Letters | Fixing Hong Kong’s worker shortage will not be quick or easy
- Readers discuss solutions to the labour shortage and their pitfalls, and ask for a fairer minimum wage as inflation bites
Based on Moovup figures, job posts for the retail and F&B industries increased by 188 per cent and 198 per cent respectively from April last year to April this year. Between mid-January and mid-April this year, job posts for these two industries increased by 23 per cent and 16 per cent respectively.
To attract workers, employers have been increasing salaries. Based on the job posts on Moovup, the median starting full-time monthly salary in frontline industries has increased by 14.3 per cent from January 2022 to HK$16,000 (US$2,040) in April this year.
However, apart from increasing the salary, Hong Kong needs other solutions.
In the medium term, we should consider the following three measures. One, put in place a support structure that enables stay-home mums to re-enter the workforce. Childcare support is key. With sufficient childcare, stay-home mums will be able to work beyond just a few short hours a day.
Two, accelerate the digital transformation of the workflows and operations for frontline industries. For example, some supermarkets now offer self-service payment, and food at some restaurants can be ordered by scanning a QR code. More such initiatives should be encouraged.
Three, evaluate the recruitment of foreign workers, including how and from where. Singapore has been implementing its Fair Consideration Framework since 2014, requiring businesses hiring a foreigner to first show that they were unable to fill the vacancy with a Singaporean candidate.
When it comes to hiring foreign workers, there are many factors at play and a balanced approach is needed. While foreign workers may solve the labour shortage, their mass employment could lead to issues in housing, healthcare provision and protection in case of any abuse. The impact on local workers will need to be evaluated, and some local workers may even need to be skilled up to improve their competitiveness.
Overall, the interests of local workers should first be protected, but the interests of the businesses and the interests of Hong Kong as a whole should also be considered.
In the long term, Hong Kong should address its demographic challenges, namely the ageing population and low birth rate.
There is no quick fix to the worker shortage, and measures in both the medium and long term will be needed.
Geoffrey Yau, co-founder, Moovup Limited
Minimum wage rise not keeping up with inflation
As it pointed out, a typical set lunch in a mass-market cha chaan teng costs about HK$50. So minimum-wage workers in Hong Kong can’t even pay for a cheap lunch with one hour of their work.
From May 1, the minimum wage has been raised from HK$37.50 an hour to HK$40. This is the first increase since 2019, as the wage level was frozen in 2021 because of the poor economy. But given the surge in inflation since 2019, the rate of increase badly lags behind price rises in Hong Kong.
The government must do more to raise the minimum wage to a level sufficient for a decent standard of living.
Maggie Su, Kwai Chung
