Minimum wage makes finding elderly-care staff difficult
Old people's homes struggle to fill positions despite offering pay well above the minimum wage, chairman of a service association says
A minimum wage of HK$50 an hour, let alone the proposed new level of HK$30, would not help in hiring people to look after the elderly and infirm, according to the chairman of the Elderly Services Association of Hong Kong.
Kenneth Chan Chi-yuk said that since the minimum wage took effect in May last year the sector had struggled with a manpower shortage as workers quit for less physically demanding jobs, such as security guard. It has left the industry operating with less than three-quarters of the employees it needs.
Members of the Minimum Wage Commission agreed last month the minimum pay should rise from HK$28 to HK$30 an hour. The Legislative Council must approve the increase.
Chan called the increase irrelevant. "The manpower shortage in this industry is already so bad it cannot get any worse.
"Some homes for the elderly offer HK$50 an hour and they still cannot recruit enough staff. Such a manpower shortage can harm the quality of services to the elderly."
Chan - whose association represents 400 homes for the elderly - runs the Oasis Nursing Home in Tsz Wan Shan with 200 staff. He had hoped to hire 30 more by offering HK$41 an hour in an advertisement posted in a Chinese-language newspaper last month.