The government's labour advisers will meet today to discuss the information they need to design a universal minimum wage, and how to use surveys to acquire the data.
'At the moment we have as reference material only the population figures collected by the Census and Statistics Department,' said Ho Sai-chu, employers' representative on the Labour Advisory Board.
'We need something more in-depth to help us prepare for drawing up the wage legislation and also setting a wage level. Also, the administration originally only wanted to have a law that covered cleaners and security guards. But now it has chosen to have a universal one. So the administration needs to do more to study the real situation of low-income workers in different sectors.'
Today's meeting would address 'what data, in what sectors, should be collected for the preparation work'. Mr Ho stressed that employers' representatives on the board had no intention of delaying legislative work for the statutory minimum wage - announced by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen in his policy address.
'We hope employees' representatives will understand that it takes time to do studies and collect data. We will suggest that the administration deploy more manpower to handle the data-collection work.'
The board would also give advice on what sectors or jobs should be included in pay surveys and what, exactly, should be studied, he said.