Hong Kong workers reel as minimum wage frozen

Megna, a 19-year-old dishwasher at a restaurant in Yau Tsim Mong district, said she's saddened by the freeze, which she thinks might undermine her living conditions as prices of everything have gone up.

Megna works 10 hours per day, five days a week. In her view, a minimum wage of HK$45 per hour is reasonable and would make her life easier.

The Minimum Wage Commission is required to review the wage level every other year, which means the current level at HK$37.5 would probably last as long as four years after it took effect in May 2019.

The HKFTU also urged the government to review the level annually, and adjust it in accordance with the city's median income in order to narrow the wealth gap.

Peace Wong Wo-ping, chief officer of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, said a desirable minimum wage should be HK$43 to HK$45 per hour, saying many developed economies have set their minimum wage levels at about 60 percent of median income.

The median hourly wage in Hong Kong in mid-2020 was HK$74.4.

Wong said that the average pay at the lower end of the labor market will not be affected by any proposed increase in the minimum wage, because its current base is too low and only a very small portion of the labor force are paid under it.

According to a survey published in mid-February by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, 42 percent of the 4,753 respondents were against the freeze, while 57 percent said that the minimum wage should have been raised to at least HK$40 per hour. About 22 percent agreed that amount should be set at HK$40.

The Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong — a local nonprofit industrial organization with about 3,000 member companies — is on the other side of the fence, saying that freezing the minimum wage will give the city's pandemic-battered businesses some "breathing space".

"The government should shelve all its work related to the implementation of policies that may increase operational costs. In addition to freezing the minimum wage, the government should think twice about increasing the number of statutory holidays to match public holidays," said association president Allen Shi Lop-tak.