Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lei Wai Nong (pictured, centre), has urged the city’s gaming operators to increase staff salaries in 2024, if the companies have the “conditions” to do so. But the official said the government could not demand the six casino concessionaires to make such salary adjustment.
His comments were made in response to questions during a plenary Legislative Assembly session on Wednesday. It was held to discuss Macau’s 2024 Policy Address.
Mr Lei stated that a recent survey found there was room for casino operators – as private sector companies – to increase salaries “by 2 percent to 3 percent”.
He cited the results of the “Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Pay and Benefits Survey” released last month, which projected that salary adjustments for all levels of staff employed in the private sector in Macau could range between 2.8 percent to 3.3 percent in 2024.
“We cannot instruct the casino concessionaires to adjust the salaries of their employees,” said Secretary Lei. “But we’ve been advising them to share the fruits of the [Macau’s] economic recovery with their employees.”
He added: “We want all companies to understand that their workers are the greatest asset they have.”
Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) in the first 10 months of 2023 reached MOP148.45 billion (US$18.5 billion), up 315.6 percent from the comparable 2022 period. It already surpassed the government’s MOP130-billion estimate for full-year 2023.
On Wednesday, Mr Lei also said the government was confident that the city’s casino industry would be able to generate MOP216.0 billion in GGR next year, as estimated in the 2024 fiscal year budget.
“I hope all sides can do their jobs well in order to achieve this [GGR] target,” he stated.
