City's workaholic denizens hold secret of worry-free retirement

MAYBE IT IS masochism or perhaps just plain Confucianism. Whatever it is, Hongkongers' attitude towards retirement is causing some concern and a lot of confusion.

A recent global survey by HSBC that also covered 1,000 people and 300 private-sector employers in Hong Kong points to extreme self-sacrifice that borders on martyrdom among the city's workers. For one thing, it shows local workers are very much like their British counterparts in their belief that 'people should retire when the time is right, rather than at a set age'.

This belief is held by 44 per cent of the Hong Kong respondents, versus 32 per cent among other Asians and the 35 per cent global average.

This workaholic attitude is probably behind the secret of success of eminent grey luminaries such as tycoons Li Ka-shing, Lee Shau-kee, Stanley Ho Hung-sun and Sir Run Run Shaw who is a year shy of his own centennial.

All of these silver foxes are still hard at work, commanding boardroom raids and making billions a week while their western counterparts are comparing Zimmer frames, hip implants and promotional funeral packages.

HSBC says 60 per cent of employers in Hong Kong have no mandatory retirement age - close to the global level but higher than Asia's 46 per cent average. The survey also found 'few people in Hong Kong think the government should bear the cost of retirement and almost none think employers should'. Now, that may be music to employers' ears, but 25 per cent of the city's company officials - against 2 per cent among the workers surveyed - actually believe 'they should pay for employees' retirement, and many think they will end up doing so'.

This may sound a bit disingenuous, as both employees and employers contribute to the Mandatory Provident Fund, Hong Kong's private-sector version of a workers' pension scheme.