My husband may be negotiating a relo package in the next week and I need some evidence as to what other executive or upper management were offered when relocating. Housing? Schools? Real estate costs involved with selling your home? Thanks so much!

[KnowItAll]

Standard relo package that I've heard from our members has been

1) Housing allowance: I've seen ranges from HK$20K (average for a single person moving in middle management from the US) to HK$200K + in the case of a senior banker we ran into. Seems to be very industry specific with the bankers being pampered the most.

2) School: Seen some places where the companies will offer placement in an established school of the same system (i.e. Americans in American international schools). Not sure how common that is, but we do know a couple of people whose companies did the required debenture to get into the schools.

3) Real Estate selling: If it is a LONG term assignment, companies have offered in the past to bear any real estate agent costs. Rare these days as the assignments are for 2 years.

One thing that you should consider is the track record of the company that is moving you, in the region. We've seen a fair number of senior executives being localised at the end of their first or second contract term. This means that their HK$80-100K housing allowance usually goes away and the family needs to make a very hard choice -- either staying here or relocating back.

[PDLM]

The other thing you need to consider is tax equalisation / hypotax.

I went through the path KIA describes, but when I "went local" the difference was not that big because the loss in housing allowance was more or less offset by the fact that I was no longer being hypotaxed as if I were in the UK.

Do you think it is reasonable to insist that they pay for my children's tuition? We do not pay almost any tuition in the states and are saddled with student loan debt still. My husband earns what is almost 1 million HKD annually(he has only earned this for a year or so) amd the cost of living seems significantly higher there.

We do not drive luxury cars.
I have help cleaning for two hours, twice a month.
We live in a house with one bathroom.
We have very little savings.
We are NOT living very luxuriously.

According to salary.com, he would need to earn about $100k USD more per annum more in HK.

I hope they agree to pay our housing and schools(which would equal about 100k) so that we can come!

[caroline13]

Alot of it also depends on how good your husband is at negotiating his relo package and what he asks for. Some companies will not bring up things like kids' tuition fees if you don't ask for it.

When I relocated, I even negotiated semi-annual travel for my spouse and hardship allowance in addition to the other standard items in a relo package such as housing, transportation, utilities and relo expenses.

What I'd advise is to ask for everything you can think of, and then negotiate hard for the items that are really important to you, and let them 'talk you out' of the items that really are nice to haves, but not essential to you and your family.

[KnowItAll]

>> According to salary.com, he would need to earn about $100k USD
>> more per annum more in HK.

Not always. Salary.com and other websites do not take several "soft issues" into account.

[KnowItAll]

>> Do you think it is reasonable to insist that they pay for my children's tuition?

It is absolutely reasonable to insist on it if it is an issue that will prevent you from moving.

What are "soft issues"? I know my husband uses salary.com when deciding what a new position's salary range should be, or what a salary should be after he promotes someone. He has also gone to his own boss with figures from the site in order to get raises for himself that he believes he deserved.

[Torontoexpat]

Hi Inprov, I will be relocating to HK in Jan and have just played the negotiation game with my company. I am also in HR and have seen many expat packages being offered so it was nice to know the range of options!

What I have seen most common are the following:

- One time relocation allowance usually between 9 - 15% of the base salary. This is in addition to the company paying for shipping of your goods and travel for your family (usually in bus class)
- Expat allowance (ongoing) made up of cost of living formula and country risks, etc that usually range from 15 - 45% of the base salary
- Housing allowance usually ranges (for our company) $50,000 - $125,000 HKD per month. That is high but we only have senior level expats.
- If there are children involved, I have seen tuition covered and travel if they go to a out of country boarding school.
- It is also common to provide an allowance to the spouse for language classes, etc.
- there are also home leave trips for your family that are usually on bus class.
- for exec positions, its not uncommon to have a car/driver paid for by the company
- another big one is an allowance to help you sell your house/condo in your 'home' country. There are too many options to list but bottom line is almost all of them would leave you better off financially.

Like KIA mentioned, it is in fact very industry specific. I work in financial services which does tend to offer a better package.
Hope this helps. Good luck with your negotiations!

My husband works in manufacturing(on the business end) and is in a fairly senior level position, though the company is not that large(although they are multinational, they are private). I think I said before that his Base US salary is around 150k per annum and we live in a small eastern city that is not incredibly pricey. My children also do not attend private schools.

Thanks for all of your great answers. I am going to share this info with my husband, who will share it with his boss.

-we absolutely need tuition
-we absolutely need a housing allowance...