HK$28 will be a stretch, employer says

While some employers believe workers should be able to earn more, they are unhappy about having to shell out HK$28 an hour for their staff.

They were reacting after the Provisional Minimum Wage Commission reached a consensus on the city's first minimum wage, which is understood to have been set at HK$28 an hour.

Mrs Leung, a dishwasher who switched jobs a few months ago from a cha chaan teng in Kowloon City to a coffee shop in Prince Edward, was happy that the new job came with a 50 per cent pay rise. 'I used to earn just HK$18 an hour, now I earn about HK$26,' she said. She is one of just a few at the coffee shop who earn less than HK$28. The shop's owner, Tso Tak-suet, pays the rest of her 11 staff between HK$28 and HK$35. But she said the minimum wage's impact went beyond finding extra cash for her dishwasher.

'If I am paying her HK$26 an hour, my more experienced staff will ask for more - a pay rise for all of them will probably boost my monthly expenses by some 8 per cent.' Tso is also chairwoman of the Street Sleepers Action Committee and sometimes hires homeless people at HK$25 an hour to give them work experience.

She said that may become more difficult if she has to pay them HK$28. 'Eventually, I might just have to transfer some of the costs to customers,' Tso said.

'Business has been tough. Prices of raw materials continue to rise, rent surges every two years, and there's labour costs. I still need to maintain a reasonable profit margin.' Her coffee shop makes a net profit of between HK$20,000 and HK$30,000 a month.