Wage comparisons between Hong Kong and the UK

Hello.

I am getting married in September and my fiance is a permanent HK resident. We would like to live and work in Hong Kong for at least a few years before (perhaps) coming back to the UK. I am currently studying for a masters degree and know that in the UK I would be looking at a salary upon graduating of around £23-25k. I was wondering if anyone knew what a comparative salary in HK would be.

I know I could just put 25k into xe.com and come out with a number, but that doesn't take account of the higher cost of living - especially rental costs.

Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Henryk.

Master degrees are all fine and good, but what field do you intend working in?

The next thing would be to find if such positions are available- either generally or specifically to you as a non-Hong Kong resident- in Hong Kong.

My MSc is in geographic information systems- (locational information, spatial data collection, presentation and analysis). I didn't say earlier because I didn't want my post to sound too much like an advert. I know that there are positions available. As I am marrying a HK resident I will be able to work on a dependants visa.

I was just hoping to get some idea of comparative salaries - given different costs of living and tax rates.

H

I asked the same question about 3 years ago when we moved over..

The obvious answer is to earn as much as possible etc and a lot depends on your style of living.. If you want to live like an expat then you need to earn an expat salary.. If you intend to go out partying then again, your costs will be much higher. But with a wife then I'm assuming you'll be doing the married thing

What we found was that in terms of buying power, a UK annual salary was similar to a monthly HK one.. So if you are looking at 23-25K a year in the UK, then 23-25K HKD a month would be similar...

Rent is expensive, budget up to say 40% of your salary, but other stuff is much cheaper, electric, gas, food, transport etc.. You should also find out about the rental reimbursement schemes a lot of companies run (reduces your tax)

Cheers

Thanks MagicBox,

That is very useful rule of thumb.

Cheers

Hi!!

Can anyone tell me if 16,000 HK a month is a good salary for Hong Kong? Can I live on that? Thank you!!

For a language teaching position that is not great, but fairly standard, if you are new to teaching.

You can live on 16,000HKD, but you certainly won't be going out drinking very much. Depends what you are used to and what your expectations of HK are and where you will be living and working in HK.

This post has been edited by cheesindave: 14 July 2010 - 11:13 PM