MPF System

Mandatory Contributions

Mandatory contributions made for an employee are fully and immediately vested in the employee once they are paid into his/her MPF account. Any investment return derived from the mandatory contributions is also fully and immediately vested in that employee.

Regular employees

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Employees and employers are both required to make mandatory contributions of 5% of the employee’s relevant income into the employee’s MPF account, subject to the minimum and maximum relevant income levels.

Employers must make mandatory contributions for their employees with their own funds. They must also deduct the employee’s contributions from his/her relevant income for each contribution period (generally the wage period).

For monthly paid employees, the current minimum and maximum relevant income levels are $7,100 and $30,000 respectively.

Learn about the adjustments made to the minimum and maximum relevant income levels for employee contributions over the years.

Monthly paid employees

Monthly Relevant Income	Employer's Mandatory Contribution	Employee's Mandatory Contribution
Less than $7,100	Relevant income x 5%	No contribution is required
$7,100 to $30,000	Relevant income x 5%	Relevant income x 5%
More than $30,000	$1,500	$1,500

Non-monthly paid employees

If an employee is paid daily, weekly or bi-monthly, the employer must first calculate the minimum and maximum relevant income levels of the wage period based on the daily minimum and maximum relevant income levels of $280 and $1,000. The contributions to be made should be determined as follows:

Relevant Income of Employee	Employer's Mandatory Contribution	Employee's Mandatory Contribution
Less than the minimum level ($280 x number of days in the wage period)	Relevant income x 5%	No contribution is required
Between the minimum and maximum levels	Relevant income x 5%	Relevant income x 5%
More than the maximum level ($1,000 x number of days in the wage period)	Maximum level x 5%	Maximum level x 5%

For a weekly paid employee, as there are seven days in a week, the weekly maximum relevant income level should be $7,000 ($1,000 x 7 days) and the weekly minimum relevant income level should be $1,960 ($280 x 7 days).

Relevant Income of Employee	Employer's Mandatory Contribution	Employee's Mandatory Contribution
Less than the minimum level ($1,960)	Relevant income x 5%	No contribution is required
Between the minimum and maximum levels ($1,960 to $7,000)	Relevant income x 5%	Relevant income x 5%
More than the maximum level ($7,000)	Maximum level x 5%	Maximum level x 5%

Relevant income refers to all monetary payments paid or payable by an employer to an employee.

Including: any wages, salary, leave pay, fees, commissions, bonuses, gratuities, perquisites or allowances

Excluding: severance payments or long service payments under the Employment Ordinance

Examples

The following is a list of examples of different types of income:

Types of Income	Relevant Income? (Y/N)
1. Wages and Salaries
13th month pay (double pay)	Y (How many months of pay an employee receives is determined by his/her employment contract)
Bonus at employer’s discretion performance linked	Y
End-of-contract gratuity	Y
2. Reimbursement / Allowance
Nature of reimbursement self-improvement education expenses uniform laundry expenses meals provided or obtained during office hours mobile phone service charges professional organization membership fee entertainment expenses mileage duty expenses	N (Reimbursement of expenses incurred by employees for employment related goods and services which are necessary in the performance of employment duties)
Cash allowance	Y (Allowance provided by the employer in cash, which employees may spend as they see fit)
Internship allowance	Y (Allowance provided by the employer in cash in connection with a vocational training programme)
Paid leave allowance annual leave compassionate leave examination leave marriage leave sick leave	Y
3. Transportation and Car Subsidy
Transportation subsidy free ticket / pass for use of public transport parking coupons	N (Non-monetary benefits)
Car subsidy free use of car	N (Non-monetary benefits)
Car subsidy in cash fuel and oil maintenance expenses payment of car registration and licence fees for car owned by an employee	Y (Employer provides cash payment for the benefit of employees)
4. Commission
Calculated based on transaction amount, number of transactions or on project basis	Y
5. Tips
Tips collected by the employer	Y (Tips collected via the employer and service charges included in the bill (including the tips given by customers when paying the bill with a credit card) which are subsequently distributed partly or fully to employees)
Tips not collected by the employer	N (The tips paid directly to employees, put in a tip box or left on the table by customers. (The tips are retained by the employee or shared among employees without any intervention by the employer.))
6. Employee Benefits
Marriage gifts	N
Holiday tour package	N (Non-monetary benefits. Expenses paid by the employer to cover expenses included in the holiday package, such as transportation, accommodation, food, etc.)
Meals consumed on the spot	N (Non-monetary benefits)
Meals provided in the form of vouchers	N (Non-monetary benefits)
7. Court Award and Termination Payment
Award determined by a court or tribunal as: wages salary leave pay fee commission bonus gratuity perquisite allowance	Y
Payment in lieu of notice	N (Payment that does not fall within the definition of relevant income (i.e. not wages, salary, leave pay, fee, commission, bonus, gratuity, perquisite or allowance))
Severance payment	N (Specifically excluded from the definition of “relevant income”)
Long service payment	N (Specifically excluded from the definition of “relevant income”)
8. Others
Dividend income	N (Returns on investment received by shareholders)
Share options	N (Non-monetary benefits)
Gains realised from share options	N
Medical claims reimbursement	N (Payments that are made by third parties, rather than the employer, to employees pursuant to an insurance contract purchased by the employer covering the employees)
Employment-related medical expenses paid directly by the employer	N

Monthly paid employees

Generally, for employees who are paid on a monthly basis, the contribution day is the 10th day of each month. For example, contributions for the wage period of September should be paid to trustees* on or before 10 October.

For new employees, employers must make their first-time contributions to trustees* on or before the next contribution day (the 10th day of each month) after the calendar month in which the 60th day of employment falls.

If the contribution day falls on a Saturday, a public holiday, a gale/black rainstorm warning day or a day on which the eMPF Platform is suspended (and the suspension affects the performance of the relevant duty of an employer)^#, the contribution day is extended to the next day which is not a Saturday, a public holiday, a gale/black rainstorm warning day or a day on which the eMPF Platform is suspended (and the suspension affects the performance of the relevant duty of an employer)^#.

For the contribution day of each month in this year, please refer to the MPF Contribution Days Calendar. A digital version of the calendar can be installed on Android and iOS devices.

Employer’s contribution period

Generally, the contribution period refers to the wage period. The calculation of an employer’s contribution for an employee should begin from the first day of the employee’s employment.

Employee’s contribution period

New employees enjoy a contribution holiday, meaning that they are not required to make contributions for the first 30 days of employment, nor do they have to make contributions for:

any incomplete wage period that immediately follows the 30-day contribution holiday (if the employee’s wage period is a month or shorter than a month); or
the calendar month in which the 30th day of employment falls (if the employee’s wage period is longer than a month).

Example

Ms D’s first day of employment is 5 June. Since she enjoys a contribution holiday for the first 30 days of employment, no MPF contribution should be deducted from her income earned during the 30-day period, i.e, from 5 June to 4 July.

In addition, since her 30th day of employment falls in July, she is not required to make MPF contribution for July (because the contribution holiday extends to the end of the incomplete wage period that immediately follows the 30-day period). The employer should only deduct MPF contribution from Ms D’s income for the contribution period of August and remit the contribution to the trustee on or before 10 September.

Given the contribution holiday does not apply to the employer, the employer’s contributions for Ms D should be calculated from her first day of employment, i.e. 5 June.

A remittance statement shows every employee’s relevant income, and the contributions made by both the employer and employees. Trustees* will allocate the contributions into the account of each of the employees based on the information in the remittance statement.

When to submit?

Employers must provide their trustees* with a remittance statement when they make contributions to their trustees*.

How to submit?

Written form: some trustees* would provide pre-printed remittance statements to employers every month.

Electronic Form: some trustees* would provide software to facilitate employers’ preparation and submission of remittance statements online.

Important note

If the trustee* does not provide a pre-printed remittance statement or related software, employers are still required to prepare and submit their own remittance statements.

What if an employee has no relevant income for a particular contribution period?

Even if an employee has no relevant income for a contribution period, the employer is still required to include that employee in the remittance statement. The employer should report '$0' as the employee’s relevant income, or fill in the remittance statement according to the trustee’s instructions.

Monthly pay-record

For every month, after remitting contributions to the trustee*, employers should provide each employee with a monthly pay-record within seven working days. The pay-record should include the following information:

the employee’s relevant income
the amount of mandatory contributions made respectively by the employer and the employee
the amount of voluntary contributions (if any) made respectively by the employer and the employee
the date on which the contributions were paid to the trustee*

Annual benefit statement

An MPF trustee* must provide its scheme members with an annual benefit statement (ABS) within three months after the end of each financial period.

ABS must set out:

the total amount of contributions the employer paid for the employee during the year;
the opening and closing balances of the MPF account for the year; and
the gains and losses associated with the MPF account during the year.

Employees' responsibilities

Employees should regularly check their pay-records and ensure that contributions are made on time by their employers and the amounts are correct.

Employees' rights

Employees may contact trustees* directly to check their account details. Trustees will usually provide different channels (such as hotlines, websites, automatic teller machines and customer service centres) for employees to enquire about account details.

Lodging a complaint

If an employee suspects that his/her employer has failed to make contributions, he/she should first clarify with the employer or the trustee*. If the employer has indeed defaulted on contributions, the employee should contact MPFA immediately to lodge a complaint.

^# Only applicable to the MPF trustees and their schemes have got onboard to the eMPF Platform

* MPF trustees and their schemes will get onboard the eMPF Platform in sequence one by one. When the scheme has got onboard to the Platform, eMPF Company will utilize the eMPF Platform to perform the administration of the scheme, provide scheme administration services to employer, scheme member and self-employed person and handle the service instructions. From then on, employer, scheme member and self-employed person can manage your MPF on the eMPF Platform and should no longer submit service instructions to MPF trustee; the eMPF Platform will provide the relevant information and/or documents to you directly. Please visit eMPF Website (www.empf.org.hk) for the onboarding timeline of MPF scheme(s) and the relevant information.

Persons employed in the construction industry and the catering industry for less than 60 days (Casual employees)

If employers choose to enrol their casual employees in a Master Trust Scheme, please note that:

Their contributions shall be calculated in the same way as those for a regular employee.

Casual employees do not have a contribution holiday.

Employers shall pay the contributions within 10 days after each contribution period ends (even if the contribution period is less than one month). If the contribution day falls on a Saturday, a public holiday, a gale/black rainstorm warning day or a day on which the eMPF Platform is suspended (and the suspension affects the performance of the relevant duty of an employer)^#, the contribution day will be extended to the next day which is not a Saturday, a public holiday, a gale/black rainstorm warning day or a day on which the eMPF Platform is suspended (and the suspension affects the performance of the relevant duty of an employer)^#.

Employers must provide their trustees* with a remittance statement when they make contributions to their trustees.

Employers should also provide each employee with a monthly pay-record and keep the contribution record.

If employers choose to enrol their casual employees in an Industry Scheme, the calculation of contributions is different from that for casual employees in a Master Trust Scheme. For details, please refer to Industry Schemes.

^#Only applicable to the MPF trustees and their schemes have got onboard to the eMPF Platform