Less than 1 per cent of owners' committees in Hong Kong have joined the voluntary 'wage protection movement', and it would take 250 years for the scheme to cover this segment of employers based on the present penetration rate, a labour union said yesterday. According to a survey by the Buildings Management and Security Workers' General Union, a member of the Confederation of Trade Unions, only about 30 owners' committees, or 0.4 per cent of about 8,300 such committees in Hong Kong, and 30 security and cleaning firms had joined the government's 'wage protection movement' since it was launched last October. The union said owners' committees were the largest employers of cleaners and security guards in the city, and their low participation rate meant the movement was ineffective. Union vice-chairman Iu Chung-yiu said even if some committees joined the movement, the wages being paid to the workers remained lower than the benchmark required by the scheme because the movement was not legally binding. He reiterated that statutory protection was the only solution to the problem. The union will hold a protest on Sunday to demand clear-cut protection across all sectors with a benchmark set at HK$30 an hour. The union's study also found that tenants and owners were willing to pay extra in their management fees to support minimum pay. In the survey of 226 people who were not residents of public housing, 26.5 per cent of respondents said that they were willing to pay HK$11 to HK$20 more a month to support a minimum wage, while 17.7 per cent were willing to pay an extra HK$10 or less. Mr Iu said this amounted to a negligible cost to support a minimum wage. Chan Sam-choi, chairman of the owners' committee of Kennedy Town's Hing Wong Building, said its management fee stayed the same after the building's committee decided to raise the pay for its security guards to HK$7,300 a month half a year ago. But the survey found that some cleaners are earning as little as HK$4,500 per month. Little reward Average monthly income of cleaners is HK$5,213. The average monthly income (in HK dollars) of cleaners working at Fortune Plaza in Tai Po, which joined the 'wage protection movement', is $4,500