Salaries of Hong Kong domestic workers top HK$5,000 for first time, but Covid-19 piles on pressure from families back home
- Many have lost their jobs during pandemic, economic downturn, says online portal for helpers
- Some have demanded pay rise, knowing pandemic prevented employers getting new domestic workers
Salaries for helpers have reached HK$5,012 per month on average, about 8 per cent higher than the statutory minimum of HK$4,630 for domestic workers, according to HelperChoice, which studied the data of more than 10,000 job postings on its online platform over the past 12 months.
Mahee Leclerc, managing director of HelperChoice, explained that some helpers working in the city asked for more pay, knowing that pandemic travel restrictions made it hard for employers to hire first-time domestic workers from the Philippines and Indonesia.
However, Covid-19 had also worsened the financial burden on helpers, who were often the breadwinners for families now even more dependent on them, as the health crisis hit economies around the globe, she said.
“Domestic helpers really have had a hard time during Covid-19,” Leclerc said. “We’ve seen a lot of contracts getting terminated.”
The free online platform saw a 6 per cent increase – to 515 – in domestic workers looking for new jobs during the pandemic.