I refer to Prakash Mahbubani's letter ('Give helpers minimum wage, but make them pay their own bills', January 17). I will shortly be in need of a domestic helper. Maybe I can hire him to work for me at (I will be generous) a monthly salary of HK$7,500 per month. His working hours will be from 9am to 6pm, with one hour for lunch, as Mr Mahbubani suggested, and for five days a week. He will have to pay for his own accommodation. A boarding house will cost between HK$1,500 and HK$2,000 per month. He will pay for all his meals, transport to and from work, all medical bills, and for his own return tickets to his country in South Asia once every two years. Let us see how your correspondent can manage it. What he is suggesting is a joke, for unlike the people who are residents, domestic helpers have no support systems here. When they are out of work, they do not even get help from our Social Welfare Department, or their own government. Their wages are at a minimum. Domestic helpers have been exploited by the government given that their wages were, in effect, deducted in 2003 when the government introduced a levy on helpers. There are helpers who have worked here for 20 or more years, and the moment they are out of work, they have only two weeks before they must go home. No matter how much they contributed to the economy of Hong Kong, they never get to become residents of the city. They work six days a week and most do not even get the stipulated 24 hours' rest on their leave days. If they have to go overseas with the employers they do not even have their rest days given back to them, nor are they [necessarily] paid the minimum wages by the country that they are going to with their employers. It is no small wonder that an employer once said to her helper in contempt that 'the laws of Hong Kong are on paper only'. By the way, I am a Hong Kong resident, being British Chinese Edwin Pun, Lantau
