Families in Tin Shui Wai are effectively the city's lowest paid, says academic The first official figures on pay trends in a troubled Yuen Long new town show the percentage of families making less than HK$10,000 a month has halved in five years. However, over the same period, median household income in Tin Shui Wai in the northwest New Territories dropped from HK$17,300 to HK$13,750 a month, the second-lowest in Hong Kong and just HK$250 ahead of Sham Shui Po. Law Chi-kwong, a professor of social work at University of Hong Kong, said the figures showed people in Tin Shui Wai were effectively the poorest in Hong Kong. 'Remember, the prices in Sham Shui Po are lower,' Dr Law said. Median pay in Tin Shui Wai is HK$9,000, the lowest in the city, according to the latest by-census. Nearly 26,000 families, or 31.8 per cent, earn less than HK$10,000 a month. And just 13.8 per cent of families enjoyed a monthly income of more than HK$30,000. Social workers have long been requesting income figures for the new town, but the government has until now said it could not provide them because the number of households there which are sampled for the quarterly general household survey is too small. Tin Shui Wai has been plagued by poverty, youth problems and family tragedies in the past few years. The deteriorating economic picture is put into even starker relief by Hong Kong's per capita gross domestic product, which reached a record high of HK$214,710 last year. Residents of two other new towns have fared better. People in Tung Chung earn close to the city's average, while Tseung Kwan O residents are doing better than average. The Commissioner for Census and Statistics, Fung Hing-wang, admitted that Tin Shui Wai was suffering as the result of a wealth gap. 'This is something which happens in any city in the world. We have sent these figures to relevant departments and parties to follow up.' Mr Fung said many factors contributed to the lower incomes earned by families in the town, such as the large number of new arrivals and single-parent families. He denied the city had a so-called 'M-shaped' society - one with many rich and poor people and a small middle class. 'We have more low-income families, but there is still a large number of middle-class in town. It does not really look like an M.' Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung, lawmaker for the welfare sector, said the big drop in income in the new town was the result of an influx of poor people. He said the government should work harder to relieve poverty there. 'This is a problem of poor planning. Most of the blocks there are public housing and this effectively created a slum,' he said. 'It is very hard to resolve the problem. The only effective way is to create jobs nearby by building an industrial village or something.' The high cost of travel from Tin Shui Wai to other parts of the city for work were a big hurdle, he said. WINNERS AND LOSERS Median household income in 2006 Central & Western HK$26,250 Wan Chai HK$27,500 Eastern HK$21,705 Southern HK$21,000 Yau Tsim Mong HK$17,500 Sham SHui Po HK$13,500 Kowloon City HK$20,000 Wong Tai SIn HK$14,250 Kwun Tong HK$14,050 Kwai Tsing HK$14,500 Tsuen Wan HK$20,000 Tuen Mun HK$15,000 Yuen Long HK$14,810 North HK$16,000 Tai Po HK$18,000 Sha Tin HK$19,320 Sai Kung HK$21,000 Islands HK$16,410 Whole City HK$17,250 Source: Census and Statistics Department
