Hong Kong’s low-paid workers find little to celebrate about as new minimum wage formula gets nod
- Thirteen years after minimum wage introduced, a new formula has been approved barring any rate cuts in future
- ‘The cost of living is very high now, no matter how much the pay rise is, I always have to tighten my belt,’ says 70-year-old cleaner
Hong Kong cleaner Sheung Yip* has been working eight hours a day, six days a week for almost 20 years at a public playground in Wong Tai Sin.
The 70-year-old, hired by a government contractor, starts her shift at 8am and cleans football pitches, spectator stands, basketball courts, a children’s playground and washrooms, with an unpaid 30-minute meal break in between.
She is paid just HK$10,800 (US$1,380) a month, equivalent to about half of the city’s median monthly wage.
“The cost of living is very high now, no matter how much the pay rise is, I always have to tighten my belt,” she said. “And we always have to wait three years until the contract is renewed to get a pay rise, but that won’t be much either.”
Thirteen years after the statutory minimum wage was introduced, the city’s key decision-making body on Tuesday approved a new formula that bars any rate cuts in future.
