[Updated September 1] While finding quality engineers in Hong Kong is a common complaint, the war for talent in established ecosystems like Silicon Valley is just as present. In fact, some tech companies like Facebook and Airbnb have been recruiting interns straight out of high school.
Earlier this year, the founder of a successful enterprise tech startup shared the ludicrous but true story of their efforts to lure a programmer from Google with US $500,000 annual salary as bait. Turns out, the engineer turned down the generous offer because he was already making $3 million in cash and restricted stock units (what are RSU’s?).
Turning the focus to Hong Kong, we wanted to find out what the compensation landscape was like for our burgeoning startup scene. Five Hong Kong startups, ranging from seed to Series B funding levels, shared what they were willing to pay programmers and designers ranging from fresh grad/junior to advanced level.
Programmers:
In Hong Kong, programmers can expect to receive a starting salary of HK $15,000 at a fresh grad / junior level to the highest earning potential of $80,000 per month for advanced engineers, which works out to about US $23,000 and $120,000 a year respectively.
Designers:
Hong Kong startups will start off at HK $15,000 for fresh grads / junior level and will pay up to $60,000 per month for advanced designers, which works out to about US $23,000 and $93,000 a year respectively.
[Acknowledgment] We have updated the post and apologize for any confusion. US $120,000 annual salary is by no means the average of the results – but was the highest reported compensation for advanced level engineers from surveyed startups. US $23,000 being where fresh grads and junior level developers would start.
We have also gone ahead and removed the comparison to Silicon Valley. While the original intention was to use it as a guideline, we realize that how comparing the two can be misleading.
This is an ongoing project. We’d like to hear from more startups in order to get a more accurate pulse on Hong Kong’s compensation landscape, and will update once we have more data. If you’d like to participate, please drop me a line at [email protected].