Episode 18: Payroll in Hong Kong

Luisa Rollenhagen (00:07): Hello, and welcome to another episode of Payroll Around the World! I’m your host, Luisa Rollenhagen. 

This audio series is your in-depth guide to exploring the intricacies of global payroll. Each episode spotlights a specific country and features interviews with ADP experts on the ground, as well as locals who share their perspectives on work and pay in their homeland. 

After all, payroll can’t truly be global if it isn’t local as well. 

Today, we’re heading to Hong Kong. The special administrative region is one of Asia’s most dynamic business hubs and famous for its imposing skyline, bustling street food scene, and its strategic position as a gateway to mainland China. The region’s robust service economy and its identity as a financial powerhouse have shaped everything from its workforce to its payroll processes. 

Hong Kong’s location defines its unique identity. The bustling port city has placed its mark on the world thanks to its financial sector, and world-class transport links have long made it a landing point for multinational companies looking to expand in Asia. Despite ongoing competitive pressure from nearby economic centers like Singapore and Shanghai, Hong Kong continues to attract talent, capital, and enterprise. 

But this appeal also creates challenges for the region: The territory only encompasses just over 1,000-square-kilometre (just under 400 sq mi), but contains over 7.5 million people. This makes Hong Kong the fourth-most densely populated region in the world. As such, housing and other living costs are expensive, with short supply creating much higher prices than compared to mainland China.  

Harry Chen (02:06): 

The high cost of living has a significant impact on employers’ tailored attraction strategies.  

So we are recruiting cross-border workers from the mainland. Employers will also consider their salary level in the mainland and try to offer a certain premium to ensure that the income of the employees can meet their living cost in Hong Kong. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (02:31): For employees, the Chinese city of Shenzhen, which is right across the border from Hong Kong, is an appealing option for those looking to get more square metres for their money. 

Edmond (02:41): 

So because of the rental in Hong Kong is quite high and just keep going up as well, so I’m looking for the alternative in Shenzhen. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (02:50): The rise in cross-border workers also means that employers need to navigate different regulatory requirements for their employees depending on where they live. 

Jenny Sun (03:00): 

No matter if you are cross border workers or you are working in Hong Kong locally, you need to follow the local legislation. It’s based on where the employment contract is signed. For example, if you are signing employer contract in Hong Kong, then you definitely need to follow the Hong Kong government legislation part. And if you are signing a contract with China mainland, then you are focusing on the China mainland social benefit related part. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (03:31): We’ll dive into all of the details in just a few minutes. But first, I’d like to introduce our ADP experts for this episode. Hi Jenny and Harry, thanks for joining us! Would you like to introduce yourselves? 

Jenny Sun (03:43): 

This is Jenny Sun speaking. I am working as the service director for Hong Kong payroll focusing on local solutions. And currently we are serving over 400 clients in Hong Kong market. 

Harry Chen (03:57): 

My name is Harry Chen. I’m the service director managing the multinational clients in the Asia Pacific region. So Hong Kong is one of the markets I’m supporting.  

Luisa Rollenhagen (04:08): I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on payroll in Hong Kong. Let’s start with an overview of the current economy and labor market. How would you describe it? 

Harry Chen (04:18): 

So overall Hong Kong’s economy is very positive historically and naturally. Hong Kong is the connection between the international market and the mainland market. So it is a place always where international funds, the talents and the multinational companies gather. 

Jenny Sun (04:36): 

On top of Harry’s point, maybe I can introduce more on the labor market part. Hong Kong has a population around 7.5 million, while the labor force is above 57 % of the total population and in Hong Kong markets it has a pretty low unemployment rate.  

Luisa Rollenhagen (04:55):  

And in terms of the search for talent, what sectors are particularly focused on recruitment right now? 

Harry Chen (05:02): 

So the finance industry has a strong demand for talents in the traditional areas such as there are a lot of investment banking, wealth management, and also risk control these traditional strong areas in Hong Kong. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (05:17): I’d imagine that employers are therefore increasingly investing in benefits such as housing allowances, private health insurance, and flexible work arrangements to attract and retain talent, particularly in the face of ongoing competition from cities like Singapore and Shanghai. 

Harry Chen (05:33): 

We see the overall the package, the salary also increasing competitively in this region. So overall the medium annual salary for the financial industry is about 600,000 Hong Kong dollars and the annual salary, if we are looking at those senior positions executive level, it can exceed 2 million Hong Kong dollars. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (05:56): But the cost of living in Hong Kong is also famously quite high, right? 

Harry Chen (06:01): 

Of course we all understand that the living cost is famously high in Hong Kong, but what we should look at from the two sides, first of course it means the attractiveness of Hong Kong to those cross region and international talents because those career development opportunities and the high end positions it can offer. But yes, you are correct. The high cost of living has a significant impact on employers tailored attraction strategies. So with the increase in the cross-border workers from the mainland China to Hong Kong. So we see in several areas that the employer’s strategies are changing. So first we see that the employers, they tend to provide more attractive salary and the benefits systems to the employees due to the high cost of living in Hong Kong. 

So this is something we will add more cost to those cross-border talent attraction. Secondly, the employers also, we see more and more employers, they try to provide the housing subsidies to their employees to support them to settle down in Hong Kong because the housing costs is a major expense to the employees in Hong Kong. To relieve the pressure of employees housing, more than 50% of the employees when they’re trying to seek a job in Hong Kong, they expect to receive housing subsidies and sub employers. They directly provide housing allowances. While other companies, they will cooperate with those real estate companies to provide employees with the preferential housing rental or purchase options. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (07:57): Right, so it sounds pretty similar to the housing fund program in China.  

I’m also glad you mentioned cross-border workers, because we will be getting into that in just a minute. But first, I’d like to talk about some of the unique aspects of Hong Kong payroll.  

One of the most important facets of payroll in Hong Kong is its territorial tax system. Can you two explain this to me in more detail? 

Harry Chen (08:23) 

It is something very different from the mainland because Hong Kong follows a territorial tax system, meaning only the income earned in Hong Kong is subject to the taxation in Hong Kong. So both employers and employees have their own tax related responsibilities. So especially to employers, because that part is important to those companies, they want to have business in Hong Kong. So employers mainly have the reporting. So at the end of each year the employers in Hong Kong will be required to file an annual employer’s return with the IRD, the Inland Revenue Department. This return will provide details of all the employees of their remuneration and their other relevant information. And the employer’s return must be submitted to the IRD within one month of the end of the tax year. Here the tax year for Hong Kong is from April to March. And also the salary tax in Hong Kong, there are two ways to calculate the salary tax. In Hong Kong, the employer can either use a progressive tax rate ranging from 2% to 17% or a standard tax rate of 15% sent to calculate the salary tax for the employee. So there were also multiple allowances such as the basic allowance, the married person’s allowance and also child allowance which can further reduce the individual tax burden for the employee in Hong Kong. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (10:00): Right, and I also read that employers need to submit a particular tax form called the IR56. What can you tell me about that? 

Jenny Sun (10:09): 

So when you have a new starters in the company, you need to register in the government with IR 56 E submission, this need to be completed within three months after the onboarding of a new employee. And then if you have someone who is going to cease the employment with this employer and then as an employer you need to submit IR 56 F for example to IRD. Yes, that need to happen one month before the employee’s cessation of the employment. And also if someone is living in Hong Kong, you need to submit IR 56 G that also need to happen one month before the employee’s expected date of departure. So there are different rules related to different forms. So that is also complex parts of Hong Kong legislation rules and where we see a lot of our clients needs of support from us. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (11:12): So there are different variations of this form that employers need to submit, depending on new hires, departures, or tax clearance situations. I imagine this can get particularly tricky in industries with high turnover rates, such as retail. 

Harry Chen (11:27): 

I just want to answer that question about the retail because we do have such a client that is a very, very large retail client based in Hong Kong. So it is actually also a very big challenge to us initially when it was firstly set up because of the industry special situation that we do see it is a very high turnover rate by month usually it also operates in a very special way that it has maybe more than 3000 stores in Hong Kong, one single location in all those more than 20, 25,000 employees. They are working actually in different stores and sometimes they just change the working location from one store to another. And sometimes a lot of people they just leave the company and also new hires a lot. So that’s why because the Hong Kong regulation requires that all the final payments need to be paid based in seven days post the employees left. 

So it actually requires us to provide not only, because if we only need to meet the legislation requirements, we need to arrange maybe the off cycle to process the termination pay for every seven days. But for this client we need to arrange more frequent final pay cycles. In real situation it is daily, we need to daily receive the list of the employees, leave the company, and we need to arrange the payments within the same day, within several hours to complete all the data inputs, the calculation, the reports, and also the bank file transfer everything within several hours. So we have a very highly efficient and robust system and we customized for this client to create some program to support this flexible calculation so that we can support this daily termination payment calculation payout successfully. So this also operates and works very well today. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (13:31): That’s a great example of ADP tailoring its solutions to meet its clients’ needs for an irregular payroll cycle while still remaining compliant. 

One aspect of Hong Kong payroll that comes up again and again is the Mandatory Provident Fund, also known as the MPF. It’s Hong Kong’s core retirement scheme. What do employees need to know about this?  

Harry Chen (13:54) 

The Mandatory Providence Fund, or we call it MPF actually it is a quite comprehensive and complete scheme that the government, they the design to help to ensure all the employees they can get the pension and the support after they retired from the position.  

So it serves as the core part of Hong Kong’s multitiered multi-tiered retirement security framework. It is designed to provide a stable financial foundation for the Hong Kong working population after retirement through a mandatory contribution and a long-term investment appreciation. So the coverage first it has a mandatory participants, so generally speaking all the employees and also the self-employed individuals in Hong Kong aged between 18 to 64, they must participate in the MPF. So this includes all the full-time employees, part-time employees and also those daily wage temporary workers are all included. 

The exemption only for those domestic helpers working in employers, residents and also those self-employed workers and also civil servants that covered by those statutory pension schemes. And also for foreign workers, if you are foreign workers, you work in Hong Kong, you are exempted from the MPF participation in the first 13 months. But after the 13 months starting from the 14th months, all the foreign workers also need to be participated in the MPF. For the contribution rules, it is quite straightforward. So both the employer and the employee, you each can contribute 5% of the employee’s relevant income every month. And also the monthly income subject to contribution has a cap between 7,100 Hong Kong dollar to 30,000 Hong Kong dollars. 

The employers has no such exemption and must start the contribution from the first working day of the new hired employees. And besides the mandatory contribution, there is also a voluntary contribution. So the employee and employer can also make additional voluntary contribution based on their additional agreements on this. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (16:19): So how are the funds that are held in the MPF managed? 

Harry Chen (16:23): 

The government used many trustees because in Hong Kong, Hong Kong is a financial center. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (16:27): What do you mean by trustees? 

Harry Chen (16:28): 

These trustees actually are those famous finance companies. They are authorized by the government, by the MPF authority to manage those MPF funds for those employers. So basically the employer can select one or several or from these trustees usually like some famous brands like the AIA, the HSBC, ManuLife, these are all the trustees they operate in Hong Kong and also each trustee they have different schemes or plans they provided for the employers and employees to select.  

The MPF authority is responsible for the regulating and supervising the operations of all those MPF schemes. And the funds in MPF accounts are invested in various portfolios selected by the participants. Usually these are the low-risk money market funds, the guaranteed funds or medium risk bonds. 

And also we see that in recent years the MPF is continuously improving its system. For instance, the MPF has launched a new policy in May 2025 that allowed to abolish the previous MPF offsetting arrangements, which means that from now on the employers, when they are paying the long service pay or the severance pay to the employee, they can no longer offset those mandatory MPF contributions they have paid in the past. So in this way it is also better safeguarding the employees benefits and interests. 

Jenny Sun (18:10): 

I just want to remind other employers about the MPF payment time. So the MPF payments of the current months need to happen before the 10th of the second months. It might vary due to different holidays, but normally it’s around the 10th and if you have a late payment fee of MPF, 5% of the amount of full contribution, the employer need to bear the penalty. So the employer will bear both the employee and employer’s portion of the late payments fee. The trustee will pay the full amount of the late payment fee to the diluent employee. Okay. So that is very important reminder for the employers 

Luisa Rollenhagen (18:55): So it’s important to adhere to the deadlines. I was also reading about another type of retirement system called the ORSO scheme. How does this differ from the MPF? 

Harry Chen (19:06): 

MPF was introduced first in 2000, but before that, with the Hong Kong’s economy has been developed with a very high speed in the 1960s and the seventies. More and more employers, they start to provide those voluntary retirement schemes to attract and retain the outstanding talents which lead to the foundation of this we call ORSO because this is the meaning actually is quite similar like the MPF that is also there is a standard contribution from either the employee or employer or both. 

So this ordinance established a registration system for those voluntary occupational retirement schemes and the marketing that is the starting point of the ORSO, but when the ORSO actually only provided by some employers, some leading companies. So its coverage is not that wide. So with the aim to have a more wider coverage for more populations to all those maybe self-employed talents, the government introduced the mandatory MPF in 2000. So ORSO, which was purely voluntary, so began to be gradually replaced. Of course today we see that still there were some companies they continue to offer the ORSO schemes, but we see more and more companies they are switching to the MPF. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (20:29): I see, so the main difference is that MPF is a mandatory, government-regulated retirement scheme, while ORSO (which stands for Occupational Retirement Schemes Ordinance) is an employer-driven, often voluntary scheme that was in place before MPF. And MPF contributions are mandatory for both employer and employee, whereas ORSO contributions can be made solely by the employer or jointly. 

Another reason for ORSO being phased out is the digital advances being made with regards to the MPF system. A new eMPF platform has been introduced, and it’s meant to streamline all MPF administration — from contributions to reporting — under a unified, government-managed digital system. What can you tell me about this? 

Jenny Sun (21:20): 

Currently we have several trustees running in Hong Kong market, I think roughly around 20 trustees. Basically each trustees have their own different forms for new enrollment and different reports required for submission. So based on this, Hong Kong government is onboarding all these trustees on a new platform that is called the eMPF. Yeah, the purpose is of course to standardize all these enrollment forms and reports which make it easier for both employee and employers. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (21:56): Is this a reflection towards a broader digitalization trend? 

Jenny Sun (22:00): 

In recent years we see the Hong Kong government is working a lot on digitalization from some years ago for IR submission, this is basically for the submission to the tax bureaus, it’s become digitalized. Before this digitalization, all these IR forms need to be assigned and then printed out and then submitted to IRD physically. After the digitalization it starts to support e-filing basically from a software company or a service provider like ADP. We can export XML format and using this format we can submit online to IRD website directly. This is very convenient for employers and also for service provider like us. And recently we also see that the government is working on this eMPF onboarding. So we believe that Hong Kong government is planning a lot of these digitalizations. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (23:01): Good to know!  

So the MPF covers retirement. What about things like health insurance? 

Harry Chen (23:06): 

Actually in Hong Kong there is no such statutory required health benefits, but most employers those are managed more by the commercial insurance schemes provided by those insurance companies. So usually this is also provided as an additional benefits to the employees to support them, especially when we have this kind of cross border or those foreign international talents to be attracted to be working in Hong Kong. This is an important benefit that it could be offered by the employer. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (23:42): Okay, so it’s managed privately and there are no mandatory government contributions from employers. 

I want to steer the conversation towards the topic of cross-border workers, which we had previously touched on before. 

Hong Kong’s proximity to Shenzhen has made cross-border commuting increasingly common. It’s also pretty quick to commute between the two, isn’t it? 

Jenny Sun (24:07): 

I think one important factor is recently the government has also invested a lot in this public transportation for this kind of workers. For example, the high-speed train from Hong Kong to mainland China, it only takes about 15 minutes. So that makes all these flexible working hours across border transport workers possible that they can easily handle to live in mainland China and then to work in Hong Kong.  

Luisa Rollenhagen (24:36): That’s a much quicker commute than some who live and work across two zip codes need to undertake. 

To better understand what cross-border work looks like on an employee level, we spoke with Edmond, an independent financial advisor who lives in Shenzhen but works in Hong Kong. 

Edmond (24:56): 

I was born in Malaysia and then I grew up there and then I just complete my university in UK. After that I just moved to China, Shanghai, Beijing for my working life. 

After that, during the COVID time I moved to Hong Kong, and then I just start my career here for, since three years ago.  

I come back to Hong Kong just because I have two citizenship in Malaysia and Hong Kong as well. So there’s a convenient for me to move back to Hong Kong and then easy for me to find a job here. And then because my majoring for the academic is accounting and finance, so since Hong Kong is a financial hub, international financial hub, I looking for the financial job here. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (25:35): Edmond told us that he moved to Shenzhen in early 2025 in search of more affordable rent. 

Edmond (25:41): 

So because of the rental in Hong Kong is quite high and just keep going up as well. So I’m looking for the alternative in Shenzhen. So I rent an apartment there for 3,500 renminbi and then for 300 square feet. So it was quite a good deal actually. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (25:59): I’m just going to interject very briefly to explain that “renminbi” is the official currency of China. You may be more familiar with “yuan”, but that’s actually a unit of the renminbi, although they are used interchangeably. 

Back to Edmond. 

Edmond (26:15): 

In Hong Kong it’s very hard to do that because in Hong Kong if you get a same size of apartment, maybe you need to get the rental for 10,000 Hong Kong dollars at least. Yeah. So that’s why I have to look for alternative to save my living costs. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (26:31): But it’s not only rent that’s cheaper. 

Edmond (26:34): 

Actually it was quite convenient, especially the food. The food there also quite cheap. And then maybe I’m lazy to go out to have a food, right? So I can call for the food delivery service. And then the price is quite significant cheap compared to Hong Kong. And then sometimes I think the infrastructure in Shenzhen as well is quite developed. So everything is quite convenient and then quite useful for the society and then to use all the facilities there. So compared in Hong Kong, I mean the facility in Hong Kong right now is quite old and then not furnish quite well.  

Luisa Rollenhagen (27:10): Edmond has many options for transportation when it comes to commuting between his home and his office in Harbour City in Hong Kong, including a high-speed train, a regular train, and a bus. His typical workday doesn’t sound too different from what most office commuters do on a daily basis. 

Edmond (27:30): 

Usually I will wake up around 7:00 AM and then I will take a bath and then change the clothes and then I will go out from my house around 7:30 AM So I will arrive in office around 9:00 AM between 9:00 AM or 9:30 AM because my office require me to attend here by 9:30 AM. So there’s the time for me to travel. For the night after the office hour in Hong Kong, so usually I will work OT or maybe I will meet client at night. So I will travel by bus and then go back to Shenzhen. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (28:05): His flexible working arrangements also allow him to work from home for a certain number of days. 

Edmond (28:11): 

My job is not required to attend in the office daily. So I just need to come here for three days per week, maybe maximum is four days. And then the rest of the time I will basically be in Shenzhen so I can work from home. So there’s no much challenge for me. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (28:27): When it comes to taxes, Edmond does have to adhere to certain rules. 

Edmond (28:32): 

Basically I’m paying tax in Hong Kong right now. So there’s a rule when some residents not staying in mainland China more than 102 days, so you are not entitled to pay tax in China. So there’s a rules inside a year. So there’s a combination period for 182 days to become a tax resident. So because every day I need to travel and then commute between Hong Kong and China. So because in the morning I travel through Hong Kong and then I stay until nighttime, maybe 12 hours in Hong Kong and then another 12 hours in Shenzhen, maybe I go back and sleep only. And then the other days is keep repeating the cycle so there is not calculating one day as 24 hours. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (29:18): China determines tax residency largely based on how many days an individual resides in mainland China within a tax year (it’s 183 days, actually). 

China also has special arrangements for Hong Kong residents working partly in mainland China. If a Hong Kong resident works in mainland China fewer than a certain number of days, they may be exempt from paying mainland China income tax on income sourced from Hong Kong employment. Since a “day” is counted only if you are physically in China for more than 24 hours, China’s administration allows for 102 days as the threshold for this arrangement. 

Many of Edmond’s “calendar days in China” therefore do not count as “China tax days” because he enters Hong Kong in the morning, returns to Shenzhen at night, and doesn’t often stay in China for 24 consecutive hours. This allows all his income to be taxed solely in Hong Kong at much lower rates. 

Edmond (30:23): 

Hong Kong tax rate for the personal tax is quite low compared to China because China, the tax rate, the highest one is 45% and in Hong Kong it’s 17% only. That’s a difference. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (30:35): When it comes to social security contributions, Edmond is also exempt from Chinese contributions and only pays into the MPF. 

Edmond (30:44): 

Right now I only contribute for the MPF in Hong Kong. So in China I didn’t contribute any things because unless I have a job in China or I establish a company there. Maybe if I need to do some business, I maybe need to do some social contribution in China. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (31:03): I wanted to know how these kinds of cross-border arrangements affected the tax processes of employers, so I went back to Jenny and Harry to find out more. 

Jenny Sun (31:14): 

It is mainly handled by some consulting firms on this kind of taxation part. From outside though as a service on payroll, what we see is no matter you are cross border workers or you are working in Hong Kong locally, you need to follow the local legislation. It’s definitely based on where the employment contract is signed. For example, if you are signing employer contract in Hong Kong, then you definitely need to follow the Hong Kong government legislation part. And if you are signing a contract with China mainland, then you are focusing on the China mainland social benefit related part. And then depending on where you are retiring, you can enjoy the benefits from different locations. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (32:02): What are some other considerations that employers need to remember when dealing with cross-border employees, or expats, of which there are also many? 

Harry Chen (32:12): 

The Hong Kong government, they have employment ordinance legislation that is used to regulate the wage should be preferably to be paid, how it should be paid and when it should be paid. These are all regulated. So basically the employment ordinance, of course it says all the salary to be preferably to be paid in Hong Kong dollars, but for expatriates those are paid partially in foreign currencies. 

The employers, they must convert the foreign currency portion into Hong Kong dollars in accordance with the requirements of the IRD for salaries tax declaration. And also this is a point that some employers they may not be aware of is IRD. They requires to use the fixed exchange rate announced by the Hong Kong monetary authority on May 31st each year for the conversion in the next year. But if employers they missed to use the correct exchange rate, then there will be some additional administrative work they need to tackle with the authority, the IRD, because the tax calculation will have difference. 

And also another point need to be aware is the housing allowance for expatriates in Hong Kong, usually it is regarded as a taxable income because the tax calculation method will vary according to the form of the housing benefits. So if an employer provides residence directly to the employee, then the taxable amount should be calculated based on the rental value of the property.  

And if in another way if a cash housing allowance is provided to the employee, then the full amount must be included in the employee’s accessible income for salary tax calculation. So many employers have difficulties in distinguishing the tax standards of different housing benefits. For example, they may be confused with the service apartments with hotel rooms and apply lower tax rate by mistake or failing to declare the full amount of the cash housing allowance, which will be held accountable by the IRD during the tax audits. So basically these are some examples that we think the employer must be aware of when they operate in Hong Kong. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (34:39): Those are all very critical points. So how does ADP help clients in Hong Kong navigate all of these requirements? 

Harry Chen (34:47): 

So compliance is the core value of ADP. We have virtual committee called the legislation committee. Their role is to monitor and collect those legal change no matter how small it is, they will use the technology and also the AI different way to collect those information. And also they work with the local vendors and local law firms to help them to analyse and to understand those legal requirements. And then once it is collected, our legislation committees, we will draft the communication with the clients in share those information with our clients in different ways like the webinars or the newsletters bulletins, these kind of measures. And also besides just to inform our clients of the legal change, we also provide the ADP’s insights and the analysis of those legal requirements and also the actions that our clients need to take to be compliant to these requirements. 

Jenny Sun (35:54): 

We are not only monitoring the feedback or the legislation update from the government, we’re also trying to analyse and update our product. For example, there are several updates such as hourly rate was increased and then we will check in our client’s database to see if any of our clients who has this kind of exceptional case which has a lower hourly rate than the government. And then if really happens on top of legislation manager’s information, our contact person will also call our client HR to remind them they need to follow this up. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (36:33): That’s really good to know, thank you. 

We’re nearing the end of the episode, but before we go, I’d like to ask you my favorite question: What do you love about working in payroll in Hong Kong? 

Jenny Sun (36:46): 

For me personally, I like different cultures in Hong Kong because it is a labor market with a lot of experts. So when we are working with different type of culture, different type of people and different type of industry, we really see the benefits of being in one part of the big world. So that is really a biggest part. I like working in Hong Kong payroll. 

Harry Chen (37:13): 

For me, because Hong Kong is a highly developed and mature market, so I really enjoy working that it’s professional growth, the stable benefits, and also the dynamic working environment when I tackle with those Hong Kong clients and also we see that it has very standardized regulation framework, the diverse career development opportunities. And the most important thing, I think it is the clear and the standardized compliance environment. So it’ll reduce a lot of operational risks and also ensures its highly efficient because in the payroll field in Hong Kong, it is governed by some very sound and rigorous laws and the regulations. 

Luisa Rollenhagen (37:57): Those are great answers, thank you!  

We’ve reached the end of our episode. Jenny and Harry, I appreciate you joining us today and sharing your insights with us. It was really interesting to learn more about how tax and social contribution regulations are affected by cross-border employees and how Hong Kong compares to its regional neighbours. 

I hope you got a bit more insight into the intricacies of payroll and the labor landscape in Hong Kong today. If this episode has piqued your interest or your company is considering expanding into Hong Kong, please visit hk.adp.com to find out more. 

And don’t forget to subscribe to learn more about payroll around the world with each new episode.  

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