How to become a payroll clerk
Official title: Payroll clerks
Payroll clerks collect, verify and process payroll information and compute pay and benefit entitlements for employees within a department, company or other establishment.
Main tasks
- Maintaining records of employee attendance, leave and overtime to calculate pay and benefit entitlements, using manual or computerized systems
- Preparing and verifying statements of earnings for employees, indicating gross and net salaries and deductions such as taxes, union dues, garnishments and insurance and pension plans
- Preparing employee payments and benefit payments by cheque or electronic transfer
- Reviewing time sheets, work charts, wage computation and other information to detect and reconcile payroll discrepancies
- Verifying attendance, hours worked and pay adjustments, and posting information into designated records
Pay · Outlook · AI and this job
- Median pay: HK$19,600 a month
- About 455,200 people in 2025, and about 412,000 projected by 2028. (-9.5%)
- Generative AI could change many tasks in this job, which usually reshapes the work more than it replaces it, by the ILO's global estimate.
Related jobs
Not sure this is for you? Take the 2-minute career quiz
Questions people ask
Do you need a degree to become a payroll clerk?
Usually not. Only 19% of people in this job hold a bachelor's degree or higher.
Will AI change the work of a payroll clerk?
Generative AI could change many tasks in this job, which usually reshapes the work more than it replaces it, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- Census and Statistics Department (2021 Population Census): 2021 Population Census, Interactive Data Dissemination Service: working population by occupation (38 groups) and sex, age, education, income; median income and field of education (9 groups) (2021 Population Census), retrieved 4 October 2026
- Census and Statistics Department (General Household Survey): Median monthly employment earnings by occupation (9 groups), excluding foreign domestic helpers (Table 210-06317A); employed persons by occupation, age and sex (210-06307A) and by industry (210-06308A) (2025 annual (series to 2026-07)), retrieved 4 October 2026
- Census and Statistics Department (Annual Earnings and Hours Survey): Monthly and hourly wage percentiles by occupational group (5 groups) (Tables 220-23014, 220-23024, 220-23003) (2025 (May to June 2025), released 2026-03-23), retrieved 4 October 2026
- Labour and Welfare Bureau; tables published by C&SD: Mid-term Update of Manpower Projection to 2028: supplementary statistical tables (5 occupation groups, 17 selected industries) (2025 to 2028 (published 2026-09)), retrieved 4 October 2026
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
Updated 4 October 2026