Pricing domestic helpers out of reach good for Hong Kong in the long run

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Alex Lo is a senior writer at the South China Morning Post. He writes editorials and the daily “My Take” column on page 2. He also edits the weekly science and technology page in Sunday Morning Post.

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Hong Kong foreign domestic workers rally to demand higher wage. Photo: Sam Tsang

If a miserly HK$90 rise will worsen Hong Kong's shortage of domestic helpers, then I say raise it by a couple of hundred, or even thousands. Some people are worried. I say it's a good thing.

Let the maids qualify for local minimum wages and enjoy the same permanent residency conditions. Once it costs as much to hire a foreign maid as it is to hire a local one, we can stop importing such a "cheap" source of foreign labour. In fact, they cost our society far more than it's often realised.

Instead of more than 300,000 maids, we will be much better off with 30,000 well-paid and motivated maids - like those sought-after and highly paid butlers. But most of us wouldn't be able to afford them. That's the whole point. Do your own household chores. Take care of your own children. Spend more quality time at home instead of slaving away in the office. So I am not advocating all this for the maids' benefit. It's just good for Hong Kong and our society to have far fewer maids. What do most maids do all day? Most try to do the minimum or less to get by because they get the same pay regardless. Some also steal now and then to get, in their own minds, their fair share. Why do you think so many pawn shops do such brisk business in Causeway Bay? I don't blame them. I would do the same, if not worse, if I were a foreign helper. There is no reward, only a dead-end job that sacrifices my youth and my chance at happiness in a life of my own.

Bosses know this, so many have to spend a disproportionate amount of time monitoring, disciplining and even abusing them to squeeze the most labour out of them to get their money's worth. I know there are many abusive employers. There are many unproductive and destructive maids too. It's a vicious cycle - blame it on the system.

To wean ourselves off our maid addiction, the government will have to introduce more realistic maternity and paternity leave and provide better-subsidised childcare and kindergartens. Companies will have to offer more progressive policies such as flexible work hours and even daycare to help workers who are mothers.

As it is, the exploitation of foreign maids lets the government off the hook and enables companies to exploit us wage slaves in turn.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Time to price maids out of our reach

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Comments

whoaman Oct 2nd 2013
10:15pm

One big reason HK people want helpers is so they have 'freedom'. A number of people without helpers have relatives (grandma) to look after the kids. As someone mentioned in the comments, it's become part of the culture, and a stay home mom is rare (my wife, a HKer, is one). This won't change anytime soon - people will just pay more for their 'freedom'. And of course, it'll never happen because almost all civil servants and legislators also have helpers (and drivers....etc).

johnwe Oct 2nd 2013
7:12pm

Alex Lo is seemingly unable to fathom why wives don't do their own household chores. He ignores the wide range of employers' work for which the foreign maids provide relief by doing the domestic work. He is clearly ignorant talking about 30,000 well paid and motivated hardworking local maids. Motivated ? NO - the only motivation is to get thro the job as quickly as possible, Hardworking? NO - they work fast but the outcome is often slipshod rushed work, skipping steps etc. and you may need to clean up after them. If the agreement is for 5 hours, they'll be out of the door by 4 and a quarter hours. Despite well above minimum wage years ago, they are loud, rude and lay down the law in the employer s house; they won't do many essential house-keeping chores; they suddenly take leave to go on holiday with the husband or school holidays. They are never available at Chinese festivals and expect a big red packet and give you an open ended date when they will return at Chinese New Year. Their conditions are endless and develop as they go along. The article is so ill-informed, flippant and superficial that it is hardly worth reading if you have not read it yet.

pauluszimmerman Oct 2nd 2013
3:45pm

Paying more than the minimum allowed us the company of quality helpers and provided us the opportunity to spend more quality time with the kids despite the pressure of work. With that experience I can only support the argument for higher salaries, but not the argument that parents should do without helpers to have more quality time with their children. Those who grew up in families where parents are stressed out running around to combine work and keeping the household together may well agree with me. Those who grew up in households where they were abandoned and left to the care of helpers may blame the helpers for not been given enough attention from their parents.

PCC Oct 2nd 2013
5:23pm

There is a third alternative not mentioned in the comment above, and that is for parents to devote a lot more time to their children every day in a family setting (quantity time) instead of focusing on making more money to avoid housework and afford better holidays (so-called quality time). That's what my wife and I are doing, but maybe we're wrong; maybe our kids would be happier and better adults if we spent less time as a family now and they got a bigger inheritance 20 years from now. Somehow I doubt it. Anyway, it just seems right to us.

johnyuan Oct 2nd 2013
6:12pm

PCC,
I think you and your wife will have the last smile seeing your children growing up to be loving people. The laughs too throughout as a family growing together are instant reward at every moment. The parents of the older generation when stay home parents were the norm know what I want to convey.

321manu Oct 2nd 2013
1:26pm

"Do your own household chores. Take care of your own children."
---what a concept!! It almost seems like a cultural thing for HKers which becomes difficult to fathom once you've lived outside of HK.

johnyuan Oct 2nd 2013
1:17pm

In Hong Kong, reality is easy to accept but truth is difficult to stomach. Reality trumps truth anytime.

Greenwash Oct 2nd 2013
12:43pm

If most families did not have a helper, 1) some HK families would have no children (as opposed to the usual one child) because they would feel that they cannot afford to have only one income, and 2) even more Hong Kong people would be unhappy with their small flats. If Mums stayed at home with their small children - all day long in the tiny flat - there would be more pressure on the government to do something about the high cost of housing. Therefore, the government will not change the current policies.

don67 Oct 2nd 2013
12:53pm

In the short term, your first point would be true. But in the long run, bosses will be compelled to pay a little more if they want to keep the businesses in HK.

richardg23 Oct 2nd 2013
12:31pm

Rather inflammatory in tone, but your point, Mr Lo, is sound. Add $1000 a month to a maid's salary - get better trained and motivated maids, and a smaller number of employers who can afford it and know how to behave appropriately.