Reading a Hong Kong offer

When a Hong Kong employer gives you an offer, check it item by item. Separate what is a statutory protection from what exists only because the contract says so. The points below follow the Labour Department's A Concise Guide to the Employment Ordinance (finalised December 2025), the Labour Department page on the statutory minimum wage, the MPFA pages on mandatory contributions and on the scope of the MPF system, and the Immigration Department's rules for IANG (Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates). Checked 18 October 2026. This is not legal advice.

What the offer or the contract must state

The Concise Guide to the Employment Ordinance states that, before you start, the employer must explain the following conditions of employment to you in detail.

1. Wages, including the wage rate, the overtime rate, and any allowance.
2. The wage period.
3. The notice required to end the contract.
4. If you are entitled to an end-of-year payment, the particulars of that payment, of any pro-rata end-of-year payment, and of the payment period.

If the contract is in writing, you must be given a copy. Any term that extinguishes or reduces a right, benefit, or protection conferred by the Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57) is void.

Check each part of the pay

1. Monthly salary: confirm that the figure is before tax and before the MPF deduction.
2. Fixed allowances: housing, transport, meals, and similar items paid in cash are usually "relevant income" for MPF. Contributions are calculated on the MPFA's definition.
3. A 13th-month payment or double pay: the MPFA classes these as relevant income. Whether they are paid, and for how many months, is decided by the contract.
4. Bonus: separate an end-of-year payment that the contract provides for from a bonus the employer pays at discretion. The first is protected under Chapter 8 of the Employment Ordinance. The second is not. The MPFA classes a bonus that is linked to performance, or paid at discretion, as relevant income.
5. Commission: a sum calculated on the value of transactions, the number of transactions, or a project is relevant income.
6. Shares or other long-term incentives: check the vesting conditions, what happens if you leave, and the tax treatment.
7. Medical insurance, the number of days of annual leave, training support, and professional examination fees: these are matters for the contract. Have each one written in.

Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF)

1. Who must join: employees and self-employed persons aged 18 to 64 must join an MPF scheme, unless they are exempt. A person employed continuously for 60 days or more, in any industry, is a "regular employee".
2. The contribution rate: the employer and the employee each contribute 5% of the employee's relevant income, subject to the minimum and maximum levels of relevant income.
3. Monthly-paid employees: if relevant income is below HK$7,100, the employee does not contribute, and the employer still contributes 5%. From HK$7,100 to HK$30,000, each side contributes 5%. Above HK$30,000, each side contributes HK$1,500.
4. The contribution holiday for a new employee: no employee contribution is required for the first 30 days of employment, nor for the incomplete wage period immediately after those 30 days, where the wage period is 1 month or shorter. Employer contributions are counted from the first day of employment.
5. Once a mandatory contribution is paid in, it vests in the employee in full.
6. One group of exempt persons: a person who comes to Hong Kong for employment under section 11 of the Immigration Ordinance, and who is permitted to stay for not more than 13 months, or a person who is a member of a retirement scheme outside Hong Kong. A person permitted to stay for more than 13 months (for example, an IANG approval of 24 months) does not fall under the "not more than 13 months" item. Whether the person is a member of an overseas retirement scheme is judged on that person's own circumstances.
7. An employee's mandatory MPF contributions are deductible for salaries tax, up to HK$18,000 a year (see the salaries tax briefing in this series).

The continuous contract: the threshold for most rights

1. The definition: employed by the same employer for 4 weeks or more continuously, and working at least 17 hours in each week, or, where a week falls below 17 hours, that week together with the 3 weeks immediately before it totals not less than 68 hours.
2. This standard was set by the Employment (Amendment) Ordinance 2025. It applies from 18 January 2026. A period of employment before that date is counted at a minimum of 18 hours a week.
3. If there is a dispute, the employer has the burden of proving that the contract is not a continuous contract.
4. Rest days, paid annual leave, sickness allowance, severance payment, long service payment, and other rights of this kind depend on a continuous contract.

Payment of wages

1. Wages fall due when the last day of the wage period ends. The employer must pay them as soon as practicable, and in any case not later than 7 days after the end of the wage period.
2. If wages are paid late, interest is payable on the wages in arrears.
3. An unlawful deduction from wages is an offence. On conviction, the maximum penalty is a fine of HK$100,000 and imprisonment for 1 year.

Leave

1. Rest day: if you are employed under a continuous contract, you are entitled to not less than 1 rest day in every 7 days.
2. Statutory holidays: every employee is entitled to them, whatever the length of service. From 2026 there are 15 days (Easter Monday is added from 2026). From 2028 the number rises to 16 days, and from 2030 it rises to 17 days. Holiday pay is payable if you have been employed under a continuous contract for 3 months before the statutory holiday.
3. Paid annual leave: you are entitled to it for every 12 months of employment under a continuous contract. Years 1 and 2: 7 days each. Year 3: 8 days. After that, 1 further day each year. From year 9: 14 days.
4. Paid sick leave: in the first 12 months, 2 days accrue for each completed month. After that, 4 days accrue for each completed month, up to a maximum of 120 days. Sickness allowance generally requires a continuous period of sick leave of not less than 4 days, and an appropriate medical certificate. The daily sum is four-fifths of the average daily wages over the specified period.

Probation and notice

1. During the first month of probation, either party may end the contract with no notice and no wages in lieu of notice.
2. After the first month of probation, notice is the period stated in the contract, but not less than 7 days. If the contract does not state it expressly, notice is not less than 7 days.
3. For a continuous contract with no probation, or where probation has been completed, notice is the period stated in the contract, but not less than 7 days. If the contract does not state it expressly, notice is not less than 1 month.
4. Wages in lieu of notice are calculated on the average wages over the notice period.

End-of-year payment

1. This applies if you are employed under a continuous contract and the contract provides for an end-of-year payment, whether the contract is oral or written, and whether the term is express or implied. An end-of-year payment includes double pay, a 13th-month payment, a year-end bonus, and payments of the same kind. It does not include a payment that is a gratuity, or a payment the employer makes at discretion.
2. For a contract made after 27 June 1997, a payment or bonus paid every year is presumed not to be a gratuity, unless a written term says otherwise.
3. You receive the full amount if you have been employed for the whole payment period. The payment period is the period the contract specifies. If the contract does not specify one, it is the lunar year.
4. Pro-rata end-of-year payment: if you have been employed under a continuous contract for not less than 3 months in the payment period, and you are still employed after the payment period ends, or you are dismissed by the employer (other than summary dismissal for serious misconduct), you are entitled to a pro-rata amount. Where a probation period is expressly agreed, the first 3 months of probation are left out when eligibility is reckoned.

Statutory minimum wage

From 1 May 2026, the statutory minimum wage is HK$43.1 an hour. Student interns and work-experience students may be exempt during the exemption period. See the relevant Labour Department guidance for the detail.

Points to check against the visa

1. The contract period: an extension under IANG is generally granted for not more than 3 years, or until the contract ends, whichever is shorter. The initial period of stay under the General Employment Policy (GEP) and the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals (ASMTP) is also limited by the contract period. If the contract states a fixed end date, note the effect on the period of stay that is granted.
2. The job title and the duties: IANG requires that the work is usually undertaken by a degree holder. The description of the duties should show professional content.
3. The level of pay: it must be at market level. The monthly salary in the contract, in any supporting letter, and in what is declared must match.
4. Where the employer has to produce visa papers (an IANG application that is not a fresh-graduate application, a change of job on an extension, GEP, or ASMTP), confirm before you start that the human resources department is willing to cooperate.

Before you accept an offer

1. The monthly salary, the fixed allowances, double pay or the end-of-year payment, and any discretionary bonus are each written out separately.
2. The wage period and the pay day.
3. The length of probation, and the notice during probation and after it.
4. The number of days of annual leave, sick leave, and medical insurance.
5. Working hours, and the arrangements for overtime.
6. Whether MPF contributions are only at the statutory minimum rate, and whether the employer makes voluntary contributions.
7. Whether the start date matches the date the visa is approved.
8. The length of the contract, and the arrangements for renewal.

Sources

• Labour Department, A Concise Guide to the Employment Ordinance (finalised December 2025)
• Labour Department, Statutory minimum wage, page (checked 18 October 2026)
• MPFA, Mandatory contributions, and Scope of the MPF system, pages (checked 18 October 2026)
• Immigration Department, Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates, page and frequently asked questions (checked 18 October 2026)