Many stars who have worked with TVB have griped about their low salary when they were with the station. Even its own Ah Jie Liza Wang has called on the Hongkong broadcaster to give her and her colleagues a pay raise at this year's TVB Anniversary Awards.

Recently, Hongkong actresses Ada Choi, Athena Chu, Catherine Hung, and Monica Chan — the ladies call themselves “Gang Pu F4” and have their own reality show Qing Chi Fan De Jie Jie (loosely translated as “Sisters Who Buy Us Meals”) — revealed how much they were paid when they first started out in showbiz.

Ada, who has shifted the focus of her career to China, revealed that she used to take home “HK$500 (S$85) for a show” when she joined TVB after finishing third in the 1991 Miss Hong Kong pageant.

“If [I were] the lead actress in a 20-episode drama and had scenes in every episode, [I would] only get HK$20,000 (S$3,500),” said the 47-year-old. According to reports, a drama of that length would take over four months to shoot.

Monica, who was crowned Miss Hong Kong in 1989, shared that she earned a fixed salary which was “very low”. And apparently, that number didn’t increase for a long time.

“After many years, I met a new Miss Hong Kong winner and I asked her how much her monthly salary was. I didn't expect that after so many years, her salary would be exactly the same as mine! Monica, 54, said.

As for Athena, who started acting before she graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 1992, her pay as a TVB rookie was HK$8,000 (S$1,400) a month.

What was revealed triggered much discussion online, with many netizens saying they were not surprised by the claims.

TVB is famous for squeezing its employees dry,” said one netizen.

Photos: Ada Choi/Weibo, Athena Chu/Weibo, Monica Chan/Weibo