Salary negotiation

[gz2nyc]

Hi everyone! Recently joined and very excited to be a part of this community.

Read dozens of threads tonight, mostly relating to experiences of US expats moving to HK. Having been wanting to work in HK for quite a while now, I now may have an opportunity to transfer within the company, depending on how I fare on my upcoming interview.

First, a little about me. I'm 25 y/o working in a large investment bank in New York, although I don't work on the banking or the trading side. I'm making a little more than $70K USD a year, and that accomodates my lifestyle here but with no extras left at the end of each month. After reading about the low salary and disappearing expat benefits, I'm worried if I will have to take a paycut and if my new salary will be able to afford me the kind of lifestyle I'm used to. (I saw in a post that a game of bowling costs $46, which converts to $7 USD; a game costs only anywhere from $2-5 here in NYC...)

What is a reasonable salary in HKD I should ask for during my interview, if the question is brought up? And what is a realistic figure I should expect? I'm hoping to use the fact that I speak English, Cantonese and Mandarin perfectly and can read/write Chinese to leverage, but truth be told I only have 3 years of working experience.

Confused and worried... and would greatly appreciate any advise which can have anything or nothing to do with my dilemma above. Thanks!

[fly]

I have heard from friends that ibank is the hot industry to be in currently, and with your qualifications I'm quite sure you should find something suitable in HK. Only 3 yrs exp could also be your advantage: your still flexible enough to take on new tasks and learn more. $70k is gross or net?
Transfer with the co. is the way to go, just make sure your salary is equalized and you get the entitled benefits. From this pov, its better to check with colleagues who have transferred or who are already here.

[Mat]

IB generally pays well in HK BUT hours are quite long (at least longer than in europe, cant say for US).

Don't take the bowling game as a benchmark :-) cos in this case I could tell you that Big Mac are much cheaper over here than in many countries....

The ONLY big expense you will have in HK is bascially the house, which is at VP level or above usually paid by the Bank. For Associate level it really depends on the Bank.

[greentea]

I think if you can negotiate with your company for the equal salary, ie USD70k/year in HK with housing allowance, you shall be in a good shape.

[gz2nyc]

Thanks everyone for your input. I don't think I'll be able to get any benefits such as housing allowance, I'm not even at Associate status. Anyhow, will keep my fingers crossed.

[thewongs]

My husband and I just went through this for Tokyo. We both work in banking (technology). We went with the idea that we need to maintain the same standard of living - if we live in central Manhattan (we did) then we want to live in central Tokyo and we are not going to sacrifice that for the overseas experience. We hate commuting. Quite frankly, the powers that be understood and we received good salary increases for that.

Hong Kong is listed at #9 on Mercer Human Resources List of most expensive cities and NY is listed at #13 (link below)

http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/21/pf/costliest_cities/

Best of luck!