https://www.scmp.com/rss/321982/feed Kalina Tsang is director general at Oxfam Hong Kong. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com After a four-year freeze, the minimum wage will finally increase in May, to HK$40 (US$5) per hour, up by a mere HK$2.50. When this was first announced, we criticised it as unacceptable because it was lower than what a family of two would receive through the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) scheme. In response to the criticism, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said the CSSA scheme served as a safety net and should not be compared with the minimum wage. Many people... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3209886/hong-kongs-new-minimum-wage-still-fails-working-poor-wealth-gap-widens?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3209886/hong-kongs-new-minimum-wage-still-fails-working-poor-wealth-gap-widens?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Feb 2023 00:15:09 +0000 Asia’s ongoing battle with weather extremes manifests climate injustice. For example, Super Typhoon Noru forced nearly 80,000 people to take refuge in emergency shelters. Many of them were among the 7.3 million people who were affected by Typhoon Rai, which battered the country in December 2021. Meanwhile, a deadly flood in Pakistan killed more than 1,400 people and displaced 33 million more from their homes. From March to May this year, India and Pakistan saw one of the hottest springs in... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3194663/developing-world-crying-out-climate-justice-green-finance-promises?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3194663/developing-world-crying-out-climate-justice-green-finance-promises?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Oct 2022 14:00:11 +0000 The UN Climate Change Conference must be a watershed moment at which governments take urgent action to reduce emissions and commit to increasing their support for climate vulnerable communities. Although the poorest across the world are already bearing the brunt of the effects of climate change, momentum on these issues is lacking and the outcomes emerging from the conference are insufficient. Outcomes from the Group of 20 summit were indicative of this and seemed to echo the shameful lobbying... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3154681/cop26-puts-climate-change-focus-hong-kong-and-world-must-help?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3154681/cop26-puts-climate-change-focus-hong-kong-and-world-must-help?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Nov 2021 01:15:19 +0000 “The past few nights, I’ve been walking around until 2am to find a good spot where I can stay after I become homeless.” The sting I felt when I first heard Tommy say this still hasn’t subsided. He lost his job at a cha chaan teng in mid-February, and said he wouldn’t be able to afford the HK$2,200 he pays for a “bedspace apartment” after using up all his hard-earned money. Despite having applied for dozens of jobs since, he hasn’t found one. He lost his job due to the coronavirus’ unprecedented... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3084008/coronavirus-hong-kong-government-must-come-through-jobless?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3084008/coronavirus-hong-kong-government-must-come-through-jobless?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 May 2020 01:30:09 +0000 More than a year after the Panama Papers revelation, Hong Kong is again in the spotlight for being a money laundering haven. A recent in-depth study by economist Gabriel Zucman and his colleagues shows that Hong Kong remains a favoured tax haven for foreigners. The city has apparently failed to learn any lessons about how rampant tax avoidance practices can tar its reputation. Before 2007, Hong Kong held less offshore wealth than Jersey, the Bahamas, or the Cayman Islands. But from 2007 to 2015,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2122983/hong-kongs-low-taxes-should-not-make-it-vulnerable-money?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2122983/hong-kongs-low-taxes-should-not-make-it-vulnerable-money?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 Dec 2017 09:50:52 +0000 More than a year after the Panama Papers scandal, Hong Kong’s image as a conduit for multinational companies to avoid paying large sums of tax to their governments is undiminished. In fact, an Oxfam research report ranks Hong Kong as the world’s ninth-worst tax haven and a favourite spot to which major European banks shift their handsome profits. Panama Papers just the start in ‘tax war’ but more action needed The good news is that the Hong Kong government has shown some intention to salvage its... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2095852/how-hong-kong-can-shed-its-reputation-tax-haven?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2095852/how-hong-kong-can-shed-its-reputation-tax-haven?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 May 2017 03:00:47 +0000 Eight – just eight – men own as much as the poorest half of the world, according to Oxfam’s latest inequality report, “An economy for the 99 per cent”. It details how big businesses led by the super-rich are pursuing profits at all costs by dodging taxes, driving down wages and cutting prices paid to producers. Hong Kong is a microcosm of the grossly unequal reality we see globally, with the richest 10 per cent of the city’s households earning 29 times more than the poorest 10 per cent. This... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2073809/hong-kongs-next-leader-must-strive-fairer-society-fixing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2073809/hong-kongs-next-leader-must-strive-fairer-society-fixing?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Feb 2017 23:03:19 +0000 The government has finally announced a six-month consultation on the long-awaited retirement protection scheme, including the Mandatory Provident Fund’s controversial offsetting mechanism. While Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor recognised that the mechanism deprives employees of benefits, it is greatly disappointing that the consultation documents do not include plans on how and when to abolish this unfair mechanism and tackle the offsetting issue. The business sector has already made... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1896515/hong-kongs-low-income-workers-are-being-robbed-their?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1896515/hong-kongs-low-income-workers-are-being-robbed-their?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Dec 2015 07:20:35 +0000 With the Lunar New Year almost upon us, auspicious greetings of prosperity and overflowing wealth will be on many people's lips. These greetings, however, drip with irony for some against the backdrop of a great divide. Despite the phenomenal economic growth in Asia over the past two decades, inequality is on the rise. Within the Asia-Pacific region, there are roughly seven million millionaires, yet about 500 million people in Asia barely survive on US$1.25 a day. Faulty tax systems are partly... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1712003/hong-kong-government-must-act-reverse-harmful-trend-wealth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1712003/hong-kong-government-must-act-reverse-harmful-trend-wealth?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Feb 2015 21:00:08 +0000 More than a million people live in poverty in Hong Kong, with the working poor making up a large percentage of this number. When the statutory minimum wage was implemented in 2011 to ensure workers were paid enough to sustain a basic standard of living, many had high hopes. Three years on, however, many are wondering: has the minimum wage achieved this? Or are the working poor actually poorer than before? The statutory minimum wage is having its second biennial review this year. Sources have... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1632468/minimum-wage-must-be-enough-sustain-basic-living-poor?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1632468/minimum-wage-must-be-enough-sustain-basic-living-poor?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Nov 2014 04:15:30 +0000 Developed countries like the US, Britain, Ireland and New Zealand all have low-income family subsidy schemes or tax credits to tackle poverty among the working poor and encourage people to find work. Yet in Hong Kong, a place that values the work ethic, there are no similar measures to support the more than 170,000 working poor families - equivalent to half the poor population. They try to be self-reliant, but still struggle to survive on less than the minimum deemed adequate to live on - that... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1274722/help-hong-kongs-working-poor-stay-afloat?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1274722/help-hong-kongs-working-poor-stay-afloat?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Jul 2013 16:00:00 +0000