The Government Employees Association on Thursday called for an across-the-board 5 percent pay rise for civil servants, saying that would boost morale and help retain talent.

The group under the Federation of Trade Unions said it polled more than 3,000 government workers online this month, with 65 percent of them hoping to get a pay hike of 5 percent or more this year.

That's higher than the result of the annual pay trend survey which pointed to increases of 2.87 percent for senior civil servants, 4.65 percent for middle-ranking workers and 4.5 percent for junior staff.

The Government Employees Association said competitive pay is needed to retain workers in the wake of staff departure in recent years.

"The workload is heavy and the price index increased, so the civil servants' morale is in fact decreasing this year, because the adjustment of our salaries cannot meet our desire in the past few years," said the union's youth officer, Chan Chin-kei.

The union said the government can afford a 5 percent pay hike now that the economy is recovering.

Civil servants saw their pay frozen in 2020 and 2021 before getting a 2.5 percent increase last year.