The Buzz | Hong Kong finance executives defy virus with biggest bonuses

Hong Kong’s finance executives got the city’s biggest bonuses in 2020, defying a pandemic that saw more than a third of respondents miss out on their incentive payments, according to a survey by KPMG.
Finance workers got annual bonuses equivalent to 2.83 months’ salary in 2020 while real estate came in second place with 2.16 times, according to KPMG’s annual review of employment trends. They were the only sectors to increase their payouts. The survey of 702 people included executives, department heads and senior managers.
The value of the average bonus across all sectors in Hong Kong slumped to 1.83 months’ salary in 2020, compared with 2.23 a year earlier, while the proportion of those who didn’t get any bonus more than doubled to 36%.
The shifting bonuses reflects a move by companies to limit their payouts to a smaller group and focus on profit generators, said Michelle Hui, director of executive research and recruitment services at KPMG China.
KPMG said expectations for 2021 are for salaries to be flat, with 51% of respondents expecting no change.