Hong Kong MPF Contribution Rates and Limits 2026: Employer Guide

Key Takeaways

• Hong Kong Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) contribution rates are unchanged in 2026. The employer pays 5% of an employee's monthly relevant income, and the employee pays 5% once that income reaches HK$7,100. Relevant income above HK$30,000 a month is disregarded, so the most either side pays is HK$1,500 a month.
• The minimum relevant income level has been HK$7,100 a month since November 1, 2013, and the maximum has been HK$30,000 since June 1, 2014. Below HK$7,100, the employee pays nothing and the employer still pays its 5%.
• Enrollment is due within 60 days of the first day of employment, but the employer's 5% is calculated from day one. The 30-day contribution holiday covers the employee's share only.
• There is no statutory rate, ratio, or vesting scale for employer voluntary contributions. Those terms sit in the MPF scheme's governing rules. The 15% figure often quoted is a profits tax deduction ceiling, not a contribution limit.
• Paying late triggers a 5% contribution surcharge, and the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) can also impose a financial penalty of HK$5,000 or 10% of the amount due, whichever is greater. The HK$450,000 fine and four-year maximum applies where an employer deducts the employee's 5% and then fails to pay it over.

Hong Kong's MPF contribution rates are unchanged for 2026. You pay 5% of an employee's relevant income. The employee also pays 5% once that income reaches HK$7,100 a month. Above HK$30,000 a month, both sides stop at HK$1,500.

Below HK$7,100 a month, the employee contributes nothing and you still pay your 5%. The minimum relevant income level has sat at HK$7,100 since November 1, 2013, and the maximum at HK$30,000 since June 1, 2014, which is why a rate table dated 2025 and one dated 2026 say the same thing.

The rate is the simple part. What trips up companies hiring into Hong Kong from overseas is the timing, the rules around voluntary contributions, and what a late payment costs. We take each of those in turn below, with every figure sourced to the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA). If Hong Kong is a new market for you, our Hong Kong employment guide covers the wider hiring picture, and our Hong Kong hiring compliance overview sets out what else sits alongside MPF.

1. Hong Kong MPF Contribution Rates and Limits in 2026

Both the employer and the employee contribute 5% of the employee's relevant income, with one exception: an employee earning less than HK$7,100 a month does not contribute, while the employer still does. Contributions are capped once monthly relevant income passes HK$30,000, which makes HK$1,500 a month the maximum mandatory contribution from each party.

Source: MPFA, mandatory contributions for employees (read September 22, 2026)

MPF Relevant Income Levels for 2026

The two numbers that decide the contribution are the minimum and maximum relevant income levels. They are set in the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance, which requires the MPFA to review them at least once every four years, and neither changed for 2026.

Source: MPFA, mandatory contributions for employees (read September 22, 2026)

The monthly minimum rose to HK$7,100 with effect from November 1, 2013, and the monthly maximum rose to HK$30,000 with effect from June 1, 2014. Both have held since, so the 2025 and 2026 figures are identical.

MPF Contribution Example

If an employee earns HK$20,000 per month:

• Employer contributes HK$1,000 (5% of HK$20,000)

• Employee contributes HK$1,000 (5% of HK$20,000)

• Total monthly MPF contribution: HK$2,000

If the same employee earns HK$40,000 a month, both sides still pay HK$1,500 and not HK$2,000, because relevant income above HK$30,000 is disregarded.

2. Who Must Contribute, and Who Is Exempt

Introduced in 2000 to help Hong Kong's working population save for retirement, the MPF system is a compulsory savings arrangement. Employers contribute for every employee who must join a scheme, and employees contribute as well once their relevant income reaches the minimum level of HK$7,100 a month.

Who Must Contribute

• Full-time or part-time employees aged 18 to 64 employed for a continuous period of 60 days or more.
  • If they earn HK$7,100 or more per month, both employer and employee contribute
  • If they earn less than HK$7,100, only the employer contributes
• Casual employees aged 18 to 64 in the construction and catering industries, even when employed day to day or for less than 60 days.
• Self-employed persons aged 18 to 64, other than self-employed hawkers, must also enroll. They pay their own contributions once their relevant income reaches HK$7,100 a month or HK$85,200 a year.
  
  

Who Is Exempt

• Employees and self-employed persons under 18 or aged 65 or over

• Domestic employees

• Self-employed hawkers

• People covered by statutory pension or provident fund schemes, such as civil servants and subsidized or grant school teachers

• Members of occupational retirement schemes that have been granted MPF exemption certificates

• People who enter Hong Kong under section 11 of the Immigration Ordinance to work, if they are here for not more than 13 months or are members of a retirement scheme of a place outside Hong Kong

• Employees of the European Union Office of the European Commission in Hong Kong

Employees employed for less than 60 days are not required to join, except casual employees in the construction and catering industries. A casual employee who does not already have an account in the same Industry Scheme as the employer must be enrolled within the first 10 days of employment. Employers must not sign a series of employment contracts shorter than 60 days each to avoid enrolling someone.

Sources: MPFA, MPF coverage and MPFA, enrollment for employees (read September 22, 2026)

Self-Employed Persons

Self-employed persons pay the whole 5% themselves. The same relevant income levels apply: HK$7,100 a month or HK$85,200 a year at the bottom, HK$30,000 a month or HK$360,000 a year at the top, which caps the contribution at HK$1,500 a month or HK$18,000 a year. They may pay monthly or yearly, on or before the contribution day.

Freelancers and Independent Contractors

MPF follows the employment relationship, whatever the agreement calls it. If you engage someone as a contractor and the relationship is found to be employment, you owe the unpaid contributions, the surcharge, and any penalty that follows. The cost gap between the two arrangements is set out in our contractor vs employee pay breakdown.

3. MPF Contribution Deadlines: When Payments Start and When They Are Due

Your contributions run from day one. The 60 days is the deadline for enrolling the employee in a scheme. The employer's contribution is calculated from the employee's first day of employment, so by the time the first payment falls due you may owe two or three months at once.

The 30-day contribution holiday is the employee's, not yours. A new employee is not required to contribute for the first 30 days of employment, nor for any incomplete wage period immediately following it. The employer's own 5% is never covered by that holiday.

The first payment for a new hire is due after the 60th day. It falls on or before the contribution day following the calendar month in which the 60th day of employment lands. For example: a monthly-paid employee who starts on January 5 reaches day 60 on March 5 (March 4 in a leap year), so the contributions for January, February, and March are all due together on or before the April contribution day, generally April 10. For January and February, that is your 5% only. The employee's contribution holiday runs from January 5 to February 3 and then covers the rest of the February wage period, so the employee's 5% starts with March.

The contribution day is generally the 10th. For monthly-paid employees, the contribution day is the 10th day of each month. Contributions are paid through the eMPF Platform, the central electronic system for MPF administration, run by a wholly owned MPFA subsidiary. If the 10th falls on a Saturday, a public holiday, a gale warning day, a black rainstorm warning day, or a day on which the eMPF Platform is suspended, the contribution day moves to the next day that is none of these.

Sources: MPFA, mandatory contributions for employees, MPFA, enrollment for employees, and MPFA, terminating MPF accounts (read September 22, 2026)

4. Employer Voluntary MPF Contributions: Rates, Vesting, and Tax

Hong Kong publishes no MPF employer voluntary contribution guidelines setting a rate or a standard ratio.

MPF legislation sets no rate, no minimum, and no maximum for voluntary contributions. The MPFA is explicit that voluntary contribution arrangements are set out in the governing rules of the MPF scheme rather than in the MPF legislation, and that those rules are what fix the minimum contribution amount, the vesting scale, transfer, and withdrawal conditions. So the ratio is whatever you agree on with your trustee and write into the employment contract.

No authority publishes a benchmark for what Hong Kong employers typically add on top of the mandatory 5%, so we do not quote one. If you need a defensible number for a compensation review, take it from your own offer data or from a paid salary survey. Our guide to structuring salaries and bonuses in Hong Kong covers where a voluntary contribution sits against the rest of the package.

Vesting: the Real Difference Between Mandatory and Voluntary

Mandatory contributions are fully and immediately vested in the employee once they reach the MPF account, along with any investment return on them. Employer voluntary contributions can carry a vesting scale, which sets the percentage of the employer-funded benefits an employee is entitled to according to years of service. That scale lives in the scheme's governing rules, so you agree on it with your trustee.

Sources: MPFA, mandatory contributions, MPFA, voluntary contributions, MPFA, long service and severance payments, and Inland Revenue Department, MPF tax FAQ (read September 22, 2026)

Where the 15% Figure Comes From

The "15%" attached to MPF voluntary contributions is a tax limit, not a contribution limit. For profits tax, an employer's deduction for one employee's MPF contributions, mandatory and voluntary combined, is restricted to 15% of the total emoluments of that employee. You can contribute more than that. You just cannot deduct more than that.

Two other MPF tax numbers get mixed into the same searches, and neither is yours as the employer:

• An employee's own mandatory contributions are deductible against salaries tax up to HK$18,000 a year, for the 2015/16 year of assessment and each year since.
• Tax-deductible voluntary contributions (TVC) carry a HK$60,000 annual deduction cap, aggregated with qualifying deferred annuity policy premiums, from the 2019/20 year of assessment. TVC is paid by the scheme member into a TVC account, not by the employer on the employee's behalf.

For the employee side of Hong Kong tax more broadly, see our guide to taxation and tax filing in Hong Kong.

5. How Hong Kong MPF Affects Payroll and Costs

For each eligible employee, the contributions have to be calculated, the employee's 5% deducted from their salary where it is due, your own share added, and both paid through the eMPF Platform by the contribution day. On a monthly payroll, that is generally the 10th of each month.

To meet that deadline every month, build the calculation, the deduction, and the payment into the payroll run itself.

Why MPF Matters in Hong Kong

MPF is Hong Kong's mandatory retirement savings system and, for most local hires, the main recurring statutory contribution. It sits alongside compulsory employees' compensation insurance, which every employer must carry for every employee.

Why a Reliable Payroll Process Matters

• Centralizes salary, tax, MPF, and leave tracking in one place

• Ensures monthly contribution deadlines are met without manual tracking

• Generates audit-ready records for MPFA inspections

• Scales easily as your team in Hong Kong grows

6. MPF Compliance and Employer Penalties

The MPFA enforces MPF compliance. When contributions are late or missing, it can require the employer to put things right, add a contribution surcharge, file a civil claim to recover the arrears, impose financial penalties, and prosecute.

Surcharges and Financial Penalties Imposed by the MPFA

Separately from any prosecution, the MPFA can impose these directly, without going to court:

• A contribution surcharge of 5% of the default contributions.
• For contributions not paid on time, a financial penalty of HK$5,000 or 10% of the amount due, whichever is greater.
• For failing to give employees their monthly pay records, a financial penalty of HK$10,000 for the first failure, HK$20,000 for the second, and HK$50,000 for later failures.
• For failing to notify the eMPF Platform in writing that an employee has left, a financial penalty of HK$5,000 for the first failure, HK$10,000 for the second, and HK$20,000 for later failures.
• For failing to keep employer information up to date, a financial penalty of HK$5,000 for the first failure, HK$10,000 for the second, and HK$20,000 for later failures.

Maximum Court Penalties

Prosecution is separate from these penalties. The maximum court penalty depends on the offense, and, for false or misleading information, it rises on a subsequent conviction.

Source: MPFA, enforcement measures and penalties (read September 22, 2026)

MPF Offsetting Mechanism Abolished May 2025

The abolition of the MPF offsetting arrangement took effect on May 1, 2025, and it has no retrospective effect. From that date, employers can no longer use MPF derived from their mandatory contributions to offset severance payments (SP) or long service payments (LSP) for years of service from May 1, 2025. For service before that date, MPF derived from the employer's mandatory contributions can still be used, and MPF derived from the employer's voluntary contributions can still be used for any period. SP and LSP for service from May 1, 2025, have to be funded separately, or from MPF derived from the employer's voluntary contributions.

Employer Recordkeeping Obligations

Employers must keep MPF records ready for MPFA inspection. The MPFA sets two retention periods: the information in each remittance statement, including every employee's relevant income and the contributions paid, must be kept for at least seven years after the date of the statement, while the employee's name, address, and first day of employment must be kept for at least six months after they leave, and the breakdown of their relevant income for at least six months after each payment.

Employer Obligations During Onboarding, Termination, and Leave

• Onboarding: enroll eligible employees in an MPF scheme within 60 days of starting work, and give the trustee their personal particulars, including their Hong Kong Identity Card (HKID) number, their chosen MPF funds, and a tax residency self-certification. Your contributions still count from the employee's first day.
  
  
• Termination: notify the eMPF Platform that the employee has left on or before the 10th day of the following month, and pay the last contributions by the next contribution day. It is good practice to tell the departing employee how to transfer or withdraw their MPF.
  
  
• Leave periods: MPF contributions continue during paid leave. Contributions may be paused for unpaid leave. Keep your MPF records up to date when an employee's salary or employment status changes.
  
  
• Pay records: after paying contributions each month, give every employee a monthly pay record within seven working days.

Failing to enroll an employee or to remit contributions on time is an offense under the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance (Cap. 485). For how MPF sits alongside the rest of your statutory duties, see our Hong Kong labor law guide.

7. Managing MPF Through an Employer of Record (EOR)

An Employer of Record (EOR) acts as the legal local employer on record, so you do not need to set up a Hong Kong entity just to hire and pay staff there. We hold our own entity in Hong Kong, so, as the legal employer, we take on the MPF obligations in this guide.

What Our EOR Service Covers

• Drafting locally compliant employment contracts

• Enrolling your team in an MPF scheme within the 60-day window

• Calculating and remitting monthly MPF contributions by the contribution day

• Submitting contributions, remittance statements, and cessation notices through the eMPF Platform

• Issuing monthly pay records and maintaining payroll and MPF records for audit purposes

• Staying current with Hong Kong labor law and MPF policy updates