Hong Kong maternity leave to increase to 14 weeks under raft of pro-family measures announced in chief executive’s policy address

Hong Kong’s leader won rare applause from the women’s community on Wednesday as she unveiled an array of pro-family measures, which included longer maternity leave and new initiatives to support breastfeeding.

But groups also called on Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to come up with a clearer road map on how to boost the provision of childcare services in the city – which they said was crucial to helping mothers stay in employment.

“Although more women receive higher education than men do nowadays, the female labour force participation rate is much lower than that of male,” Lam, the city’s first female chief executive, said as she delivered her second policy blueprint.

The most eye-catching move was to extend the statutory maternity leave from the current 10 weeks to 14 weeks, which will finally put Hong Kong on par with the minimum standards laid down by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Working mothers are currently paid 80 per cent of their wages while on maternity leave.

Under the proposal, the government would be fully responsible for the cost incurred by the extra four weeks of maternity leave, although the money – based on the same four-fifths formula – would be capped at HK$36,822 per employee.