Govt freezes minimum wage for the principle time
Hong Kong’s minimum wage has been frozen for the principle time since its implementation in 2011, and the welfare minister denied or now not it’s unfair to grassroots group.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare Legislation Chi-kwong offered on Tuesday that the metropolis’s minimum wage will be frozen at HK$37.5 an hour, the principle time it’s miles now not going to transfer up on the stay of a biennial review.
Legislation said the Minimal Wage Commission, which performed the review in October, made the suggestion having taken into consideration the industrial recession and excessive unemployment, and the authorities licensed the recommendation.
In its document, the commission said its majority ogle is that if there had been an rating larger in the minimum wage, extra employers would decrease low-paying jobs.
The freeze will make a choice produce in Might presumably well fair for 2 years.
Legislation rejected claims that that freezing the minimum wage is unfair to grassroots group, announcing they’ll make a choice pleasure in varied authorities welfare policies equivalent to Comprehensive Social Safety Support.
The chairwoman of the Minimal Wage Commission, Priscilla Wong, said the freeze doesn’t mean low-profits group would have less purchasing energy. She pointed out that the earlier wage rating larger in 2019 — an 8.7 p.c upward push from HK$34.5 to HK$37.5 — has outpaced inflation to this point.
Legislation said the commission had struck “a ideally suited steadiness” between the views of management and labour.
“Surely, expectations vary from a reduction in the minimum wage to considerably rising it. The commission thought of as the total views and struck a steadiness,” he said.
There were experiences the employee side wanted an rating larger to now not lower than HK$40, while employers countered with a modest upward push to HK$38, or per chance a freeze or a pay decrease.
The minimum wage had long gone up following each biennial review to this point till now.
