or rank group, multinational public relations agencies offer higher wages than local agencies, and such difference is more noticeable among middle-to-upper management roles and more senior roles. The average annual salary offered to those in multinational agencies with more than eight years’ experience can surpass those working in government or public institutions, depicting the better job prospects in multinational public relations agencies.
Hugo Lee, Chairman of the Hong Kong Human Resources Employees Union, said, “During the epidemic, most employers have been cautious in handling employee requests for remuneration adjustments. Employees who intend to raise such requests would have to prove their professional worth to convince their employers. Apart from pay raise, employees can table other proposals when requesting better remuneration, such as an increase in the number of days of paid annual leave and adjustments of their title/work scope to show their willingness to tide over the economic downturn with their employers.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
