Statutory minimum pay at the current hourly rate.
Minimum monthly pay
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Minimum weekly pay
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Minimum annual pay
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Who the Statutory Minimum Wage covers
Hong Kong does not set a monthly minimum salary. It sets a floor on every hour you work. The rate this calculator applies is $42.10 an hour, the level the Labour Department brought in on 1 May 2025. The rule is simple to state and easy to get wrong in practice: the wages payable for any pay period must be at least the total hours worked in that period multiplied by the hourly floor. So a worker doing 44 hours one week and 50 the next is owed a different minimum each week, even on a fixed monthly salary.
The floor reaches most employees regardless of whether they are paid by the hour, the day, the piece, or the month, and it applies whether the contract is written or verbal. The notable carve-out is live-in domestic helpers, who sit under their own Standard Employment Contract rather than the minimum wage law. Student interns and work-experience students in specified arrangements can also fall outside it. If your situation is unusual, the Labour Department publishes the boundaries, and the rate itself is reviewed every two years, so always confirm the current figure before relying on it.
A 44-hour week, costed out
Take the default the tool loads: 44 hours a week, the rough length of a standard six-day retail or catering roster. At the rate modelled here, that gives a weekly floor of $1,852. To turn a weekly figure into a calendar month the calculator does not multiply by four. A month is closer to 4.33 weeks, so it scales the weekly hours by 52 divided by 12, then prices them at the hourly rate. That is the honest monthly figure, and it is the number that catches people out when they assume four weeks and come up short.
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Hourly floor applied | $42.10 |
| Hours per week | 44 |
| Weekly minimum (44 x $42.10) | $1,852 |
| Monthly minimum (44 x 52 / 12 x $42.10) | $8,027 |
| Annual minimum (weekly x 52) | $96,325 |
Why a full-time minimum-wage worker pays no salaries tax
Here is the part that surprises people. That annual floor of about $96,325 sits below the basic personal allowance the salaries tax calculators assume, which is $132,000 a year. Hong Kong taxes salaries on a progressive scale that runs from 2 percent up to a top marginal rate, but only on income above your allowances. With earnings under the basic allowance, the net chargeable income is zero, so a single person working full time at the minimum wage owes no salaries tax at all. Allowance figures are set in the annual Budget, so treat $132,000 as the level modelled here and confirm the latest number with the Inland Revenue Department.
A practical tip for employers: the minimum wage is a floor on pay, not a substitute for mandatory MPF. You still contribute 5 percent of relevant income for staff who clear the contribution threshold, on top of meeting the hourly floor. And the floor is gross. It is calculated before any deduction, so you cannot net off MPF or other amounts and still claim to have met it.
Variable hours reset the floor every period
Because the minimum is tested against hours actually worked in each wage period, a roster that swings week to week produces a moving target. A worker who does 40 hours one week and 52 the next is owed a different minimum each time, and a flat monthly salary has to clear the busiest period, not the average. The tool lets you enter the heaviest week to stress-test a salaried package against the floor. This is also where the gross point matters most: overtime, allowances and bonuses can count toward meeting the floor depending on how the contract defines them, but unpaid breaks do not add hours. If a salaried employee's pay divided by the hours they genuinely worked dips below the hourly rate in a heavy month, the employer must top it up, regardless of what the headline salary looks like. A useful habit is to run the check against the worst-case roster before fixing a monthly figure, so a busy season does not quietly push the effective rate under the floor.
Does the minimum wage include rest day and meal break pay?
It depends on the contract. Hours actually worked must always be paid at or above the floor. Whether paid meal breaks and rest days count toward the minimum-wage calculation turns on what your agreement says about them. This tool prices the hours you enter, so put in the hours that are genuinely worked.
How often does the rate change?
The Statutory Minimum Wage is reviewed on a regular cycle, historically every two years, and the government has moved toward a more frequent review mechanism. Because the figure can move, the rate shown here is the one in force from 1 May 2025 as modelled, and you should check the Labour Department before quoting it in a contract.