HK’s foreign domestics disappointed with pay hike
Foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong, among them Filipinos, are unhappy with a raise in their monthly minimum wage.
A report on Radio Television Hong Kong on Tuesday said the government announced wages for foreign domestic helpers will go up by HK$90, raising salaries to HK$4,010 a month.
The hike applies to new contracts starting Oct. 1.
Also, the food allowance for foreign helpers will go up by 5.1 percent to HK$920 a month.
However, the report added that the salary hike of 2.3 percent was "less than half" of last year’s 4.8-percent.
A separate report on the South China Morning Post quoted a government spokesman as saying the increase was arrived at "after careful consideration of the economic indicators."
The spokesman added they needed to find a balance between what employers could afford and the livelihoods of the helpers.
Hong Kong Employers of Overseas Domestic Helpers Association head Joseph Law Kwan-din chimed in and said the government considered employers' ability to shoulder the adjustment.
Domestics' unions
Hong Kong helpers' unions lamented that the new wage is actually just HK$150 a month above the 1998 level, the South China Morning Post reported.
Asian Migrants' Co-ordinating Body spokesman Eman Villanueva said they are "very disappointed and angered" over the paltry hike.
Villanueva also warned that fewer domestics would now chose to work in Hong Kong, adding he had earlier stressed to the Labor Department that the minimum pay should be at least HK$4,500.
"I think the shortage [of helpers] will worsen because the wage is not attractive. In Canada, the minimum wage for foreign domestic helpers is the same as for the locals," he said.
He added New York and California also approved a bill of rights which set the same minimum wage level for locals and to foreign domestic workers.
Helen Bulusan, who had been working in Hong Kong for 11 years, told the SCMP that she was very disappointed.
Bulusan said some helpers needed to spend HK$1,200 a month on food, not counting other expenses such as phone bills.
Many helpers would have only HK$2,500 left at the end of the month, she added.
The SCMP estimated that there are more than 300,000 foreign helpers in Hong Kong at present, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia. — DVM, GMA News
A report on Radio Television Hong Kong on Tuesday said the government announced wages for foreign domestic helpers will go up by HK$90, raising salaries to HK$4,010 a month.
The hike applies to new contracts starting Oct. 1.
Also, the food allowance for foreign helpers will go up by 5.1 percent to HK$920 a month.
However, the report added that the salary hike of 2.3 percent was "less than half" of last year’s 4.8-percent.
A separate report on the South China Morning Post quoted a government spokesman as saying the increase was arrived at "after careful consideration of the economic indicators."
The spokesman added they needed to find a balance between what employers could afford and the livelihoods of the helpers.
Hong Kong Employers of Overseas Domestic Helpers Association head Joseph Law Kwan-din chimed in and said the government considered employers' ability to shoulder the adjustment.
Domestics' unions
Hong Kong helpers' unions lamented that the new wage is actually just HK$150 a month above the 1998 level, the South China Morning Post reported.
Asian Migrants' Co-ordinating Body spokesman Eman Villanueva said they are "very disappointed and angered" over the paltry hike.
Villanueva also warned that fewer domestics would now chose to work in Hong Kong, adding he had earlier stressed to the Labor Department that the minimum pay should be at least HK$4,500.
"I think the shortage [of helpers] will worsen because the wage is not attractive. In Canada, the minimum wage for foreign domestic helpers is the same as for the locals," he said.
He added New York and California also approved a bill of rights which set the same minimum wage level for locals and to foreign domestic workers.
Helen Bulusan, who had been working in Hong Kong for 11 years, told the SCMP that she was very disappointed.
Bulusan said some helpers needed to spend HK$1,200 a month on food, not counting other expenses such as phone bills.
Many helpers would have only HK$2,500 left at the end of the month, she added.
The SCMP estimated that there are more than 300,000 foreign helpers in Hong Kong at present, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia. — DVM, GMA News
Comments