Domestic workers’ rights advocates call on Hong Kong gov’t to mandate monthly ‘living wage’ of HK$6,300
Hong Kong Free Press
Migrant domestic workers rights’ advocates have met with Hong Kong government representatives to call for a “living wage” of HK$6,300 per month, plus food allowance of HK$2,700.
Leaders of the Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Unions (FADWU), as well as those from other migrant groups and NGOs, visited the Labour Department’s headquarters in Central on Wednesday. They met seven officials led by Drew Lai, the department’s assistant commissioner of policy support, to whom they handed a statement detailing their demands.
Domestic workers’ minimum monthly salary currently stands at HK$4,870, while the food allowance is HK$1,236, or roughly HK$40 per day. Members of the Progressive Labour Union of Domestic Workers in Hong Kong (PLU), which is part of FADWU, told HKFP last month that neither the wage nor the allowance were sufficient.
“Most of the migrant domestic workers… the wage is not enough for them to support their family back home,” Sheila, a PLU member, said during a union meeting in July.
Domestic workers in Hong Kong also face significant financial burden, often arriving in the city saddled with recruitment debt and with multiple family members relying on the money they send home every month.
“Inflation is going up, not just in the Philippines, but also here in Hong Kong. That’s why… the salary is really not enough,” PLU member Weng said during the same meeting.
See also: Loan sharks target HK domestic workers, trapping them in ‘vicious cycle’
Citing research published in 2019 by Enrich, a charity promoting the economic empowerment of migrant domestic workers, FADWU said in a statement on Wednesday that domestic workers contributed 3.6 per cent to Hong Kong’s economy and allowed 30 per cent of the local female workforce, but were paid the equivalent of HK$6.7 per hour. Minimum wage in the city is HK$40.
“The disparity between [domestic workers] wages and their contribution to society is glaring,” FADWU said.
HKFP has reached out to the Labour Department for comment.
“There are countless workers who worked hard for their whole life only to be left with no money and need to borrow to survive,” FADWU said in its statement. HKFP recently reported that unlicensed money lenders were targeting domestic workers, primarily from the Philippines, trapping them in a vicious cycle of debt and intimidation.
FADWU said the HK$6,300 figure was “based on the Oxfam living wage proposal,” and calculated “after deducting the cost of rent, utilities and food covered by employers, so that domestic workers can have savings for their retirement.”
The organisation added that the proposed HK$2,700 for food allowance was equivalent to the minimum monthly food expenditure of a one-person household based on Oxfam living wage report.
According to the PLU, many employers offered to provide food rather than the allowance, but that domestic workers did not always have enough to eat, or were restricted in when and what they could eat.
The government is expected to announce any changes to migrant domestic workers’ minimum monthly salary in late September or early October.
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