27th October 2026 – (Hong Kong) Legislative Council members have been handed a 1.6 per cent pay rise from this month, pushing the basic monthly salary past HK$110,000 and adding nearly HK$2 million a year in public spending once the wider package is counted.
With the government’s fiscal position easing, civil servants earlier won a uniform 2 per cent increase, politically appointed officials 1.3 per cent and judicial officers 2 per cent. Lawmakers’ packages can move too. Under the standing formula, members’ remuneration, the ceiling on claimable medical allowances and the caps on reimbursable office operating expenses are adjusted each year with the Consumer Price Index (C). Lawmakers are understood to have been told the rise is 1.6 per cent, backdated to 1st October – though LegCo has made no special public announcement.
After the adjustment, an ordinary member’s basic monthly pay is HK$110,530, up HK$1,740. President Starry Lee draws double that rate at HK$221,060, a rise of HK$3,480. House Committee chairman Chan Chun-ying is on HK$165,800, up HK$2,610. Three members who also sit on the Executive Council – Chan Hak-kan, Kenneth Lau and Stanley Ng Chau-pei – take two-thirds of the basic rate after the mandatory one-third cut, leaving HK$73,690 a month, up HK$1,160.
On those figures alone, the Legislative Council’s total monthly salary bill rises by HK$155,730. The new rates run at least until next September, so the salary uplift over a year is about HK$1.86 million – the near-HK$2 million headline once rounded against the wider public-purse impact. The same CPI(C) mechanism also covers medical allowances and office operating reimbursements, but actual claims differ from member to member, so a precise grand total is hard to pin down.