HK pay double than that of UK?

This hits quite at home so I’ll actually address it without being too snarky 

For background, I have ties to HK but have worked in London for almost a decade. So this is a question that I battle with all the time. 

To set the table just on comp, I’m not sure about HK take home being double but it’s certainly higher and this is predominantly because of taxes. Most US shops in HK match US office salaries from my understanding, which is already 20-30% higher than their London counterparts. Once you then factor in the sizeable difference in taxes, the delta can be very large but probably not double (more like 30%-40% higher would be my guess). This tax point isn’t unique to London - your US peers’ take home will also be lower but the delta is less acute given they’re on the same comp. But that is the cost of attracting talent - all else being equal, to be competitive you have to pay more competitively than what people can get in traditional tier 1 cities to get them to come. The relevant example today is what’s happening for shops in the ME - big salaries, loads of benefits, low taxes etc. Not saying HK is in that position, but there are some legacy impacts for sure. 

So why not HK. The first is the obvious one, the political environment is far from stable still. I get it, it’s been several years since the protest and life seems to have returned largely to normal. But there’s always that lingering fear that something “could” happen to you. It probably won’t but there’s a price I’d pay to not feel like needing to “occasionally” look over my shoulder, and maybe that’s a 20-30% pay cut. 

The second is the experience and direction of travel for the finance industry in HK. There is a growing importance of people’s ability to speak mandarin and the importance to cater to Chinese corporations - all of which existed before but is more clear now. I personally didn’t think that was the path I was keen to go down for my own career, but that’s a call you have to make. This is even before we start debating the importance of HK as a financial hub in the future given investors’ growing appetite to either invest directly onshore or to go somewhere that isn’t a Chinese proxy, such as Singapore. 

Lastly, Covid has certainly left its mark on the city - a trip down LKF during the weekends will tell you that it’s just not fully recovered. A lot of what made HK great before - the culture melting pot and all - is was hit hard by Covid. It might be able to reclaim its past glory, but the fact today is it is not the same. 

There’s a lot of London bashing on the internet forums but there is a charm to the place that is different to NYC/SF wherever else. As I’ve progressed through my career, I’ve actually found that there has been several opportunities to move offices (often quite easily) but just never found it that much more attractive if at all. People that I’ve come across in London are just as bright, work equally hard, and a lot have walked away / will walk away with generational level wealth. The European market which isn’t homogenous like the US, and so your experience in London could potentially be a lot more varied as will be the people you get to work with and learn from. London just offers access to bigger market than HK does (for now). 

I could go on but as I’ve dwelled on this question over the years, it’s not as simple as “I make 30-40% more so I should go”. I’ve had to think about what I want to get out of my career long term and also my life outside of work.