This month Legco votes again on a fixed minimum wage. Workers in 90 per cent of the world's countries are protected by similar legislation but many local businessmen still oppose such a law
This summer the Labour Welfare Alliance surveyed 1,260 jobs and found almost 53 per cent of them pay less than HK$27.90 hourly rate for security guards. Thirty-five per cent paid less than the HK$25.40 an hour average for cleaners. Right at the bottom of the wages league, low-skilled catering workers made only HK$16 an hour.
Given figures like these, a statutory minimum wage to protect workers in Hong Kong from exploitation seems long overdue. But every year local unions and lawmakers try to introduce a minimum wage law that would set the lowest salary an employer can legally pay employees, and every year they fail for the same reason: a fixed minimum wage is seen as a threat to Hong Kong's capitalism-driven prosperity.
Perhaps the newly-elected Legco will vote differently later this month after reviewing the results of a voluntary minimum wage scheme among employers of cleaning workers and security guards.
But publicly the experiment is already seen as a failure, with the campaign unable to recruit enough employers or give them any incentive to follow through with minimum salaries.
However, the income gap in Hong Kong is at its widest ever and, according to Lingnan University economics professor Ho Lok-sang, this is wholly unsustainable. As the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer, this increasing disparity could create unrest among the poorest, low-skilled workers, Dr Ho said. The ensuing social problems, such as dysfunctional families and civil disobedience, might then compel the government to spend more on social programmes and law enforcement.