WITH $43,250 a month in wages, $63,000 for office expenses, and $10,000 for travel and entertainment, Legco members are in the top 11/2 per cent of the territory's wage-earners.
Despite the $116,250 total cheque, they asked for an increase that would have brought them in line with high-level administrative government members, the Civil Service Pay Scales D4 category.
That monthly salary works out to $104,750, representing an increase of more than 142 per cent. The government rejected their demands, declaring present wages as adequate.
And it seems the overwhelming sentiment on the streets mirrors that opinion. The feeling is, understandably, especially strong among the lower-paid, some of whom take home less than one tenth of the legislators' current income.
At the other end of the scale from the legislators are the hardworking, but far lower paid, workers of Mongkok.
Saleswoman Carol Kwok Wai-king, 21, works in a boutique and earns $6,000 a month. 'It is totally absurd for part-time legislators to get such high pay.
