Income

The Week Explained: The cost of happiness

26 Nov 2012

How much money do you need to make you happy? It's a reasonable question that is damned hard to answer yet the people at Skandia International have conducted one of those surveys that purports to...

Minimum HK$1.5m needed to be happy in Hong Kong, poll finds

15 Nov 2012

Hongkongers on average need to earn HK$1.5 million a year to be happy, ranking them third among 13 places in the world, according to a global survey by an investment company.

26 comments

Government salary system out of date

22 May 2012

With a monthly salary of HK$282,080 or more, our ministers are perhaps among the best paid politicians in the world. But their fat packages also make them easy targets for public criticism in an...

Guard on HK$13 an hour afraid to lodge complaint

27 Apr 2012

The minimum wage law may have been in force for almost a year, but it has been of little benefit to a 78-year-old security guard who gets just HK$13.20 an hour.

Public anger over pay-rise plan

12 Feb 2012

Members of the public yesterday welcomed a call to shelve a proposal to double lawmakers' pay.

And they spoke out against the whole idea of linking lawmakers' pay to that of public...

Opinion

Wang Xiangwei

Super ministries may not be the right answer for mainland China

Alex Lo

Church developers remain unbowed by government rules

George Chen

A house is not a home until it becomes affordable

Poor bargain

The proposal to almost double lawmakers' salaries from HK$73,150 to HK$141,000 has sent shockwaves through the community, with a majority of netizens criticising the proposed pay level for being...

Companies that give no quarter

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) may pride itself on operating one of the leading stock exchanges in the world, but on one basic standard - quarterly reporting - it is out of sync with...

Yue Yuen stock falls as costs hit earnings

Footwear maker Yue Yuen Industrial has posted a 6.2 per cent fall in full-year net earnings despite a significant rise in revenue, as costs buffeted margins.

Turning the tables on service charges

Johnny Tang is 22, has bleached blond hair, piercings and tattoos halfway up his arm. He might look like an unconventional waiter, but Tang's attitude is what really sets him apart. It's easy to...

Tip in the balance

I'm planning a holiday to New York in a couple of weeks, and apart from the problem of wanting to eat at more than 20 restaurants in six days, I'm having tip anxiety.

Appointees plan to leave salary cuts in place

Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and his team of political appointees will try to avoid controversy by not restoring their salaries to their 2009 levels, even though senior civil servants have been offered...